"All my life I have been searching for my own heart, and with Cynthia I have found my heart. My life is my home, and my home is where the heart lives."
Noel Charles, 2012
Noel Charles
Noel Henry Charles was born on December 20, 1940 in Trinidad to Henry Joseph Braithwaite (changing his last name to Charles) and Drucilla. His parents were very religious, his father was a Preacher while owned a shoe making and repair business. Noel had an older (adopted) sister Dorothy and a younger brother Courtenay. Behind his father's back, his mother abused Noel and Courtenay while Dorothy was the favorite spoiled child. In 1958, while attending London School of Economics, Noel becomes involved with a woman named Sonja, who was studying radiology. Noel worked as a social secretary for the student union at college and got an insight of night clubbing when he went to The Cromwellian. However his girlfriend Sonja got pregnant. They decided to put their daughter Lisa with foster parents while they were more focused on their studies. Noel and Sonja soon welcomed another daughter Penelope; but when she was born, Noel was living in Trinidad for four months. When he returned, Sonja had left Noel and vanished - she got married, and reclaimed Lisa from faster care system. Noel reunited with Lisa in the 1970s but never met Penelope. He left his school job worked at The Cromwellian for two years before going to Mallorca, where he met Alexandra Gefvert and moved to Sweden in 1967. They married and opened a restaurant & nightclub, Alexandra's in Sweden, which ran until 1988. In 1972, Noel and Alexandra opened another nightclub in Barbados, also called Alexandra's, but by 1976, they divorced. Noel moved around over the years (Mustique, Canada, New York, Sweden, England, then back to Barbados); After his divorce, Noel remarried to Victoria Richmond in 1984. They had a daughter, Chloe, the following year. After 6 months after Chloe's birth, the marriage fell apart and Noel left, yet they remained married for many years. He got into a relationship with Ann Eklund and they had a daughter, Rosanna, in 1989.
Noel and his first wife, Alexandra
Noel and girlfriend Ann Eklund, with whom he shared a daughter Rosanna with.
In 1981, while in London, Noel met Julian Lennon at a nightclub, Tramps, and became good friends. Although Noel wasn't in the music business, he knew the people who were and tried to connect Julian for a record deal.
"Noel Charles is the older brother I never had and also, in many ways, the father I always wanted. Today he remains one of my dearest friends"
Julian
During the Christmas holidays in 1998, Julian went to Barbados with Cynthia and her best friend Phyllis Mackenzie. Cynthia had recently broken up with Jim Christie (who fell in love with another woman and they announced it during a dinner party hosted by Jim... and Cynthia. Yikes! That's more worst than how Cynthia found John and Yoko together: Jim's breakup happened at a party!) Cynthia noticed Noel being around, Julian introduced them. At first, although they enjoyed each other's company, Noel and Cynthia rubbed each other the wrong way. However, a year later when Julian and Cynthia returned to Barbados to celebrate Christmas and New Years, Noel and Cynthia clicked. On New Year's Eve of 1999, Noel, Cynthia, Julian, and friends went out for dinner, then to Harry's Crocodile Den bar. Noel and Cynthia went to his home where they consummated their relationship on January 1, 2000. Julian and his friends took notice! Since their first meeting in 1998, Cynthia and Noel discuss writing memoirs; Cynthia offered her home (with two bedrooms) in Normandy for Noel to write in peace and quiet with no distractions. Noel promised to consider the idea. When they saw each other again a year later, Cynthia asked the book's progress and that her offer still stood. By the time Cynthia's flight was due, she and Noel were lovers; he agreed to move in with her and left Barbados that same day.
"We're extremely happy."
Cynthia, 2000
“She’s awesome, I love her, and she’s supportive of my music. But that’s about where it ends.”
Chloe Charles, Noel's daughter, 2013
After settling in Mallorca, Spain in a village called Bendinat, Noel propose to Cynthia. In May of 2002, Noel and Cynthia traveled to Toronto, Canada to visit his daughter Chloe and to settle Noel's divorce from Victoria. Once the divorce became official, Noel and Cynthia decided to get married in secret at City Hall on June 7, 2002, while the world was paying more attention to Paul McCartney's pending marriage to Heather Mills (on the 11th). Cynthia had previously swore off marriage after her third divorce in 1983, yet Noel managed to sweep Cynthia off her feet to walk down the aisle for the fourth time. Noel's friend Mel helped arrange the wedding, her boyfriend Nick gave Cynthia away, with Chloe and a friend of hers. Afterwards, they celebrated their wedding at Mel's apartment with champagne and McDonald's breakfast takeout. Julian was unable to attend but called in with his congratulations.
