I've been wondering, what did Cynthia think of John and Paul's relationship? There's a fair bit on most of their girlfriends' opinions about them, but I don't think I hear it from her side terribly often.
Cynthia's feelings on the matter are very interesting because the way she spoke about their relationship was rather complex and shifted noticeably over time. In the 80s, she claimed that John and Paul weren't even close and argued that John’s best friend in the band was actually Ringo. Then, in her 2005 memoir, she changed her tune, acknowledging that John was closest of all to Paul within the band, as well as the closest person overall in his life during the 60s other than herself. If she witnessed this closeness firsthand in the 60s, then it's puzzling that she decided to deny it in the 80s. When a primary witness flips their story on something as fundamental as who her husband's best friend was, it’s rarely just a memory lapse. And still, even in her book, she kind of downplayed it somewhat by claiming that they didn't socialize much outside of work, that they preferred to relax apart, and that John liked to spend his free time with George and Ringo. While that last observation isn't necessarily false, she omitted (I don't know if it was intentional or not) a crucial factor: distance. Ringo lived less than a mile from John, and George lived under four miles away, whereas Paul lived over twenty miles away in London. Frame of reference matters here: Cynthia presenting their lack of off-duty socializing as a deliberate choice to "relax apart" feels incomplete without mentioning that significant physical distance. That omission, combined with her earlier claims that they weren't close, has always made me feel like Cynthia had complicated feelings about their bond. It makes sense that she might have been envious of their closeness, much like Jane was (their intense dynamic and closeness was a major bone of contention in Jane’s relationship with Paul, which I feel isn't discussed nearly enough).
When virtually everyone in their inner circle—George Martin, John Dunbar, Peter Brown, Francie Schwartz, Ray Connolly, Danny Fields, Mary McCartney, and even John himself—have all acknowledged in their own ways that John and Paul were each other's primary partners and most important relationship prior to Yoko and Linda, it must have been painfully obvious to their partners. If that intensity was that clear to observers, imagine how stark it was to Jane and Cynthia. It’s no wonder Cynthia’s tone regarding Paul is so inconsistent and conflicted. If you read between the lines of Cynthia’s book, her feelings toward Paul are far more mixed than she lets on, sprinkled with some subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) jabs. For example, her description of Paul's relationship with Jane really stands out: she said that, for Paul, Jane was a "great prize" that boosted his "huge ego," that he was "proud as a peacock with his new lady," and projected an attitude of "anything you can do, I can do better." Interestingly, Jane wasn't particularly fond of John either, creating a striking parallel: both women harboring mixed-to-negative feelings about their partner's "best friend." I often suspect this dynamic was one of the main reasons why the two couples never vacationed together. It was always John and Cynthia with either George and Pattie or Ringo and Maureen—or Paul and Jane with those same couples. Pattie tried to explain this away by suggesting it was probably for the best because John and Paul would "get on each other's nerves" if they spent too much time together. But I don't fully buy that they couldn't endure a couple of days relaxing together along with their girlfriends on vacation. People around them constantly described them as virtually inseparable, joined at the hip and tuning out the rest of the world whenever they were together. They spent days together in Paris, as we all know, and they took vacations together in the 60s (not with their partners but with the rest of the group), often sharing the same room or bungalow. It would be odd that they just couldn't spend a few days in a relaxing environment together.
If outsiders routinely picked up on that intense mutual focus, then I think Cynthia also certainly did, and it couldn't have been too thrilling for her. While Cynthia could be a bit naïve about certain things, she couldn't have been blind to their closeness and relationship dynamic—she had even noted Paul's jealousy over John’s bond with Stu years earlier. Now, I don't think she necessarily believed there was something romantic going on. She seemed to genuinely think that John was 100% heterosexual. But she didn't have to suspect something more than platonic for her to be jealous of their closeness.
PS: Friendly reminder that if you read this and think, "But she said that 'John never looked at anyone the way he looked at Paul,'" that quote is completely fake. There is no source for it. I mention this because I've seen people who still believe it's a real quote.
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