Yoko Ono is now speaking out against recent claims that her late husband, former Beatle John Lennon, suffered from bulimia.
A new book is alleging the late rocker obsessed over “forbidden foods,” and countered the guilt he felt for eating them by purging. His widow says this is simply not true, stating he merely he indulged himself from time to time.
"John did not have an eating disorcer," Ono tells the U.K.'s Mirror, "Sometimes he slipped and ate a bar of chocolate."
The self-published book, titled, “BackStage Pass VIP,” was written by Debra Sharon Davis, and is a provocative take on the personal sides of celebrities and rock musicians. In addition to Lennon, it includes stories about Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin and George Harrison.
According to Davis, Lennon was able to hide his eating disorder for so long because he was surrounded by musicians who were struggling with their own dependencies, namely alcohol and drugs.
“It was hard for them to see Lennon’s purging behavior as extraordinary,” Davis told RadarOnline. “One must also realize that at that time the public and the media were unaware of bulimia as an addiction and health risk –- which made it all the more frightening for John Lennon. He literally had no point of reference on what he was experiencing.”
Davis specifically mentions Lennon’s devotion to ice cream, saying he loved to put scoops of ice cream on bowls of Rice Krispies cereal.
She also cites an interview she did with the musician's close friend, Harry Nilsson, who died in 1994. Nilsson reportedly observed Lennon’s struggle with discipline and a “ravenous appetite,” telling Davis, “he said food was ‘sacred’ to him and it frightened him. He saw it as ‘a great weakness.’”
Ono, however, says Lennon's relationship with food was healthy, saying, "He was always on a very healthy diet…His diets included vegetarian diet, macrobiotic diet and, very rarely a juice-only diet. All of the above are internationally approved health diets.”
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