John’s divorce was only finalized on November 8, 1968, and Yoko’s second divorce was finalized on February 2. John hasn’t told his ex-wife, Cynthia, or their son, Julian, about his wedding plans. He envisions that he and Yoko will “get married on a cross-channel ferry. That was the romantic part.”

John’s driver rushes them to Southampton, where a ferry crosses the English Channel to France, but Yoko, who is not a British citizen, is denied a visa. Another plan, to get married in Amsterdam, is dashed when the couple can’t meet the two-week residency requirement.

John’s money and fame secure a private jet to Paris on March 16.

In London, George and his wife, Pattie Boyd, are dominating the headlines. On Paul’s wedding day, Detective Sergeant Norman Pilcher led a drug raid on their home in Esher, where Yogi the police dog located a small amount of pot. On March 18, George and Pattie appear at a hearing on charges of cannabis possession.

On the morning of March 20, 1969, eight days after Paul’s wedding, John and Yoko fly from Paris to Gibraltar, on Spain’s southern peninsula—a British territory since 1713. There’s no residency requirement, and as a British citizen, John can legally marry there. In “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” John names his personal assistant as the one who saved the wedding by saying, “You can make it O.K. / You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.”

A warm wind blows off the Mediterranean Sea as they arrive at the British consulate. Yoko has dressed for the ten-minute ceremony in a white minidress, tall white boots, a wide-brimmed hat, and dark glasses; John is in a white suit jacket, corduroys, and tennis shoes.

With the Rock of Gibraltar as a backdrop, the couple poses for photos. John holds their marriage certificate overhead, victorious.

“Intellectually, we didn’t believe in getting married,” John tells the reporters who’ve tracked them to this remote destination. “But one doesn’t love someone just intellectually. For two people marriage still has the edge over just living together.”

Best man Peter Brown hires a white Rolls-Royce to transport the newlyweds to Amsterdam, where they check in to the Hilton for a weeklong stay.

At a local pub, magazine reporter Rick Wilson and his editor are having lunch. “There’s been some communication to the office about some happening at the Hilton,” the editor says. “John Lennon’s holding court about something or other.”

He and Yoko have sent out cards to the press, inviting them to a daily discussion about peace from March 25 to March 31.

“We knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers,” John reasons. “We decided to utilize the space we would occupy anyway, by getting married, with a commercial for peace.