Yoko Ono didn`t break up The Beatles: Paul McCartney

London: Beatles legend Paul McCartney says that band mate John Lennon`s wife Yoko Ono didn`t break up the band.

In an interview, McCartney, 70, denied the popular wisdom that Lennon`s relationship with Ono was the catalyst that led to the band`s break-up, The Guardian reported. While McCartney said that he had found Ono sitting in on Beatles recording sessions difficult he also said, "She certainly didn`t break the group up, the group was breaking up." He also went as far as to praise her influence on Lennon`s solo career. "I don`t think he would have written `Imagine` without Yoko, so I don`t think you can blame her for anything. When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him. "So it was time for John to leave, he was definitely going to leave one way or another," he added. McCartney placed more blame for the group`s demise on Allen Klein, the businessman, who succeeded former manager Brian Epstein in 1967. The music legend said that it was Klein who set him fighting against the others. "I was fighting against the other three guys who`d been my lifelong soul buddies. I said I wanted to fight Klein," he said. PTI