Where Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono Stand 45 Years After John Lennon’s Death: ‘They Have Both Suffered’

It’s been 45 years since John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment, but Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney still checks in on his widow, Yoko Ono, a source tells Closer.

“It’s no secret Paul and Yoko weren’t fans of each other all those years ago, but they have a great understanding of each other these days and a genuine friendship,” reveals the source. “Growing older has mellowed them both and time has healed a lot of the wounds.”

McCartney, 84, opened up about his reconciliation with Ono, 93, to Rolling Stone in 2013. “I thought, ‘If John loved her, there’s got to be something. He’s not stupid,'” he recalled. “It’s like, what are you going to do? Are you going to hold a grudge you never really had?”

“Paul has also gone out of his way to defend Yoko in recent years and that’s been very appreciated by her,” adds the source. “They have both suffered a lot of loss over the years and they are able to give each some comfort, sharing old memories and stories and reminiscing about the times they shared with John.”

McCartney famously fell out with Lennon when the Beatles broke up in 1970, but the pair were able to patch things up in the years prior to the “Imagine” singer’s murder at age 40 in 1980.

“Of course, from then on really, I was very sympathetic to Yoko,” he wrote in his 2021 book, Lyrics: 1956 to the Presents, per People. “I’d lost my friend, but she’d lost her husband and the father of her child,” son Sean Ono Lennon, now 50.

Having grown up together in Liverpool, “Paul was like a brother to John, so in a sense, Yoko feels like he’s family,” says the source. “She lives a very private life but one person she always has time for is Paul. He really makes the effort to stay connected.”