Editing Magic Alex (section)

===Lennon's divorce===
After returning to England in May 1968, Lennon suggested that Cynthia take a holiday in Greece with Mardas, Donovan, Boyd, and her sister.<ref name="Uncutmagazine">Hunt, Chris ([[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]) December 2005</ref> Lennon said that he would be very busy recording what would become ''[[The Beatles (album)|The White Album]]'' and that it would do her some good to take a break with Mardas, his girlfriend [[Jenny Boyd]], and others.{{sfn|Lennon|2005|pp=281-282}} Cynthia arrived home one day early from Greece on 22 May 1968. She and Mardas discovered Lennon and Yoko Ono sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring into each other's eyes, and found Ono's slippers outside the Lennons' marital bedroom door.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=772}} Cynthia asked Boyd and Mardas if she could spend the night at their apartment. At the apartment Boyd went straight to bed, but Mardas got Cynthia drunk and tried to convince her that they should both run away together. After Cynthia had vomited in the bathroom she collapsed on a bed in the spare bedroom, but Mardas joined her and tried to kiss her until she (in her words) "pushed him away".{{sfn|Lennon|2005|pp=288-289}} [[Brian Epstein]]'s personal assistant, [[Peter Brown (music industry)|Peter Brown]], maintains that Cynthia did sleep with Mardas, saying: "She knew it was a mistake the moment it happened, especially with Alex [Mardas], whom she had never trusted, nor even liked".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=772}}

Lennon went to New York with McCartney shortly afterward, telling Cynthia she could not go with them, so she went on a trip to Italy with her mother.{{sfn|Lennon|2005|pp=292-293}} During Cynthia's holiday in Italy, an "agitated" Mardas unexpectedly arrived (pacing up and down outside her hotel until she returned){{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=773}} and gave the news that Lennon was planning to sue Cynthia for [[divorce]] on grounds of [[adultery]], seek sole custody of Julian, and send Cynthia "back to Hoylake".{{sfn|Coleman|1995|p=464}} Mardas also said that he intended to testify in court that Cynthia had committed adultery with him. She said in 2005: "The mere fact that Magic Alex [Mardas] arrived in Italy in the middle of the night without any prior knowledge of where I was staying made me extremely suspicious. I was being coerced into making it easy for John [Lennon] and Yoko to accuse me of doing something that would make them not look so bad".<ref>''The Loves Of John Lennon'' by [[Chris Hunt]], [[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]], John Lennon Special, 2005.</ref>