Heather McCartney to sue over newspaper article

LONDON (Reuters) – 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 on Tuesday.

“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 Heather, 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 ($1.52 billion)
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.