Heather Mills "Struggled" to Live in Paul McCartney's Family Home, Reveals Her New Documentary
Heather Mills "struggled" to live in Paul McCartney's family home, claims her new documentary The Trials of Heather Mills, which airs on Channel 5 and looks back on her tough childhood and her tumultuous marriage to McCartney. According to Mirror, Mills and McCartney were first introduced by Piers Morgan in May 1999 at the Pride of Britain Awards in London where McCartney presented an award in his late wife Linda's name, who had unfortunately passed away due to breast cancer. The Here Comes the Sun singer and the former model married in 2002 at a lavish wedding in Glaslough, Ireland.
According to Daily Mail, Mills then moved into his home in Rye, East Sussex, which he bought with Linda in 1973. While they shared a daughter named Beatrice, McCartney's other daughter, Stella, famously didn't see eye-to-eye with Mills. "Every week [Stella] tried to break up our marriage. She was so jealous. She wasn't interested in her dad's happiness," Mills said, according to the news outlet. "I can't protect her any longer. She's done some evil, evil things."
The former model's ghostwriter and confidante, Pamela Cockerill appears in the new documentary to reveal some shocking details. She said, "I think Heather found it quite hard to live in the same house that, only a couple of years before, Linda had been living in. And the house hadn't been changed that much. [Linda] was an inescapable presence because obviously, she was a big part of Paul's life." She continued: "There were little plaques saying 'I love Linda' over the doorways and photos of her around. It must have been very hard to deal with."
After a series of explosive rows, a bitter and acrimonious divorce followed, with McCartney filing suit on the grounds of "unreasonable behaviour." The pair then thrashed it out in court, and Mills demanded £125 million of the Beatles legend's money. She accused McCartney of regularly being drunk and smoking cannabis and also alleged that he had been physically abusive. The court ruled in McCartney's favour, awarding Mills just £24.3 million. The singer insisted on the full judgement being released to the press, despite Mills' attempts to stop it. In response, she poured a glass of water over the head of McCartney's lawyer, Fiona Shackleton.
The couple finally divorced in 2009, and Mills told reporters at the time, "I'm so glad it's over." In a similar vein, the former Beatles legend described his marriage to Heather as one of the "biggest mistakes of his life."
Mills later married her businessman boyfriend Mike Dickman, then 36, in a private ceremony. The pair first met as strangers on a train, where the mum-of-one handed him a flirty note that read, "I think you're hot. Email me." The ex-model started a new venture following her split from McCartney in 2008 and branched into vegan food, opening two factories - including taking on the premises of Walkers. At the time, she said, "Everyone was laughing at [veganism] 25 years ago, saying we were nuts. It's brilliant everyone has caught on to the plant-based movement." She was the world's first-ever amputee on the show, Dancing With The Stars, and donated her fee to VIVA, the animal charity, before competing in 2010's Dancing on Ice.
Heather was awarded a £24.3 million settlement from her divorce from McCartney, plus payments of £35,000 per annum for a nanny and school costs for their child. In 2009, Heather invested in VBites, a vegan food company, and later said she invested £23 million into the firm after the government refused her a loan. Last year, the 55-year-old opened up about her outlook on money in an interview on The Argus Podcast, stating that she hasn't struggled financially as an adult. "Never understood people who were obsessed with [money]. I'd never been connected to it. I'd always managed to make it and make a difference with it." The Trials of Heather Mills airs on April 20th at 9 pm on Channel 5.
