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Heather McCartney battles national pariah status

Posted on: Thursday, 15 June 2006, 06:09 CDT

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Marrying a national icon can be a risky business. Divorcing one can turn the world against you -- as Heather Mills McCartney has discovered to her cost.

Within a month of separating from former Beatle Paul McCartney, Mills has been the target of lurid allegations in Britain's tabloid newspapers, prompting her to launch legal action against one paper which printed allegations she was once a prostitute.

She dismissed the allegations as "untrue and highly defamatory."

Facing weight loss, anxiety and sleeplessness after the very public bust-up of her high profile marriage, the charity campaigner against land mines and seal hunting said her detractors were trying to "make money out of her misery."

Portrayed as a pariah, she has faced a barrage of criticism over the break-up of the four-year marriage, lived under the harshest of media spotlights.

Paul McCartney, who legal experts say could lose up to a quarter of his 825 million pound ($1.52 billion) fortune in a divorce settlement, appears as baffled as she does by the bad publicity, saying she did not marry him for his money.

"One of the worst aspects of going through what Heather and I are currently going through is the malicious spreading of rumors and made up facts that is happening in some areas of the media," the 63-year-old complained on his official website.

On her site, Heather's sister Fiona refutes what she called 32 "fictions," ranging from "Heather is a publicity seeker" to "Heather uses men and has had a string of failed engagements."

Mills McCartney's spokeswoman, Anya Noakes, accepts the former model faces an uphill battle winning round public opinion, telling Reuters: "Marrying everyone's favorite Beatle was always going to be difficult."

"The last month has been absolutely hideous," she added.

McCartney is still largely revered in Britain as a former member of the 20th century's most famous pop group.

"He is like a saint to the British and in America," said Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology and Culture at London's Brunel University and author of a book on celebrity, adding that media were targeting his wife partly out of envy.

Max Clifford, Britain's most prominent publicist, said she had a battle on her hands: "She is going to find it very, very difficult to win the hearts and minds of the British public."

"Not many people warm to Heather Mills. What she has got to do is convince people this is total nonsense," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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