John Lennon and Yoko Ono first met in 1966 and later tied the knot in 1969. The Beatles formally split up the following year. In a 2018 interview with Howard Stern, McCartney clarified who was the driving force behind putting an end to the group.
“Who knows who broke The Beatles up,” Stern mused. “Everyone has a theory…”
“I know,” McCartney chipped in confidently, announcing: “John.”
“I don’t think anyone tried to pin it on anyone. It just came out that way. That’s a long story,” he added. “There was a meeting where John came in and said, ‘Hey guys, I’m leaving the group.’”
Recalling Lennon’s relationship with artist Ono, McCartney continued: “So, John had met up with Yoko. We thought, oh god — a bit intrusive….”
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“She used to sit in on the recording sessions and we’d never had anything like that.
“But looking back on it you think, the guy was totally in love with her and you’ve just got to respect that. And we did, and I do,” he insisted.
McCartney and Lennon lived out their private feud publicly through the medium of their solo music following The Beatles’ split.
“We were writing songs at each other, weaponising songs,” McCartney remembered, laughing.
Shortly after he moved back to Ono after the affair ended, the couple welcomed son Sean.
Elsewhere, McCartney previously spoke out about Ono in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, admitting: “My big awakening was if John loves this woman, that’s gotta be right.
“I realised any resistance was something I had to overcome. It was a little hard at first. Gradually, we did. Now it’s like we’re mates.
“I like Yoko. She’s so Yoko,” he laughed.
Opening up on his relationship with Ono these days, McCartney said: “It’s really good, actually.”
Remembering how he and the other Beatles felt when she first arrived into their lives, he added: “We were kind of threatened. She was sitting on the amps while we were recording. Most bands couldn’t handle that.
“We handled it, but not amazingly well because we were so tight.
“We weren’t sexist but girls didn’t come to the studio — they tended to leave us to it,” he said.
“When John got with Yoko, she wasn’t in the control room or to the side. It was in the middle of the four of us.”