Stung by media sniping at his wife, Paul McCartney wants to set the record straight. She doesn’t make decisions for him, didn’t tell him to dye his graying hair, and gets along just fine with his kids.
The former Beatle posted a message Friday on Heather Mills McCartney’s official Web site, rebutting some of the “scurrilous reports” about the model turned anti-landmine campaigner he married in 2002.
“Some of the stuff that is written is plain malevolence but some of it is so ridiculous that I have to admit it’s funny,” wrote the musician, who is scheduled to headline the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
Britain’s tabloid press has reported animosity between Mills McCartney, 37, and the musician’s children from his marriage to Linda McCartney, who died of cancer in 1998.
But McCartney said his adult children “get on great” with their stepmother. He and Mills McCartney have a 1-year-old daughter, Beatrice.
On his use of hair dye, 62-year-old McCartney wrote: “I was engaged in this devilish practice years before I met her.” He denied rumors he has had plastic surgery, and said it was “an insult to my intelligence” to suggest his wife coerced him into making charity TV appearances.
Mills McCartney has worked to help children disabled in war since losing a leg in a traffic accident in 1993. McCartney said he was particularly shocked by suggestions that “losing a leg was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to Heather as it fed her desire for self publicity.”
“Imagine losing a leg, and dealing with it as bravely as Heather has done and having to read that on top of it,” he wrote.