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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Do you remember Heather Mills?

609 replies

LucilleBluth · 28/11/2021 18:52

I have been watching the Beatles documentary and got to thinking about her.

She was in the papers constantly in the 2000s, I remember her being painted as an absolute con artist witch. I googled a few articles about her from the time of the divorce. They are brutal in the misogynistic tone, she’s labelled as a slag, a goer, ex prostitute, you name it.

I don’t think papers write about women in such hash terms anymore. Maybe she was a bit of a twat, whoever married Saint Paul would have suffered at that time I think.

I suppose by AIBU is are the press less misogynistic.

OP posts:
EYProvider · 01/12/2021 16:37

He’s not ‘beloved’ though, LondonWolf, is he? Everyone on MN (the biggest website in the UK) hates him. Except me - I love him, I think he’s great.

The media is a bit kinder to Paul these days, but God, they were unbelievably cruel to him for years. They treated him much, much worse than they ever did Heather Mills, especially after John was killed. More than one journalist wrote that the wrong Beatle was shot, that it should have been Paul. Linda even had to write to one of them and got an apology because it was affecting Paul so badly.

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 16:40

I love him. I loved them all. I also remember clearly hearing he had been shot. It is a day I will never forget. However the average age on MN is probably a reason why most people may not remember or care. The Beatles aren’t important to most people now sadly.

Sparklingbrook · 01/12/2021 16:41

Everyone on MN (the biggest website in the UK) hates him

There must be a whole section of posters on MN like myself who never give him a second thought and have no strong feelings about him either way too?

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 16:51

No offence, @Sparklingbrook, but you seem to want to give off an impression that the entire subject is just a bit beneath you. Why did you insert a laughing face next to your comment about John’s will? I don’t mind being criticised - I’m too old to take offence at other people’s comments - but I don’t think I’ve posted anything that warrants being sneered at. Or perhaps you’re just trying to close down the debate? Do YOU work for the Estate? Lol.

Fair enough if you don’t have an opinion on Paul McCartney. I find that most people on MN are very vocal about how much they hate him.

Sparklingbrook · 01/12/2021 17:01

No offence taken @EYProvider I am not trying to close anything down, or think discussing the Beatles is beneath me, nor do I work for any 'Estate'. Lol. The laughing face was because a new person had joined the thread and said they were going to read it so it was a tongue in cheek warning it's not about Heather at all in parts.

Anyway I didn't realise we were back to Paul McCartney I thought it was John Lennon, it's been a strange old thread.

I have no opinion re JL and was probably first aware of PM in the Wings days or the Frog Chorus or whatever. Then more recently with James Corden doing Carpool Karaoke.

LoveMySituation · 01/12/2021 17:04

@TheElvishQueen John and Yoko may have stayed together, but he continued to see and sleep with May until 1980. The producer of Double fantasy Jack Douglas wouldn't let them record in the same room together, as they were too competitive. There is a very interesting interview(which I'm too nervous to post on here, but is easily found) that is very enlightening. Although he did end up suing Yoko for unpaid royalties..

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 17:15

Totally confused by that post. Who couldn’t record together? John and Yoko? How do you know he continued to sleep with May?
Please send me a PM with a link to the interview!

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 17:26

@LoveMySituation

You know that John told Jack Douglas the night it happened that he wouldn’t be seeing him again?

He knew. It was planned. And it came off exactly as he’d hoped.

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 17:28

Planned by whom? Himself? Why would he plan his own death?

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 17:32

We already had this conversation further up the thread:

  1. He was obsessed with being a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
  2. He was obsessed with being shot.
  3. He was worried about how he would be remembered. He had always wanted to be the most famous person in the world, bigger than Elvis. He wanted to be remembered as the legendary rock star in the world - (and this is most important) BIGGER THAN PAUL.

It worked.

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 17:41

No evidence for any of these claims. We are derailing the thread though.

mankywits · 01/12/2021 17:47

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 17:58

You seem very sure that there’s no evidence, Elvish. On the other hand, you hadn’t even heard of Jack Douglas, and you didn’t know (or believe) about the power of attorney, so I would say you are not that well informed.

What else is there to say about Heather Mills? Does anyone even care about her?

And - because I am not clued up enough about MN to know the answer to this one - are you not allowed to widen the topic when you run out of things to say? There is literally nothing left to say about Heather Mills.

On the other hand, John/Yoko/Paul stuff is actually worth reading. I’m sure most people would agree.

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 18:00

Start a thread then!

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 18:01

Why has the above comment from @mankywits been deleted when all my controversial speculations haven’t? Lol.

LoveMySituation · 01/12/2021 18:07

Elvish I think I've PM you. Not sure it worked though

TheElvishQueen · 01/12/2021 18:28

Thanks, yes it did.

LondonWolf · 01/12/2021 18:49

Why wouldn’t he change the locks? He clearly didn’t trust her. With good reason, no doubt.

Because they were still joint marital properties…

TomPinch · 01/12/2021 19:05

@LondonWolf

Why wouldn’t he change the locks? He clearly didn’t trust her. With good reason, no doubt.

Because they were still joint marital properties…

I don't know anything about the divorce settlement, it being other people's business, except for the lawyers hair.

But given that Paul McCartney is a very rich person who I'm assuming owned those properties before he married Heather Mills, what claim did she have on them?

LoveMySituation · 01/12/2021 19:15

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/01/the-beatles-mike-paul-mccartney-best-photograph
A little off topic, but this was in today's Guardian. Saw it and thought of this thread. What the hell is George doing?!

LondonWolf · 01/12/2021 19:20

But given that Paul McCartney is a very rich person who I'm assuming owned those properties before he married Heather Mills, what claim did she have on them?

Assuming is the key word there isn’t it? You don’t know any more than I do.

What I read though was that in what used to be the joint marital home, he allegedly without warning, very quickly changed the locks and left her out on the street being swarmed by paps. How true that is, who knows. There were other examples of how swiftly he’d withdrawn protection from her so that she was from then on completely vilified by the press and in turn by many of those readers who believed it.

TomPinch · 01/12/2021 19:40

So he changed the locks on the house they lived in, or he changed the locks on a bunch of other properties that he brought into the relationship? Or he did so in properties that they bought due to their joint efforts? These things make all the difference, and, furthermore, why would McCartney be responsible for her 'protection'? She wasn't married to the Godfather.

georgarina · 01/12/2021 19:54

Don't know about Heather Mills but I grew up in the mid-2000s and the misogyny was absolutely disgusting. Paris Hilton's leaked sex tape, all the horrendous dating shows, Snoop Dogg walking down the carpet at the VMAS with two women on dog leads. The tone was so terrible towards women, I remember. Lots of fat shaming, lots of slut shaming. It's not perfect but miles ahead of where it used to be.

EYProvider · 01/12/2021 21:21

You can’t really blame him for changing the locks. She fleeced him out of 24 million quid. Not that she had then, but the writing was on the wall. And fair dos, he’s only human.

I bet even she would consider her run in with the press outside Paul’s house (which he bought in the 60’s, by the way) a fair trade off for the 24 mil. I don’t see what misogyny has to do with it.

julieca · 01/12/2021 21:24

No she did not fleece him. He is a billionaire. She got a divorce settlement for her and their child.