Yoko Ono, a creative woman ahead of her time, put honey in May Pang’s mouth and almost cost her her marriage.
The honey jar was John Lennon, Ono’s husband and Pang’s idol, who had managed to become the ex-Beatle’s secretary or personal assistant, once the love couple
The same woman was about to blow up her home in the Dakota building in Manhattan with one of her ideas.
Pang was 22 years old in 1973 when he realized his dream of working for the person he most admired.
“He needs someone nice, like you,” Yoko told May. The couple’s relationship was going through a rough patch after four years of marriage. Ono thought they needed a hiatus to get the passion back. While taking that period of reflection, she asked the secretary to become Lennon’s girlfriend, who was ten years her senior.
“I rejected it. He respected his marriage. This is not what I wanted, I felt very happy with my work”, declared Pang a few days ago to the media. But an intimacy was forged that lasted from 1973 to 1975, an 18-month courtship that Lennon is said to have called “the lost weekend†– Pang disputes – but which is the title of the documentary with this title, The lost weekend: a love story , which will soon be released in the United States, tells how the relationship blossomed and how it ended.
“It’s almost surreal. On the one hand, Yoko Ono took advantage of me because I was naive. On the other hand, he gave me a present. John and I fell in love,” he confessed.
Ono explained to her that she and Lennon had always been together and that he was going to start dating people. “I think you will be good for him. He wanted her to be his girlfriend to control the relationship”, insisted the chosen one.
At 72, still a rocker and resident of Queens, Pang recalls in the film that the beginning was not an idyllic honeymoon, but a situation full of nerves. It started with some stolen kiss, more and more repeated caresses, found in the elevator. The first time they slept together and had sex, she cried with happiness.
In his version, Lennon told him that he did not know where all this would take them, although he repeated “let’s take the step”.
The escalation went further in September 1973. Lennon decided that he needed to leave New York and be away from Yoko Ono. In this way, his Californian adventure began, in Los Angeles, the Hollywood area, settled in a mansion in Bel-Air. The ex-Beatle drank a lot and had a couple of incidents in bars.
Yoko Ono called them every day, even early in the morning, to say nothing. They returned to Manhattan after six months and continued together. But in 1975 Lennon returned to the Dakota for a session with a hypnotist who was supposed to help him quit smoking. They spent the weekend there and Johh confessed to Pang that “Yoko lets me stay”.
