POP/ROCK - Sept. 12, 1988

Yoko Ono, widow of slain Beatle composer and guitarist John Lennon, has bitterly denounced the new biography “The Lives of John Lennon” as “character assassination.” According to The Sunday Times of London, Ono revealed that she contemplated suicide when she learned that American writer Albert Goldman intended to publish the book, which depicts Lennon as brain-damaged, psychopathic, vindictive, cruel and homosexual and which said he used to hit her. “When this whole thing happened,” Ono said, “I kept thinking of Picasso’s wife and how she finally killed herself. Then I realized I could never do anything like that because I have my son, Sean.” The report added that Ono was particularly hurt by Goldman’s assertion that her love affair with Lennon was a cynical move to promote record sales. “Neither of us was an angel,” she said. “But we cherished and loved each moment we were together and were always frightened of losing each other.”