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Everyone knew her name in the 1970s for her association with a Beatles band member and now, more than 50 years later, May Pang is back in the spotlight.
May (72), who famously dated John Lennon at the request of his wife, Yoko Ono (90), opens up about her 18-month affair with the music legend in a new documentary.
The Lost Weekend: A Love Story sees her give an account of how she went from being the couples’ office assistant to dating the former Beatles member who was married at the time.
John married Yoko a year before the Beatles broke up in 1970 and she faced serious backlash from their fans and media who believed she was partly to blame for band's decision to split. John’s partnership with his wife was noted as a new artistic and creative chapter and the couple left London to start a new life in New York in 1971.
“We were ruining our careers. People hated me, and they hated John because of me,” Yoko once told UK newspaper The Telegraph. “I thought it was better to give him a rest. And I needed a break. May Pang was a very intelligent, attractive and extremely efficient woman. I thought she would be a good choice."
READ MORE | Yoko Ono is still a headline-maker as she turns 90
May’s romance with John reportedly kicked off when the couple hit a rough patch soon after marrying. May, who started working for them when she was just 19, says Yoko suggested she keep John company in an effort to save their marriage.
"Yoko walked into my office and said, 'John and I are not getting along. I want you to go out with him'," May recalls in the doccie. "Well, are you kidding? I can't do that, he's my employer, he's my boss. He's your husband."
May, who grew up in Harlem, New York, with her Chinese family, had worked for the well-known couple for three years at that point. But although Yoko insisted that she’d "be good" for John, May says at first she refused.
"It was hard to process," May says. "I said no. And she kept saying, ‘You’d be good for him’.”
She recalls that John "charmed the pants off" her and that as they spent more time together, onlookers noticed her undeniable chemistry with the musician.
“I was like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ I was very content in working,” May told People. “[But] he kept saying, ‘I don’t know where this is going to lead, but let’s just do the jump’.”
May says John “was just an interesting person. He really loved everything and wanted to explore".
“He loved to get up, have his coffee in the morning. He loved blueberry pancakes, he loved swimming. He was just an awesome person who wanted to discover things.”
Their love story has famously been branded John’s “lost weekend” – a dark time in his life when he separated from his wife, was partying and drinking heavily with May in tow. But it was way more than that – the romance lasted for a year and a half and came to an end in 1975 when he reunited with Yoko.
"She thought it would be two weeks, gone, goodbye. She told me, 'I'm thinking of taking John back'. And I said, 'What?' And she said, 'I think it's time'."
In 1974 Yoko reportedly wanted a divorce and John agreed to it. May believes that John being in favour of their separation took his wife by surprise and in a way forced her to win her husband back.
May says she was thrown by John's abrupt decision to reunite with Yoko and never had closure on the relationship, adding that, “He was not the same when I saw him [again]."
Yoko fell pregnant with their child, Sean, shortly after they reunited and after that the couple became reclusive before John was assassinated in 1980.
"He'd secretly come over to see me. He would say, 'You know, I still love you'," May says. "He said things to me that were really very intimate and you could sense there was something still. It was gnawing at him. It was not a finished situation."
May went on to have careers in music publishing, acting, writing and jewellery design. She married music producer Tony Visconti in 1989 and they had two kids before divorcing in 2000.
SOURCES: NYTIMES.COM, ELPAIS.COM, THEGUARDIAN.COM, PEOPLE.COM, FOXNEWS.COM
