The Christmas season has a way of warming even the coolest of hearts, and that certainly seemed to be the case for one of the final meetings between Paul McCartney and John Lennon, as described by radio personality and media consultant Elliot Mintz. Calling himself the “fifth wheel,” Mintz had a rare opportunity to watch one of the final get-togethers of McCartney, his wife, Linda McCartney, Lennon, and his wife, Yoko Ono. Mintz retold the story of this “anti-climactic” meeting in a 2025 episode of The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan.
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Mintz set the scene by describing Lennon and Ono’s apartment at Christmastime, which was expectedly sparse. According to Mintz, who had recently become Lennon and Ono’s publicist, the avant-garde musicians’ Christmas tree consisted of a single branch in a vase. The trio sat in Lennon’s all-white living room, making small talk, when Sir Paul and Linda arrived.
“It was, how should I say,” Mintz told Corgan, “it wasn’t overly jubilant, it wasn’t icy, it was just correct.” The group, now consisting of five, chatted in the Dakota apartment before settling on grabbing a bite to eat at Elaine’s, a buzzy restaurant as famous for its celebrity clientele as its “miserable” (per Mintz) food. They looked at the menu and didn’t find anything they wanted. So, Linda recommended ordering in a pizza from a good spot around the corner.
Fun fact: Mintz doesn’t clarify which pizza shop it is. But most believe it to be Mimi’s Pizza, an Upper East Side staple that famously boasted having Linda and Paul as regular customers. In fact, the British musicians loved the thin-crust pizza so much that they often had pies delivered to them while they were on the road.
A Historic Opportunity, Missed
John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, and Elliot Mintz all returned to Lennon and Ono’s apartment after eating their pizza. Mintz described Ono and Linda, who had a warm friendship, going off to another spot in the apartment. Lennon and Paul stepped aside to have a conversation between themselves, leaving Mintz to stare at the all-white shag carpeting in Lennon’s living room. “Me, the fifth wheel,” Mintz said. Naturally—as most of us surely would—Mintz perked his ears up to see if he could catch anything significant being said between Lennon and McCartney. This was, even if Mintz had no way of knowing the full extent of it, a historic moment, as it would be one of the musicians’ final meetings.
“It was small talk,” Mintz said. “Nothing of substance.” He did, however, catch McCartney asking Lennon if he had been making any music. Lennon said he hadn’t and that he was busy focusing on raising his young son, Sean. When Lennon asked McCartney what he had been up to, McCartney said he was making music every day. “I thought to myself as I sat on the couch, what would have happened if John bit the bait and said, ‘I got a couple of guitars in the other room. Why don’t I bring them out just for the hell of it?’”
How Paul McCartney and John Lennon Actually Parted Ways
While it certainly would be a film-worthy moment, the reality was far less cinematic. “The McCartneys stayed for another hour or so and left. I stayed on with John and Yoko and, again, wondering why they had me there. So, I asked them, and they said, ‘No big deal. You were coming in for Christmas, and they were coming. They were around. Why, didn’t you like them?’” Mintz said he did, but he was worried it would be awkward to have him around, given the tense circumstances surrounding The Beatles’ breakup.
Mintz said Lennon dismissed this idea, telling him, “You were with us all afternoon.” The former Beatle made it clear there was no bad blood between him and McCartney. Later, Mintz discussed the meeting with historians, who posited this quiet Christmas celebration might have been one of the final interactions between Lennon and McCartney.
“It was anti-climactic,” Mintz said.
Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns
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