Yoko thanks Macca for Beatles split statement

Walk away: the Beatles split in 1970

John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono has thanked Paul McCartney for stating she didn’t split the Beatles.

In an interview to be broadcast to mark his 70th birthday, McCartney last month told Sir David Frost: “She certainly didn’t break the group up. The group was breaking up. It was time for John to leave – he was definitely going to leave one way or another.”

Now Ono has said he was “brave” for making the statement.

She tells The Guardian: “I thought people knew I was not responsible – but surprisingly, many people still felt that.

“He was very brave, so I’d like to say, ‘Thank you, Paul. I love you. We love you.’”

After over a year of turmoil the Beatles split in 1970, with McCartney describing the catalogue they left behind as “pretty neat.”

Ono says she’s continuing to fight bigotry wherever she finds it; and as she approaches her 80th birthday her main focus is ageism.

She says: “It’s not very easy to be my age, but I’m not very concerned about age. After sexism and racism, which I fought, now there’s ageism – something more to fight about.

“Don’t be discouraged by society saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to be 40; that’s too bad.’ We all carry our own age.

“I will put my feet up when I’m in a coffin, but until then I will do my best to have a full life.”

Meanwhile, air accident investigators have confirmed McCartney and new wife Nancy Shevall came within two feet of being in a helicopter crash – and didn’t know it.

The incident took place on an overcast night in May, when the pilot of their Air Harrods vehicle became disoriented due to weather conditions and narrowly avoided a collision with treetops.

He aborted the planned landing on the McCartneys’ East Sussex estate and flew instead to a nearby airport. Investigators say the passengers were “unaware” of the near miss.