Paul McCartney Said John Lennon Was Jealous He Didn’t Get to Announce The Beatles Break Up

In 1970, Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles had broken up, much to John Lennon’s irritation. Lennon told his bandmates he was leaving the group in 1969, but he kept the news quiet at the request of manager Allen Klein. McCartney said Lennon felt hurt when he announced the band’s split. He believed Lennon was jealous that he wasn’t able to announce the news himself.

Paul McCartney announced The Beatles break up, much to John Lennon’s disappointment

While promoting his solo album McCartney, the Beatles bassist broke the news that the band had broken up. He included a questionnaire in the version of the album he gave to the press that contained the information. Lennon was the one who initiated the split, but he hadn’t publicly spoken about it at this point. As far as people were concerned, the band was still together.

“Only the press got the ones with the questionnaire in,” McCartney said, per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles. “I think some of the press thought this was how I was releasing the album, with this questionnaire in it, so a few people said, ‘This is outrageous!’ and John, I think, was very hurt.”

McCartney believed Lennon’s hurt stemmed from the fact that he hadn’t been able to announce the band’s split himself.

“I personally think he was hurt because he wanted to tell,” McCartney said. “I don’t think it was anything more than that, I think it was just straightforward jealousy. He wanted to be the one, because he’d been the one to break up the Beatles and he hadn’t had the nerve to follow it through because Klein had told him, ‘Don’t tell anyone. Keep this thing rolling as long as we can.'”

McCartney explained that after a lengthy period of uncertainty about whether or not the band would reunite, he decided to announce their split.

“But we’d not seen each other for three or four months and I had been ringing, calling George and Ringo and asking ‘Do you think we’ll get back together?’ ‘Well, I don’t know, what about John?’ and I’d ring John. ‘Oh no! F***ing hell!’ So it was obviously not on,” he said, adding, “So I let the news out. So I was not loved for that by the other guys and that started a war between us.”

He had a desire to be seen as a rebel

In the years after the band broke up, Lennon worked hard to separate himself from his image as a Beatle. He insulted their music, including songs he wrote, and spoke derisively about his former bandmates. In the past, Lennon had spoken about wanting to be seen as rebellious. When he left the band, it seems he insulted the group because of this. 

Because he announced the breakup, people have widely viewed McCartney as the person who broke up the band. Lennon wanted this reputation because it would have pushed his image further away from The Beatles. 

Relations between Paul McCartney and John Lennon remained chilly for several years

For the next several years, the relationship between McCartney and Lennon was chilly at best. They had angry conversations, insulted each other through songs, and made withering comments about one another in interviews. Eventually, though, Lennon admitted that his harshest comments had more to do with himself than with McCartney.

“It’s not about Paul, it’s about me. I’m really attacking myself,” he said. “But I regret the association, well, what’s to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.”

By the mid-1970s, Lennon and McCartney’s relationship had vastly improved. As long as they avoided talking about business, they could get along.