The way they were: McCartney and Lennon

"You can't blame people," he told King.

"You know, there's a lot of sympathy.

"It was such a shocking way to go that you want to try and give him everything."

But he went on to say that the fact that people downgraded his own contribution annoyed him.

Lennon and McCartney worked very closely in the early days of The Beatles.

Later their approach was more fragmented, though their work continued to be credited to both.

Sir Paul is promoting his poetry book Blackbird Singing

Recently Sir Paul criticised Lennon's wife Yoko Ono for refusing to let him put his name before John Lennon's on the credits of Yesterday for The Beatles' Anthology collection.

Ono refused, antagonising Sir Paul who wrote the song entirely, though royalties from it were shared.

"At one point Yoko earned more from Yesterday than I did. It doesn't compute, especially when it's the only song that none of the Beatles had anything to do with," he said at the time.

When King asked him how he got on with Ono, he said: "We don't not get along, but you know, it's like some people you may be destined to not become great buddies with."

McCartney talks to Larry King

He added: "It's not that we don't get along, just we don't talk much.

"We talk if we have to."

Appearing with Sir Paul on the show was his girlfriend ex-model Heather Mills.

Sir Paul praised Mills for her ability to handle frequent discussions of his late wife Linda during interviews and admitted that his 30-year marriage puts a strain on the new relationship.

"I think she's handled it particularly well," he said.

"It's obviously not easy when someone's loved someone for 30 years."