Paul McCartney ‘Ecstatic’ Father Again at 61
LONDON (Reuters) – Paul McCartney is a father again at the age of 61 after the former Beatle’s second wife, Heather Mills, gave birth to their first child, a baby girl born three weeks early by Caesarian section.
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“Both she and mum are doing well. Paul and Heather are ecstatic with the news,” said a statement on Thursday from the couple after the birth of seven-pound Beatrice Milly. “She is a little beauty and we couldn’t be prouder.”
The one-legged model turned charity campaigner, who married the former Beatle in June last year, gave birth on Tuesday at a London hospital near the Abbey Road studios where the world’s most famous pop group recorded their immortal albums.
The proud parents said: “She is named after Heather’s mother Beatrice and Paul’s Aunt Milly. Our immediate family were told the news right away and are all as overjoyed as we are at the early arrival of our little bundle of joy.”
Initial press reports said that Mills gave birth to a boy.
McCartney has three adult children from his marriage to first wife Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998.
Mills, 35, had always feared she could never have children because she had in the past suffered cancer of the uterus and two ectopic pregnancies.
Mills said that when she told McCartney that her pregnancy test was positive “We both started crying and it was just a miracle.”
McCartney’s marriage to photographer Linda Eastman was one of the happiest in showbusiness and they rarely spent a night apart. He was heartbroken by her death.
His friendship with Mills, who was born the year before Paul and Linda’s wedding, blossomed into romance after they first met at a charity event.
“I’m lucky to have found a good woman who is strong like Linda,” McCartney said.
His children were said to be not so sure and McCartney has admitted this was a problem.
“I think a second marriage is hard for the children no matter who it is,” he said. “They find it difficult to think of me with another woman.”
Mills has denied press reports of a feud between herself and McCartney’s children Mary, James and fashion designer Stella.
Mills ran away from home at the age of 13, living rough on the streets of London and descending into petty crime and delinquency.
She became a glamour model and married a computer sales director. But they split up in 1989 and she went to Yugoslavia to train as a ski instructor.
On return to Britain, her life was forever changed in 1993 when she was hit by a police motorcylist speeding to an emergency. “When I landed, I was on one side of the road and my leg was on the other,” she said of the horrific accident.
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She now devotes her time to her own charity which raises funds to provide artificial limbs to land mine victims.
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