Heather Mills
- Profession: Gold digger
- Place/Date of Birth: Aldershot, Hampshire, 12 January 2021
- Associated with: Paul McCartney
Sir Paul, 64, and his wife, who have a three-year-old daughter, Beatrice, announced in May that they were to end their four-year marriage.
Heather was recently pictured holding notes about the divorce.
She has said she would rather have had all her limbs cut off than face the criticism she got for her relationship with the ex-Beatle, who has an estimated £825 million fortune.
The model, who lost a leg in a motorbike accident in 1993, told a US TV interviewer her bitter divorce from the former Beatle, with whom she had been "madly in love", was "devastating".
Heather: I’ve had death threats - Dec 1 2006
Heather Mills-McCartney is living in fear for her safety after receiving death threats in the wake of her split from Sir Paul .
The former model said she feared for her own personal safety and had little money to pay for security.
"We have had a few death threats, which was scary," she told BBC News yesterday during a visit to Brussels to campaign against the fur trade.
Heather said her personal trainer Ben Amigoni, who she emphasised was "not my lover", was also helping to protect her.
She also denied that by campaigning for animal rights she was copying her estranged husband’s first wife Linda.
She said: "It was definitely because I married my husband - nothing to do with Linda - I was sent this video of dogs and cats being skinned alive."
She said that she previously "wasn’t allowed" to get involved with fashion, photography and music, but was now "free". "I can do whatever I wish," she said.
Heather visited Brussels to deliver a 250,000-signature petition - gathered via her own website - backing calls for the trade to be banned.
The trade blockade is needed to discourage the cruel slaughter of animals to provide fur for everything from rugs and coats to figurines, she said.
Heather mocked at awards bash - Nov 27 2006
Heather Mills McCartney was once again mocked at an awards ceremony today.
Just weeks after being ridiculed by Jonathon Ross at the Q Awards, broadcaster and theatre director Ned Sherrin poked fun at the expense of Sir Paul McCartney’s estranged wife.
Ned made the joke while hosting the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at The Savoy Hotel in London and outlining the nominees for Best Actress.
He said Frances O’Connor was nominated for her role in the play Tom And Viv.
The play is about poet TS Eliot’s little-known first marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood, who was committed to a mental hospital.
Ned said the play was about a man "who has his unstable wife locked up in the asylum".
He joked: "Paul McCartney is said to have seen it 10 times."
Last month BBC presenter Jonathan Ross launched a scathing public attack on the land mines and animal rights campaigner.
He mocked the sensational claims she made against her estranged husband in their bitter divorce battle.
Jonathan was hosting the Q Awards in London and opened by saying: "Heather Mills McCartney - what a f****** liar.
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Heather Mills has definitely got one hell of a story, she was born in 1968, her mother left the family home when she nine, leaving Heather to care for her siblings under the watchful eye of an abusive father. Heather ran away from home at thirteen and found herself homeless, living under Waterloo arches for four months.
She was eventually "discovered" and started modelling, it wasn’t long after that at the age of 22, that she moved to Northern Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, for a holiday and eventually ended up moving there to build a new life and become a ski instructor. Whilst out there she witnessed the outbreak of civil war and the effect it had on many of her friends. On her return to England she set up a refugee crisis centre, funded by the modelling work that she was still doing, she continued her charity work over the next two years when tragedy struck, on a visit to the UK.
In August 1993, Heather was involved in a road accident with a police motorcycle. Her injuries included crushed ribs, a punctured lung, and multiple fractures of the pelvis and the loss of her left leg below the knee. Realising her modelling career would now possibly be over, she summoned the press into her hospital room and sold her story.
Through the adjustment of returning to ’normal’ life with one leg, Heather found a practical problem that she felt she could solve. Her residual limb, or stump as she prefers to call it, was fitted with an artificial limb. But due to the nature of the wound changing in shape and size, the prosthetic leg had to be continually replaced, whilst the old leg would be discarded. Heather realised that if the redundant prosthesis would never find another use, there must be literally thousands out there just waiting for a new home. With her experiences in the former Yugoslavia, Heather knew that these redundant limbs would be more than welcome in areas such as the Former Yugoslavia.
Heather instigated a nation-wide appeal for the donation of unwanted prostheses, and then employed the services of the inmates at Brixton prison to dismantle the limbs and make them ready for transport. October 1994, just a year after her accident, the first convoy of artificial limbs and medical equipment left for Zargreb. Arriving at the Institute of Prosthetics in Zargreb the limbs were now ready to be fitted. Over 22,000 amputees and victims of land-mine explosions have been helped since the first Convoy left the U.K.
It was not long after that at the young age of 25 that Heather wrote her biography, whilst most 25 year olds could hardly fill a chapter, Heather had a real story to tell. ’Out on a Limb’ landed straight onto The Times’ best-seller list as well as appearing in the 1997 Reader’s Digest Best non-fiction compilation. The proceeds from the book go to raising money for child amputee war victim’s world-wide (although the most publicised are in the Former Yugoslavia). All Heather’s charity work has funded from her own pocket.
Heather has been given many accolades and awards for her work for charity. Former Prime Minister John Major presented her with the Gold Award for Outstanding Achievement; The Times presented her with their Human Achievement Award, and the British Chamber of Commerce not only named her Outstanding Young Person of the Year, but also named an award after her - the Heather Mills Award. If this was not enough, in 1996 she received a nomination for The Nobel Prize and has since received the 1999 "People of the Year Award", The "Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement 2000 Award", The "Pantene Spirit of Beauty Award" and the "Woman of the Year" by the Blue Drop Group in Sicily as well as lots more.
Heather collected the "REDBROOK Mother & Shakers Award", presented by Hillary Clinton, and she received the Victory Award hosted by the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC.
If that was not enough, Heather has also done a lot of TV work presenting for programmes such as That’s Esther.
In her personal life, she found temporary happiness with ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. Despite some rather obvious objections from Paul’s daughter Stella, the couple married in 2002 and had a daughter together.
In 2006 both Paul and Heather made a joint statement confirming their separation, after Paul McCartney filed for divorce, citing ‘unreasonable behaviour’. What has followed has been a media storm, with Heather at the heart of the controversy.
The main allegations is that she merely married Sir Paul for his money and fame, with British papers suggesting that this could be the biggest divorce settlement ever witnessed. Heather has always denied the allegation of being a ‘gold digger’, claiming that the separation and process of divorce is ‘worse than losing my leg’.
Alongside her threat to sue national papers over ‘false, damaging and immensely upsetting’ reports about the divorce, it has also been reported that Heather has received death threats since splitting with her husband.
In January 2003, a settlement was announced between the two parties, believed to amount to £32 million, plus a gagging order.
November 2007