Freeze Frame: The heartbreaking story behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Rolling Stone cover
On December 8, 1980, renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz stood over John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed with a camera.
Leibovitz had been welcomed into the couple's apartment on the Upper West Side and was tasked with snapping a portrait of the Beatles superstar.
The cover photo was supposed to be a solo shot of Lennon, but the rocker had demanded his wife be in the frame.
He told Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner: "If they don't want the two of us, we're not interested."
When she arrived, Leibovitz decided she wanted the pair to be locked in an embrace, but Ono didn't want to be naked.
So instead, a nude Lennon wrapped himself around the fully-clothed Japanese artist and Leibovitz took a Polaroid photo.
"You've captured our relationship exactly," Lennon, 40, told her after he saw the image.
Source: April Glover/celebrity.nine.com.au