When John Lennon was tragically killed he left a will leaving everything to Yoko Ono’s discretion which meant she could dictate the terms of what to leave Julian, Sean, and even her daughter Kyoko with no interference from anyone else. Up until 1993 Julian was now 30 years old and the only things that Yoko had given John Lennon’s firstborn son was two guitars that really didn’t mean anything to John (Julian had requested another one that he knew was one of his father’s favorites, but was told no and given these two instead while Sean would get to use all of John’s musical equipment,) and a weekly allowance for a short time of $100 a week.
Once Julian got his record deal Yoko stopped the $100 a week payments and had given him nothing else up to that point in the early 1990s. What was truly shocking even before that was that when John was alive both Cynthia and Julian were living pretty much a middle class lifestyle. Cynthia had made the mistake of just asking for a small settlement plus a trust fund for Julian that in the end didn’t reach the potential it should’ve because John didn’t pay the proper attention to it.
Plus the fact that once Sean was born the trust money balance was broken in half for both sons. Cynthia had trusted John to do right by Julian, and had he lived he most likely would’ve. That being said it was still irresponsible of John not to set something up for both Julian and much of his family in Liverpool including his Aunt Mimi who learned after John’s death that the house he bought her was now owned by Yoko.
Unfortunately while Yoko was out preaching about “peace and love” she was doing nothing for Julian. Not even entertaining the idea of giving him a part of his father’s legacy, estate, or any type of inheritance settlement. Julian was basically living off the money he made off his solo career, but it was nowhere near the money Yoko now had with John’s net worth then estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Yoko would basically have to be shamed into doing the right thing.
Listed below in the comments section is a 1993 interview Julian Lennon gave to Howard Stern. It’s a “must listen” as Howard goes nuclear on Yoko and calls out her hypocrisy, asking over and over why Julian hasn’t received his rightful inheritance as John’s son.
It shouldn’t be surprising that soon after this interview which was heard by millions of people and the beating Yoko took in the press that she finally (almost 15 years after John’s death) gave Julian some money. Julian was vocal at the time that the amount wasn’t anything fair to what John’s net worth was, but it was at least a start. Even to this day Julian has absolutely no say in his father’s estate .
The fact of the matter is that it should’ve never come to this. Howard Stern should not have had to shame Yoko into giving Julian his “rightful” inheritance, but instead for reasons only known to her she selfishly handled the matter...
