![\"Yoko](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Screen-Shot-2020-12-21-at-105504.jpg\")
Yoko Ono at the Get Back sessions with Paul McCartney and John Lennon(Image: Peter Jackson)<\/p>\nA leading Beatles historian has opened up about Yoko Ono’s role in the demise of the band amid years of speculation that her presence in the recording studio caused friction<\/p>\n
11:42, 14 Jul 2025Updated 11:52, 14 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
Yoko Ono at the Get Back sessions with Paul McCartney and John Lennon(Image: Peter Jackson)<\/p>\n
Yoko Ono was not a factor in the break-up of The Beatles<\/a> despite being blamed for decades, a \u00adhistorian claims. Martin Lewis<\/a> points to Apple TV\u2019s recent Get Back series <\/a>as evidence her presence in the Beatles studio did not cause the tension between John Lennon <\/a>and his \u00adbandmates many insist was behind the demise.<\/p>\n Yoko being at the 1969 Let it Be album recordings has gone down in music folklore as the beginning of the end for the Fab Four. But Martin, who has worked with both her and Paul McCartney<\/a> in recent years, said: \u201cThe fans wanted a villain. The media likes a villain. We all do. That\u2019s natural, but not reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking about the Apple TV series, he added: \u201cThey are in the studio. Yoko<\/a>\u2019s there, which was unusual. They didn\u2019t normally have wives or girlfriends in the studio. Who does John relate to through the whole eight hours? He looks at Yoko once in a blue moon. His eyes are on Paul. He\u2019s with his buddy of the last 13 years. It\u2019s all about John and Paul.<\/p>\n \u201cYoko was there, she wants to be there. He\u2019s not rude. He\u2019s just not interested. He\u2019s working with his mate and having fun. The whole film gives the lie to that nonsense. It\u2019s John and Paul, but bonding, writing, having fun, reminiscing. He\u2019s polite to Yoko.<\/p>\n “She didn\u2019t break up the Beatles<\/a>. John and Paul have been together since July 57, when they were 17 and 16 respectively. They were nearly 30. That\u2019s a long time. So they were growing apart. She\u2019s not the villain.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin also claimed racism played its part in the treatment of Yoko and her public perception. Speaking at the LA Jewish Film Festival\u2019s opening night film Midas Man, about Beatles manager Brian Epstein<\/a>, he said: \u201cA lot of it was racist because John was dumping his English rose wife and going off with a Japanese and an Asian woman. John made a very interesting point\u2026 up until Yoko, he was [called in the media] John.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minute he met Yoko, he became Lennon.\u201d In 2023, McCartney claimed Yoko\u2019s presence in the studio caused issues between him, Lennon, Ringo Starr<\/a> and George Harrison<\/a>. He said: \u201cI don\u2019t think any of us \u00adparticularly liked it. It was an \u00adinterference in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin claimed Yoko, 92, will not be writing a memoir to set the record straight on her lifelong negative representation. A recent book about her, Yoko, by David Sheff, said she was spending her last days \u201clistening to the wind\u201d on a 600-acre farm<\/a> bought with John in New York State.<\/p>\n Daughter Kyoko Cox, 61, said of her mother: \u201cShe believed she could change the world<\/a>, and she did. Now she is able to be quiet – listen to the wind and watch the sky.She is very happy, in a happy place. This is genuine peacefulness.\u201d<\/p>\n In the biography, musician son Sean Lennon, 49, praises his mum for fighting adversity.<\/p>\n Sean, who is now in charge of the family\u2019s interests in the Beatles estate, said: \u201cShe had this ability to overcome difficulty with positive thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cShe really wanted to teach the world to do that. She taught my dad to do that. It\u2019s not going to stop a moving train, or a bullet. But I think there\u2019s something profound about it.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple met in November 1966 at London\u2019s Indica Gallery.<\/p>\n![\"Yoko](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Screen-Shot-2020-12-21-at-105514-1.jpg\")
Yoko Ono was a constant presence at the recordings (Image: Peter Jackson)READ MORE: Neil Young BST Hyde Park show is dramatically CUT OFF as bosses pull the plug<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Yoko](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Screen-Shot-2020-12-21-at-105545.jpg\")
Yoko Ono and John Lennon in the studio(Image: Peter Jackson)<\/p>\n