Meet the Beatles for Real: Kyoko Cox

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Yoko Ono's Screaming Nightmare (1971)

Regardless of how you feel about Yoko, you have to admit that no parent should go through something like this. I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been for Yoko during this time. She had legal visitation rights and Anthony Cox was going against the law by withholding their daughter from her. Sadly this is something you hear about time and time again with custody issues.

Yoko Ono's Screaming Nightmare

No Writer Listed

London Evening News

December 20, 1971

Yoko Ono has been waking up screaming every night for two years. Beatle John Lennon said today. Lennon, talking of the great strain the long custody battle for Yoko's daughter has placed on their marriage, added, "I'm living with a woman that's crying out for her child. Spot on four o'clock every morning, she wakes up with some nightmare about Kyoko. And I'm not kidding you."

Lennon was talking at a press conference before flying to New York after a vain attempt to see Yoko's daughter. The Lennons arrived in Houston over the weekend after a judge signed a court order giving Yoko's former husband, British filmmaker Anthony Cox, temporary custody of eight-year-old Kyoko, and awarded Mrs. Lennon visitation rights.

But Japanese-born Yoko said that when Cox put her daughter on the telephone on Saturday, she said in a very unnatural voice, "Mummy, I don't want to see you."

A week before, Yoko said, Kyoko had phoned her in New York and pleaded, "Mummy, Mummy, I miss you. Why don't you come see me right away in Texas?"

The Lennons, holding hands at a press conference in the hotel room where they had spent 30 hours waiting to visit Kyoko, said, Kyoko sounded like a 'human machine' when she spoke to her in Houston on Saturday.

"I didn't come here, all the way to Texas, not to take the opportunity to see her," Mrs. Lennon added in obvious distress. Lennon said how he and Yoko had planned to show Kyoko "all the great local things."

Lennon's lawyers are expected to go back to court in Houston tomorrow and may seek to have Cox held in contempt over the court order, which provides for weekend visits and extended visits at Christmas and summer holidays.

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Family Holiday to Scotland

End of June / Beginning of July 1969

I always thought Julian and Kyoko were adorable in their matching Scottish clothing. It's such a shame this trip had to end with a car accident because it looks like a lovely family trip.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Everybody's Talkin' 'bout Tommy Smothers.....

The Smothers Brothers have a place in Beatles history. Not only did they premiere several Beatles promo films, but they also had both George and Ringo on their program. And we can't forget that the Smothers Brothers were the group that John and Harry heckled and got in big trouble in LA. Tommy also was at the Bed-In in Montreal and was on the "Give Peace a Chance" song.

Sadly, Tommy Smothers passed away yesterday, December 26, 2023.