Paul McCartney announced the breakup of the Beatles
On this day · 10 April 1970
A four-page self-interview tucked into a press kit turned a quiet album rollout into the headline that ended the world's biggest band.
On April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney told the press he was stepping away from the Beatles while promoting his debut solo album, due out a week later. Unwilling to hold interviews, he distributed a four-page self-interview in the album’s press materials, answering his own questions about the band’s future.
His replies were ambiguous, but the world read them as final. Asked about the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, he answered bluntly. He blamed the rift on “personal differences, business differences, musical differences.” British papers ran the front-page verdict the same day.
“Paul is quitting the Beatles” became the headline that closed a decade of music.
The group had quietly stopped working together months earlier, yet McCartney’s statement made the split public and irreversible in the eyes of fans. The legal dissolution dragged through the courts for years, finalising only in 1974, but April 10 stands as the day the breakup became official news.
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