Peter Asher says fan blamed him for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s relationship: ‘You broke up the Beatles!’
Peter Asher says fan blamed him for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s relationship: ‘You broke up the Beatles!’
Emlyn TravisMon, June 22, 2026 at 4:11 PM UTC
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Peter Asher; John Lennon and Yoko OnoCredit: FilmMagic; GettyKey Points -
Peter Asher is looking back at his involvement in bringing John Lennon and Yoko Ono together.
The musician and record producer was a co-owner of the Indica Gallery, where Lennon first met Ono.
He also revealed that he once had a Beatles fan accuse him of breaking up the band because of the pair's relationship.
Peter Asher is remembering the role he played in bringing one of music history’s most legendary couples together.
In his new documentary, Peter Asher: Everywhere Man, the 82-year-old musician and record producer looks back at how Beatles guitarist John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono first met at the London art gallery that he co-owned with John Dunbar and Barry Miles, called the Indica Gallery, in the 1960s.
"John Dunbar was made aware of this Japanese American artist who was Yoko Ono," Miles recalls in the documentary, per PEOPLE. "And he thought she sounded suitably interesting and wacky to be in our avant-garde gallery."
Yoko Ono and John LennonCredit: Getty
He noted that Lennon visited the gallery while they were in the process of hanging up the show, and the rest, of course, is history. A subsequent clip in the documentary shows Lennon describing how he and Ono first met during a visit to journalist David Frost’s eponymous talk show.
“They were having a show at this gallery, and she had all these things, all these hammer nail things,” the “All You Need is Love” singer recalled at the time. "There was this ladder on a thing on the ceiling. So I climbed the ladder, and on the ceiling it said 'Yes.’”
He continued, “If it had said 'No,' then I would have carried on with my preconceived ideas about art and artists.... But it said 'Yes,' and that was enough, you know. That was how we met, actually."
The snippet of Lennon and Ono’s interview was shown as part of a live event with Asher, which was featured in the documentary. While the audience applauded at the time, the “A World Without Love” singer noted that he hasn’t always received a warm reaction from Beatles fans when it comes to Ono and Lennon’s relationship.
“It's very interesting. That was a nice little round of applause,” Asher noted. “Sometimes it's a 'awww,' you know, like, what a great love story. But other times, it's a ‘Grrr.’”
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He continued, “The most dramatic one, which has only happened once, but it was quite startling when it did, was as soon as the clip was over — John said, ‘And that's when we met,' — some bloke in the audience jumped to his feet, pointed at me, and yelled at the top of his voice: 'It was you! You broke up the Beatles!’”
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As the crowd laughed, Asher added, “I reject soundly any implication that I was responsible for breaking up the Beatles.”
Contrary to popular belief, Ono was not responsible for the Beatles going their separate ways in the spring of 1970. In fact, George Harrison revealed in a 1971 interview on The Dick Cavett Show that “the group had problems long before Yoko came along,” emphasizing, “Many problems.”
Ono and Lennon tied the knot in 1969, welcomed a son, Sean, in 1975. The couple remained together until Lennon was fatally shot and killed in front of their New York City apartment in 1980.
In addition to Lennon and Yoko's romance, Asher has his own connection to the Beatles. His sister, actress and author Jane Asher, famously dated Paul McCartney from 1963 until 1968, with the "Love Me Do" singer even living at their home for a period of time. McCartney was also the wordsmith behind Asher and Gordon Waller's biggest hit, "A World Without Love."
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man opened in New York City on June 19, and is set to premiere on June 26 in Los Angeles and additional cities.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
