Heather Mills
Heather, Lady McCartney (born January 12, 1968 in Washington, Tyne and Wear, England), usually known as Heather Mills or Heather Mills McCartney, is a former model and anti-land mines campaigner who is best known for being the second wife of former-Beatle Paul McCartney. Mills and McCartney married in 2002, four years after the passing of Paul's first wife Linda. Their first child, Beatrice Milly, was born in the October of the following year. The couple announced their separation on May 17, 2006 [1] .
Early career and accident
Her personal life prior to her marriage to Paul McCartney was fairly colourful: homelessness, one previous marriage (to computer sales director Alfie Karmal), two ectopic pregnancies and two fiancés.
In 1990, she moved to what was then northern Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), where she saw the unfolding civil war first-hand. Over the following two years she modelled to raise funds for refugees of the war, and commuted between Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and England.
In August 1993, she was hit by a police motorcycle while crossing the road near London's Kensington Palace; her injuries included crushed ribs, a punctured lung, a metal plate needing to be put in her pelvis and the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Mills has a prosthetic leg, notably taking it off and showing it to U.S. talk show host Larry King during his interview with her in October, 2002. She later sold her story of recovery following the accident to a British tabloid, with details of how she and her boyfriend made love in her hospital bed.
Following the accident she arranged for unwanted prostheses to be sent from the United Kingdom to the war-torn former Yugoslavia.
Television Appearance
In 2005, Heather Mills McCartney appeared on the daytime soap opera Days Of Our Lives in a cameo role that lasted a few days. She played herself, consoling the major character of the time, Philip Kiriakis, who had just lost a portion of his leg in combat in Iraq.
Marriage and recent life
Heather Mills married Paul McCartney on 11 June 2002 in an elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie (once home of Shane Leslie) in the village of Glaslough in rural Ireland. On 17 May 2006 it was officially anounced that she was to separate from her husband. Media speculation in the weeks prior to this had been intense. She has a new book, Life Balance [2]which is due to be published on 25 May 2006 about health, happiness and unlocking the inner you. In the London newspaper the Evening Standard on 18 May 2006, Mills-McCartney told of the hurt she felt over claims she'd only married Sir Paul for his money, she said 'I am no gold digger' and that the allegations were worse than 'losing my leg'. The Daily Telegraph was one of a number of British newspapers to suggest that if the couple did eventually divorce, it could lead to the UK's biggest ever divorce settlement, some estimating she could receive £200 million (one-quarter of Paul McCartney's wealth).
Work for the UN
She is currently a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Association.
Work for amputees
In addition to promoting distribution of prostheses worldwide, she has been involved with the development of the "Heather Mills McCartney Cosmesis" [3] [4] 'to give amputees in America a chance to wear a Dorset Orthopaedic cosmesis without the need to visit us here in the UK'.
Work against the seal hunt
In March 2006, Heather Mills McCartney and her husband Paul McCartney ventured to Eastern Canada to bring attention to the country's annual seal hunt. Sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, they claimed the hunt to be inhumane and called on the Canadian Government to put it to an end. Their arrival on the floes sparked much attention in Newfoundland and Labrador where 90% of the sealers live, and where the hunt is of cultural and economic significance. Due to the intense media attention, the couple debated Newfoundland's premier Danny Williams on Larry King Live.
Work against landmines
Heather and Paul McCartney are both patrons of Adopt-A-Minefield, and proceeds from her updated autobiography, A Single Step, will be donated to the cause.
Criticisms
Heather Mills McCartney has been criticised in several publications for alleged embellishments to her life story. For example, Private Eye alleged that before she was famous in her own right, Heather Mills pretended for some time to be a newspaper journalist (as there is a journalist of the same name); the magazine also published a spoof diary entry from her containing many fictional achievements.
Articles have also questioned the effectiveness of her charitable work in the Balkans, and she has also come under criticism from disabled people for presuming to speak on their behalf.
On occasion Paul McCartney has defended Heather Mills McCartney against criticism, via her web site or his own.
External links
Bibliography
- A Single Step (ISBN 0446531650)
- Life Balance - the Essential Keys to a Lifetime of Well Being (ISBN 9780718146672 )