Yoko Ono Reflects on Her Feud with Paul McCartney & Working with The Beatles

For decades, the relationship between Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney has been one of the most speculated, scrutinized, and polarizing in rock music history. Their names often appear in the same sentence whenever the topic of The Beatles’ breakup arises. But now, in a rare and candid reflection, Yoko Ono has opened up about her complex dynamic with McCartney and what it really meant to be an outsider among the world’s most famous band.

“I never meant to break up The Beatles,” Ono said in a recent interview. Her voice, soft but unwavering, held the weight of decades of judgment. “I loved John. I supported John. But people forget that I was an artist in my own right before I ever met him.”

The feud between Ono and McCartney was never outright warfare. Instead, it was marked by tension, philosophical differences, and two very different perspectives on creativity. Where McCartney valued structure, harmony, and melodic clarity, Ono brought in abstract performance art and unfiltered emotion. Their worlds collided at a time when The Beatles themselves were unraveling.

“There were moments I didn’t understand Paul, and I’m sure he didn’t understand me,” Ono admitted. “But what hurt the most was being turned into a scapegoat. The band was drifting apart long before I arrived.”

McCartney himself has since walked back earlier sentiments that may have fueled the myth of Yoko as the band-breaker. In several interviews over the past decade, Paul has acknowledged that tensions among the band members had reached a boiling point independently of Ono’s presence. “We were growing in different directions,” he said in a 2012 documentary. “It would’ve happened with or without Yoko.”

Today, Ono says that time has softened the edge of old wounds. Her relationship with McCartney, once strained, has evolved into one of mutual respect. “When we see each other now, there’s a quiet understanding,” she said. “We’ve both lived long enough to realize what really matters.”

Behind the scenes, there have even been reports of the two collaborating in subtle ways, particularly on remastered Beatles projects and joint approvals on archival releases. Ono, as the custodian of Lennon’s estate, and McCartney, as a legacy bearer of the band, have had to navigate this territory together.

Still, Ono reflects that being a woman—and a Japanese avant-garde artist no less—entering the insular, male-dominated world of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll was a recipe for misunderstanding. “People didn’t know what to do with me. They wanted me to be quiet, to disappear. But I never saw myself as just John’s girlfriend. I had a voice too.”

Despite everything, Ono insists she harbors no bitterness. She says she learned to transmute pain into art, grief into activism, and distance into perspective. Her collaborations with Lennon in the early 1970s, including their famous “Bed-Ins for Peace,” redefined the boundaries between art and protest. She still considers her time with Lennon as the most transformative chapter of her life.

“John and I saw the world not as it was, but as it could be,” she said. “And I think Paul, in his own way, does too.”

McCartney, for his part, has included tributes to Lennon and even Ono in his more recent public appearances. When asked about her in a 2020 interview, he responded: “She’s tough, and she had to be. I think we understand each other now more than we ever did back then.”

As the Beatles legacy continues to thrive among new generations, Yoko Ono’s voice is no longer just a footnote to the band’s story but a chapter of its own. Her contributions to art, music, and peace activism have earned her a place in cultural history far beyond the shadow of The Beatles.

“I’m still creating,” she said, smiling gently. “And I think John would be proud of how far we’ve all come.”

At 91, Ono remains a force—unapologetic, visionary, and, finally, at peace with a past that shaped the present.

As for her once-complicated bond with Paul McCartney? “We came from different galaxies,” she said with a laugh. “But maybe that’s why it worked in the end. You need contrast to make harmony.”