Yoko Ono Said Paul McCartney Was Like a Younger Brother to Her
Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono met at a turbulent time for The Beatles. Macca took on a more prominent role in the group in the mid-1960s as John Lennon struggled during the band’s peak years. He snapped out of it when he met Yoko Ono, which happened to be when The Beatles began disintegrating. Though he wasn’t thrilled to share his songwriting partner with someone else (and didn’t necessarily hide his displeasure), Yoko once confessed that Paul became like a little brother to her.
Paul McCartney wasn’t thrilled to see John Lennon bring Yoko Ono into The Beatles’ inner circle
Paul grew up with John in Liverpool, so he knew his likes and dislikes. That included his preferences in women. That’s one reason Paul knew John’s first marriage was doomed from the start.
John’s relationship with Yoko was controversial at the time. Besides being an affair, the bespectacled Beatle was with a Japanese woman at a time when attitudes toward Asian people in England following World War II were far from accepting.
Even John’s bandmates weren’t necessarily thrilled that he found happiness. Though he understood John needed to move on from his wife, Paul wasn’t keen on Yoko being around The Beatles all the time.
Macca didn’t necessarily try to hide his displeasure. He sometimes referred to her as “This girl” and condescendingly called her “Love,” writes Peter Doggett in You Never Give Me Your Money. Despite the animosity, Paul was like a younger brother to Yoko, as she once confided in an audio diary.
Yoko said Paul was like a younger brother and that they would have been great friends if he was a woman
Paul admitted several times over the years how put off he was by Yoko’s presence. She was ever-present at The Beatles’ later recording sessions, which he thought should be a sanctuary for the band members only.
Macca didn’t make any great effort to hide his disdain about Yoko being around. Still, in one of her many audio diary entries from the late 1960s (Doggett dated it from 1968), Yoko confessed she thought of Paul like a younger brother. She believed that she and Macca would have been great friends if he were a woman. Per Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money:
“Paul has been very nice to me. I feel like he’s my younger brother or something. I’m sure that if he had been a woman or something, he would have been a great friend because there’s something definitely very strong between John and Paul.”
Yoko Ono describes Paul McCartney in an audio diary entry
The world saw The Beatles bickering in the documentaries Let It Be and Get Back, and many felt Yoko was the cause. John even believed Paul aimed his “Get Back” lyrics at Yoko (“Get back / Get back / Get back to where you once belonged”). Still, Yoko brushed aside any rudeness directed at her and said Paul was like a younger brother to her.
The pair formed a stable relationship after The Beatles broke up
Some of Macca old, bitter feelings toward Yoko surfaced after John’s murder in 1980. Maca became furious with how she talked about his death and her revisionist history about his contributions to The Beatles.
Yet they found a way to form a friendlier, more stable relationship over the years. Yoko acknowledged that Paul helped save her marriage to John. He played messenger and told John that Yoko still loved him, which she confided to Macca during a conversation during the lost weekend period.
Paul said Yoko helped him get over John’s death by revealing John still talked about his former bandmate in the years since the band broke up. She said the pair listened to Paul’s music.
Yoko Ono said Paul McCarney was like a younger brother to her, even though he was sometimes hostile toward her. Years later, their relationship became more sibling-like as they learned to find common ground between them.
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