Paul McCartney was long blamed for the dissolution of the Beatles because he publicly announced the bad news at the time.
In a new interview, however, the 79-year-old now said that another Beatle is actually to blame for the breakup. "I didn't instigate the split. That was our Johnny," Paul says in an upcoming interview on BBC Radio 4, referring of course to bandmate John Lennon.
Paul McCartney reveals why the Beatles broke up
Per the BBC, McCartney continues: "John walked into a room one day and said I am leaving the Beatles. And he said, 'It's quite thrilling, it's rather like a divorce.' And then we were left to pick up the pieces."
The musician is also said to have revealed one of the reasons for Lennon's exit from the band. McCartney explained:
"The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko and he wanted to lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam, for peace," he said, referring to one of the couple's bed-in protests.
The priorities of John Lennon, who has two sons, shifted during his time in the band. Activism, and a life with Yoko Ono, became a major part of his life.
Lennon is thought to have announced his departure from the band as early as 1969. A year later, the whole world learned of the breakup, and Let It Be became their last album.
Though McCartney and Lennon would feud in the years after the split, Paul did recently reveal they had a "lovely" reunion shortly before Lennon's tragic murder in 1980.