A cult kidnapped Yoko Ono’s daughter and she didn’t see her again for 31 years: “We haven’t a clue where she is”
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Before Yoko Ono‘s marriage to John Lennon, the Japanese artist made her name in New York’s avant-garde scene, producing experimental performances and conceptual artwork. Meanwhile, her early career coincided with motherhood when, in 1963, her first child, Kyoko Ono Cox, was born from her second marriage to American film producer and art promoter Anthony Cox.
Though married that same year, Ono and Cox did not remain married for long, but their working relationship continued as they collaborated on conceptual art. Their co-parenting of Kyoko, with Cox prioritising parental duties while Ono pursued her art career full-time, grew further estranged.
“I was an offbeat mother,” Ono later reflected in the 2024 documentary, One to One: John & Yoko. She continued, “I didn’t know how to balance it all.”
Some animosity began in 1967, once Ono met Lennon. She and Cox officially divorced in 1969, and initially, they and their respective partners – Lennon and Melinda Kendall – had a peaceful arrangement, but Cox became increasingly concerned that Ono held plans to keep their daughter from him.
A pivotal moment came in 1969 when Lennon, driving with Ono, Kyoko and his son, Julian, crashed his car during a trip in Scotland, an incident that amplified Cox’s demand to supervise every visit with Kyoko. Suddenly, Cox and Kendall took Kyoko to Spain and enrolled her in a transcendental meditation preschool. Ono and Lennon followed, and an ongoing custody battle between Cox and Ono ensued in 1971, when Kyoko was asked by the judge which parent she wanted to continue to live with.
“I felt like I had an impossible choice to make,” Kyoko reflected to the Daily Mail in 2025, continuing, “My mom and John were incredibly busy people. Usually, when I went and stayed with them, I had a nanny, and I sometimes wouldn’t see them all day long. And [with] my dad and my stepmother, I’m their only child.”
Cox was awarded custody, but soon, he disappeared with the then-eight-year-old Kyoko and his wife to the United States, where Ono and Lennon contested for custody of Kyoko. Ono won the favour of the judge, but Kyoko could not be found. Once again, Cox returned to court in Houston, Texas, a few months later, won custody and did not allow Ono her visitation rights. After being jailed for not showing up to court on Christmas Eve, 1971, he was bailed out and, with his daughter and wife, found a reprieve in the organisation the Living Word Fellowship (LWF), also known as the Church of the Living Word or “The Walk”.
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