"Julian moved here and said, 'you’ve got to come and live here', so we came! Simple as that. Julian was thinking about having a property for all of us to live in, together. We went all over the place, mainly the South West. This was the last house we looked at, we all just fell in love with it. But then Julian found another house and we ended up with this!"
Cynthia, 2007
Life in Mallorca and with Noel was most likely the happiest Cynthia had ever been. Noel protected her, gave her the privacy she craved, had money to live on and to travel, and did not falter in the shadow of John Lennon. Noel had his fair share of mingling with celebrities and royalty. Noel and Cynthia went everywhere together, including Beatle events. I would say that Noel was Cynthia's love of her life, not John, though John was her first love (I know people would disagree with me, but after seeing photos, videos, and personal testimony, I stand by my belief). Noel and Cynthia were inseparable and socialized with friends frequently.
"I’m not really an ex-pat sort of person, I relish the fact that we have Spanish friends, we have German friends and a cross section of people whom we’ve met over the past five years."
Cynthia, 2007
Once a week, Noel and Cynthia would dine at La Cuchara.
"It’s really wonderful. The King Of Spain goes there. Peter, the owner is an old friend of Noel’s, probably his oldest friend, they went to college together and they’ve ended up on the same island."
Cynthia, 2007
Noel and Cynthia also loved to shop and would visit other cities in Spain.
"One thing that is wonderful about Palma, is the shops, the fashions, the shoes, the leather…. and the prices! My husband and Julian are the real shoppers, they make sure that I’m well dressed!"
Cynthia, 2007
"I love Soller, if I didn’t live here I would live in Soller, I just love it. You have the mountains and you have the sea and you have the real character of Mallorca. And they have the most amazing events going on in Soller. But yes, if we weren’t here, that would be my move."
Cynthia, 2007
"Mallorca has something very very special… I’ve always said wherever I’ve lived, 'this is IT, this is it I love it', but….this is why you can never say never, or never say this is it forever…you never know what’s around the corner. I am very grateful that Mallorca was round the corner for me five years ago."
Cynthia, 2007
Noel and Cynthia in St. Martin's in January of 2011
Photographed by Chloe Charles
I think Mallorca may have been the longest place Cynthia had lived in, followed by Isle of Man. Unfortunately, fairy tales eventually came to an end. By 2010, Noel was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he died on March 10, 2013. He was buried on March 15th. Noel was Cynthia's longest husband by 10 years, 9 months, and 7 days; when he died, Cynthia became a widow ... probably something she never thought she'd be after her three divorces.
"It is with the heaviest of hearts that I bring this news to you today that my mother Cynthia’s husband, stepfather to me and friend for over 30 years, Mr. Noel Charles, passed away from cancer, on Mother’s Day, while sleeping … He was the greatest of men on so many levels, and brought much love and laughter to those all around and within his company. We raise a glass to the joy and happiness you brought us all. May you start building that nightclub in the sky A.S.A.P. as there’ve been a lot of mutual friends waiting for you. You will be remembered every day, and someday we shall all meet again.”
Julian, 2013
“In the end, the love of her life was a man named Noel Charles. He brought her out of her shell and was her protector. When he passed away a couple of years ago, I saw the light go out in her eyes.”
May Pang, 2015
“It never goes, darling, that’s all I can say. Today I’m content. But content doesn’t last forever – it can last for just half an hour, an hour . . . two hours. At this particular point, I am content.”
Cynthia, 2014
Cynthia continued to live for 752 days after Noel died. I believed she continued to travel but literally shunned away from the public eye. Cynthia only made one public appearance for her son's White Feather Foundation gala, and only did one interview a few months before her death to reestablished herself as an artist. Since 2007, Cynthia and Noel took in a couple from Ukraine, Andreas and Natalie, to help with domestic duties and lived on their property. The following year, they had a son named Julian. Cynthia even drew the family in the last year of her life.
“They live with their little boy at the bottom of the garden. When Noel was really ill, Natalie and her husband Andreas were like angels. If God doesn’t come, he sends. When I lost Noel, my brain was all over the place. That’s why I did the picture. It was therapeutic. It made me feel calm. It made me feel positive.”
Cynthia, 2014
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