Yoko Ono's Long-Lost Daughter Finally Emerges From Hiding to Reveal Kidnapping Nightmare — After New John Lennon Documentary Exposed Her Mom's Pain Over Custody Battle
Yoko Ono's daughter Kyoko was kidnapped by her own father, but the pair were eventually able to have a happy ending.
May 29 2025, Published 2:15 p.m. ET
Yoko Ono's long-lost daughter has finally come forward to recount her kidnapping nightmare, RadarOnline.com can report.
Kyoko is speaking out after a harrowing documentary shed light on the girl's painful abduction by her father and the years her mom and husband John Lennon spent trying to track her down.
Out of Touch
Yoko's daughter was abducted shortly after her marriage to Lennon.
Yoko, now 92, spent decades in a relentless pursuit to reunite with Kyoko, 61, whom her first husband, Anthony Cox, abducted in 1971.
The two wouldn't reconnect for another 23 years, but not because Kyoko was purposely avoiding her mother. After Cox kidnapped her, they joined a religious cult that forbade communication devices with the outside world – and she had no idea her mother was even looking for her.
"When people hear about my story, they don't understand what it was like before Facebook," she says. "There's my mom and John doing all these things to appeal to me.
"It makes me sound heartless. But I was living on a farm in Iowa. We didn't own a TV. And a lot of people don't understand that there's a lifestyle like that."
Life on the Run
It took over 20 years before their reunion.
Kyoko was born to Yoko and Cox, a filmmaker, in 1963. Three years later, Yoko met Lennon at a gallery in London where she was preparing an exhibit. The two were soon married.
Without a set custody plan in place, Cox abducted Kyoko and the two spent years on the lam, eventually joining a religious cult in Iowa named The Living Word Fellowship.
She reflected: "We never talked about my mom and John. We avoided people who would talk about it. Going into a cult was like the perfect place to go if you were scared of being tracked down by the FBI.
"Nobody there gave a damn. They were in love with the cult leader and trying to read the Bible and do whatever the cult leader said and listen to his sermons."
Together Again
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Yoko and Lennon were married for 11 years in a controversial relationship.
Still, Kyoko pressured her father to let her reach out to Yoko.
She said: "There were so many times that I said to my dad, 'I really want to get back in touch with my mom.
"And he would say, 'Well, if you do, first of all, it's not what God wants you to do, and then second of all, you'll put me in jeopardy. Your mom is for sure going to put me in prison.'"
Kyoko stayed silent for years, with the situation becoming increasingly awkward as time passed. Finally, in 1994, at the age of 30, she picked up the phone to call her mom, who became instantly emotional.
"She wanted to see me right away," Kyoko expressed. "And then we just started spending time together."
A spokesperson for Yoko told New York Magazine in 1997 that Kyoko visited "all the time and they have a very nice relationship," adding, "They speak every day."
