Mills McCartney to sue over newspaper article

Heather Mills McCartney

LONDON - Heather Mills McCartney, estranged wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, is to take legal action over a newspaper article alleging she worked as a prostitute in her twenties, her lawyers said yesterday.

"Heather is very distressed by this article," lawyers for the former model said after the weekend allegations in the News of the World tabloid. She called the article "untrue and highly defamatory."

The statement said Mills, who separated from her multi-millionaire husband last month, is recovering slowly from revision surgery on her leg which was amputated below the knee after a collision with a police motorcycle in 1993.

"She has suffered weight loss, anxiety and sleeping problems as a result of the stress and anxiety of the break-up of her marriage," the statement said.

But legal proceedings against the newspaper will be deferred until her divorce settlement is concluded, it added.

McCartney, 63, and Mills, 38, announced their separation last month, blaming media intrusion for the collapse of one of the most high-profile showbusiness marriages.

Legal experts believe that McCartney could lose up to a quarter of his estimated 825-million pound fortune after separating from his second wife.

That would equate to roughly one million pounds for every week of their short-lived four-year marriage.

- REUTERS