April 3rd?, 1985 (Soho Square, London): Paul Talks On German Television Show Exclusiv About The Breakup

April 3rd?, 1985 (Soho Square, London): Paul talks on German television show Exclusiv about the breakup of the Beatles and his personal breakup with John. (Note: All my gratitude to @aceonthebass for helping with the fiddlier bits of the transcription!)

INTERVIEWER: [inaudible] —in particular, the breakup?

PAUL: Yeah. I know we all had similar feelings. I know John, I remember him saying to me, “What am I going to do with my songs now?” You had a feeling you wanted to know how you were going to exist if you didn’t have the Beatles, how you were going to do. And so it was difficult for all of us, I think. But um, time heals your wounds, you know, as they say, and I think that’s what really happened. After a while, we got used to it. But nobody was happy when the Beatles broke up. I mean, it was just one of those things that just seemed to happen as an explosion, you know. It was there, and it was done.

INTERVIEWER: But your relationship with John, in every way, as a Beatles— [inaudible] —as a band, you were very very close. I mean, that must have been very painful in that respect, not only the Beatles breaking up, but I mean that particular relationship breaking up. [Note: The German overdub, translation provided graciously by @pivoinesque: Your relationship with John was not just that of a musical partnership. It must have hurt you quite a bit that your special relationship [with him] broke apart.]

PAUL: Mm. It was, yeah. Um, in our songwriting, I had signs that the group was gonna break up, because… I mean, I think really what it was, really all that happened was that John fell in love. With Yoko. And so, with such a powerful alliance like that, it was difficult for him to still be seeing me. It was as if I was another girlfriend, almost. Our relationship was a strong relationship. And if he was to start a new relationship, he had to put this other one away. And I understood that. I mean, I couldn’t stand in the way of someone who’d fallen in love. You can’t say, “Who’s this?” You can’t really do that. If I was a girl, maybe I could go out and… But you know I mean in this case I just sort of said, right – I mean, I didn’t say anything, but I could see that was the way it was going to go, and that Yoko would be very sort of powerful for him. So um, we all had to get out the way. I don’t blame her. You know, you can’t blame her for being the object of his love.