Paul McCartney Explains Who ‘Instigated’ The Beatles’ Break Up

The Beatles broke up over five decades ago, but Sir Paul McCartney has come forward and explained who "instigated" the end of the band — John Lennon.

On April 10, 1970, McCartney released some statements to the press, dubbed a "self-interview," which alluded to a Beatles hiatus. "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don’t really know," he said [via History.com].

As a result, the media ran headlines saying that McCartney had confirmed the Beatles had broken up. However, the musician set the record straight in a new BBC Radio 4 interview, which will broadcast later this month.

“I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny,” McCartney stated, according to The Guardian. "John walked into a room one day and said I am leaving the Beatles. Is that instigating the split, or not?”

The former Beatle cited the split as the "most difficult period" of his life.

“This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue," he assured. “The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko. John had always wanted to sort of break loose from society because, you know, he was brought up by his Aunt Mimi, who was quite repressive, so he was always looking to break loose.”

By the time the members knew the band was coming to an end, they still had some business deals to work out, so their manager Allen Klein, advised them not to announce the break up until all of their affairs were settled.

"So for a few months we had to pretend,” McCartney recalled. "It was weird because we all knew it was the end of the Beatles but we couldn’t just walk away.”

“I had to fight and the only way I could fight was in suing the other Beatles, because they were going with Klein. And they thanked me for it years later," he continued. "But I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny coming in one day and saying ‘I’m leaving the group’.”