Sean Ono Lennon Clarifies Fan Speculation About How John Lennon Divided Inheritance Between Him and Half Brother Julian

Sean Ono Lennon took to X over the weekend to clarify how his late father, John Lennon, provided for him and his half brother Julian Lennon before the former Beatles’ tragic murder in 1980.

Replying to a post on Sunday (Oct. 11) in which someone presumed, “One guy inherited most of the estate, the other largely cut out and forced to engaged in decades-long litigation in pursuit of a comparatively small share of it. Unbearably painful and enraging for the one, surely pretty darn awkward for the other. That they remain friends (and largely always were) is testimony to the redemptive power of being a chill dude with broad implications for the wider world.”

The comment was tied to a post from Sean a day earlier of the Lennon brothers enjoying a nice day out in nature to celebrate his 51st birthday and, according to Sean, the commenter got it all wrong.

“Julian and I inherited the same amount from our dad,” he wrote. “Our trusts were equal. Although his was slightly more, but negligibly so.”

Sean is the adult son of John and wife Yoko Ono and Julian, 63, is Lennon’s eldest, from his six-year marriage to his first wife, Cynthia Lennon. The men appear to have developed a close relationship and often share pictures together on their socials, including posing together at the 2021 Los Angeles premiere of the Peter Jackson’s Beatles miniseries Get Back (see above).

Both men are musicians, with Julian scoring a pair of top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from his 1984 debut album, Valotte, “Too Late For Goodbyes” (No. 5) and the title track (No. 9) and releasing six more albums in the years since, including 2022’s Jude, whose title is a reference to the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” famously written by Paul McCartney in 1968 to comfort a young Julian during his parents’ divorce.

Sean Ono Lennon has had a long, eclectic music career as a member of a number of bands, including the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Cibo Matto, the Claypool Lennon Delirium and the Plastic Ono Band. He’s released three solo albums to date, 1998’s Into the Sun, 2006’s Friendly Fire and 2024’s Asterisms.

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