Paul McCartney Addresses Long-Standing Rumours About John Lennon’s Sexuality

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has revisited long-standing speculation about John Lennon’s sexuality, recalling a conversation he once had with Yoko Ono shortly after Lennon’s death.

In a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair — released in full this week alongside the premiere of the documentary Man on the Run, which explores McCartney’s life after The Beatles — the musician reflected on rumours surrounding his late bandmate. Speaking with journalist Joe Hagan, McCartney addressed the persistent questions that have circulated about Lennon for decades.

McCartney said Ono phoned him not long after Lennon was killed in December 1980 and shared a thought that had been on her mind.

“She rang me shortly after John died and said, ‘You know, I think John might have been gay,’” McCartney recalled.

McCartney said he did not share that view and believed the comment may have been influenced by grief. He noted that speculation about Lennon’s sexuality had surfaced before, particularly in relation to Lennon’s friendship with The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, who was openly gay.

According to McCartney, Lennon and Epstein once travelled together to Spain in 1963 — a trip that later became a source of rumours.

“Brian would ask him [on vacation] as a homosexual thing. A good-looking boy, who Brian fancied,” McCartney said. “They went down to Spain, had a fun time. No doubt John would play into anything.”

However, McCartney said he never believed the relationship between the pair was romantic.

“I personally didn’t think anything had happened. Certainly never heard about anything happening,” he said.

During the interview, McCartney also reflected on how closely he and Lennon worked and lived during the early years of The Beatles.

“I’d slept with John very often, but there was never anything,” McCartney said, explaining that during their touring years it was common for bandmates to share beds or rooms.

“There was never anything. There was never a gesture. Never an expression. It was nothing,” he added.

Speculation about Lennon’s sexuality has surfaced periodically over the years. In 2001, The Advocate reported on a proposed book by Pauline Sutcliffe — the sister of early Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe — which alleged Lennon and Sutcliffe had been involved in a sexual relationship.

Those claims were never substantiated and have been widely disputed.

The newly released Vanity Fair interview comes from reporting conducted by Hagan for his biography of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, titled Sticky Fingers.