In New Interview, McCartney Says Ono Did Not Break Up the Beatles

More than 40 years after the breakup up of the Beatles, there remains a category of fans that â€" rightly or wrongly, sincerely or jokingly â€" continues to blame Yoko Ono for the dissolution of the group. But in a new interview, Paul McCartney made clear he has let it be, and does not consider Ms. Ono, who is John Lennon's widow, to be at fault.

Speaking for an hour-long conversation that will be shown on the BBC, Mr. McCartney told the television presenter David Frost that the Beatles were already winding down by the time Lennon became romantically and artistically involved with Ms. Ono.

“She certainly didn't break the group up,” Mr. McCartney said in remarks quoted by The Guardian. “The group was breaking up.”

Starting in 1968, Lennon and Ms. Ono released several albums together, and were married on March 29, 1969. Within months the Beatles band mates went their separate ways and formally split the band.

But in the interview, Mr. McCartne y praised Ms. Ono for introducing Lennon to more experimental and unfamiliar modes of musical expression.

“I don't think he would have done that without Yoko, so I don't think you can blame her for anything,” Mr. McCartney said, according to The Guardian. “When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave.”

Elsewhere in the conversation with Mr. Frost, The Guardian said, Mr. McCartney criticized Allen Klein, the manager who worked with the Beatles after the death of Brian Epstein. (“I said I wanted to fight Klein,” Mr. McCartney said.) He also discusses the death of his first wife, Linda; his marriage to Nancy Shevell; and the joys of parenthood and grand-parenthood. As Mr. McCartney said in the interview: “Being a father, grandfather, is my coolest thing.”