Pang worked for the couple on a number of projects. The couple later moved back to New York City. Lennon and Ono reunited in 1975, although he and Pang remained close up until his death.
In 1973, Lennon entered what would become known as his ‘Lost Weekend’, 18 months marked by a romantic affair with May Pang, a production coordinator who worked on his and Ono’s music. After a significant spell of marital issues, Ono and Lennon separated, and Lennon embarked on a short-lived relationship with Pang. Lennon would later return to Ono and lament this period of his life.
May Pang Aims to Set Record Straight About John Lennon Affair in the docufilm ‘The Lost Weekend,’
“John was drinking, but that was overblown in retrospect,” says Pang, who'd like to remind the world that the ex-Beatle had a major career renaissance during their time together in the mid-'70s.
However, in an interview with Larry Kane in the late ’70s, Lennon explained that he had been in love. “You know Larry, I may have been the happiest I’ve ever been… I loved this woman [Pang], I made some beautiful music, and I got so fucked up with booze and shit and whatever.”
During this period, Lennon wrote ‘Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)’ for his fifth studio album, Walls and Bridges. According to Pang, the former Beatle wrote the song for her. The romantic lyrics read: “Sweet as the smell of success/ Her body’s warm and wet/ She gets me through this god awful loneliness/ A natural high butterfly/ Oh I, I need, need, need her”.
In 1971, Lennon and Yoko Ono hired Pang as their personal assistant. In 1973, she moved into The Dakota in New York City, where the couple lived.John Lennon and May Pang.
One morning, Pang said, Ono came into her office and told her that she and Lennon were "not getting along." Ono told Pang he would start seeing someone new and suggested the two get together, she said.
"She looks at me and says, 'I know he likes you," Pang recalls. "I'm going, 'What? I'm not interested in him.'"
Pang has always maintained the relationship happened with Ono’s blessing. “The affair was not something that was hurtful to me,” Ono told The Telegraph in 2012. “I needed a rest. I needed space. May Pang was a very intelligent, attractive woman and extremely efficient. I thought they’d be OK.”
In L.A. John reunited with Paul McCartney for a casual jam session.
Pang was present during a jam session on March 28, 1974, that would be the last time Lennon would record with McCartney. Stevie Wonder was there. So was Lennon's drinking buddy, Harry Nilsson.
Starr had left for the night, Pang recalled, and McCartney sat in on drums and sang harmony while Lennon played guitar and sang lead. "It really warmed my heart to see that," she said. "The two talking — nothing about business, just as friends."
