Yoko Ono Blames Paul McCartney For The Beatles' Breakup?

Many fans have famously blamed Yoko Ono for the Beatles breaking up in 1970, but John Lennon’s wife claims that wasn’t the case.

She didn’t exactly say that the band decided to break up because of McCartney, but she clearly insinuated that the tight grip he had over the band was one of the myriad of reasons they all decided “divorce.”

She added that Ringo Starr and George Harrison both wanted to get out of the band before Lennon did.

In a recently unearthed 1987 interview with Rolling Stone, Ono said that Paul McCartney was essentially the reason the legendary bandmembers decided to go their separate ways.

The Huffington Post quoted the 27-year-old interview with Ono as saying:

"The Beatles were getting very independent. Each one of them [was] getting independent. John, in fact, was not the first who wanted to leave the Beatles. [We saw] Ringo [Starr] one night with Maureen [Starkey Tigrett], and he came to John and me and said he wanted to leave. George [Harrison] was next, and then John. Paul [McCartney] was the only one trying to hold the Beatles together. But the other three thought Paul would hold the Beatles together as his band. They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like."

Ono later added that the breakup with the Beatles left her relationship with Lennon strained. She said that he missed his bandmates and "expected all that to be replaced by me."

Her account matches up with a recent interview Paul McCartney had with David Frost in October.

McCartney said Ono “did not break up the band because it was “already breaking up.”

Today Ono, a musician and activist, has a menswear line coming out that was allegedly inspired by John Lennon’s body.