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Back down, Yoko Ono haters: in a new interview, Paul McCartney says John Lennon's widow didn't break up the Beatles.

According to the L.A. Times, Sir Paul reinforced the position Lennon often took before his 1980 death, telling interviewer David Frost that the group was breaking up with or without Ono's influence.

"She certainly didn't break the group up, the group was breaking up," McCartney says. "I don't think you can blame her for anything."

He adds, "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" with or without Ono in the picture.

The interview is scheduled to air Nov. 9 on the Al Jazeera English TV channel.