Despite the McCartney divorce debacle, and the press trying very hard to make matters worse, my feelings on the ex-Beatlegirl are very positive. I know she grates on people's nerves and makes people cringe a bit when she gets fired up about something (like press harassment, the slaughtering of innocent animals and other such things that other people think are perfectly reasonable... note my heavy sarcasm) but for goodness sakes, she's hardly the devil incarnate.I remember when she first appeared as Paul's new girl in the papers. I worked at The Beatles Shop in Liverpool back then and my circle of friends, colleagues and aquiantances was heavily populated by hundreds of Beatlemanaics. Despite this huge number of McCartney admirers that I came into contact with, only myself and my friend Eleanor were happy that Paul had found a companion to somehow lessen the huge gap that Linda had left. Admittedly I'm a major Beatlegirl supporter, but Linda was my vegetarian heroine so standing by her husband's side was still a difficult place to step into. It had taken me years to accept the lovely Nancy Andrews for replacing Maureen Starkey in Ringo's life and I still haven't really forgiven the Beatle himself for divorcing her. So new women in the life of a Beatle is actually a big deal on planet me.
Paul had been looking decidedly lost and empty for a long while after Linda died, and then I noticed during the launch party for his new album Run Devil Run that the missing sparkle had finally returned to his eyes. I decided that Heather was the reason. He'd found a feisty vegetarian woman to bring back the fire in his life. I always have that to appreciate her for if nothing else. I also feel that she and Paul were well matched in that they were like a mirror reflecting each other's good and bad points in equal measure. She came out of that looking bad while he emerged much the wiser and much more media savvy. She's also a remarkable woman for battling through her disability and always working hard for others with her work for fellow amputees and her fight for animal welfare.
She's also the mother of Paul's youngest child so whenever any of my fellow Beatlemaniacs say anything petty about her (and I mean when this happened even before the divorce started) I have the overwhelming urge to scream at them til they get the message. I don't of course, but I often feel like it. I did once wonder how the volume of nasty divorce articles weighed up against the catty remarks from female journalists old enough to know better when the marriage had been announced in the first place... but I have a life to be getting on with and it'd take me about thirty years to count them all.
Some of the things she does can be a little misguided and the press jump upon them instantly. I've noticed that they don't give page space to the good things she does, but then that would ruin the public's negative opinion of her and that would never do. Bizarrely the very mention of her good work tends to drive people mad as though she spends all this time and money on good causes just to wind them up.
The press are so successful in their hatred of her that they've even clouded my mother's vision. My mother knows well my adoration of Beatlegirls, to the extent where she bought me a letter written by Maureen Starkey in the 1960s as a birthday present. Always taking an interest in my interests and enjoying being the first to hear about something Beatle related before I do, you'd think she was clued up. But like I said, the press have got to her. When it was announced that Heather would be appearing in Dancing On Ice my mother declared her stupid for even thinking she could do such a thing. I reminded her that Heather had managed fine on Dancing With The Stars, and that long before meeting Paul she'd been in the running to represent our country skiing in the Paralympics. Thankfully she managed to change quite a few people's minds on that show, and - more importantly if you're Heather Mills - she got people to think about the abilities of amputees rather than the disabilities.
Anyway, you all get it now. I like the woman. Deal with it. ...and if anyone wants to treat me to a visit to her much praised vegan restaurant VBites/ for Italian vegan ice "cream" and give me the dress below from her upcycled collection I'd be very pleased. ;)
