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11-06-02 news
Paul & Heather Marry Today...

Today is the day Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills follow in the footsteps of Pierce Brosnan, Posh & Becks and Sharon Corr by getting hitched in an Irish Castle.

The couple last night turned down a £1.5 million deal to sell the rights to their wedding photos.

Reports are that the couple refused the offer by celebrity magazine Hello! because "an occasion like this is for everyone," said Sir Paul's spokesman Geoff Baker to press last night.

Sir Paul, who is 59, and Ms Mills, who is only 34, met the press at 3pm yesterday outside the Castle and were being described "like a couple of excited teenagers" as they prepared to marry at Ireland's Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan at 3pm today.

But before the couple emerged from the castle, Mr Baker said: "They were offered 1.5 million by a British publication for the photos and they turned that down. Instead there will be a single photo for which publications will pay and the money will go to charity. Any occasion like this is for everybody - not just for the person with the largest cheque book."

Sir Paul and Ms Mills will be married by a local priest before throwing a lavish party for 300 guests at the Irish castle.

Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Sting and John Eastman - the brother of Sir Paul's late wife Linda - are all reported to be invited to the wedding.

Sir Paul's children, Stella, James, Mary and stepdaughter Heather, were also said to be attending, despite reports of a rift between them and Ms Mills.

Sir Paul met anti-landmines campaigner Mills three years ago and they were engaged in July last year. Mr Baker said the couple were "very, very smiley and happy, they are all sparkly-eyed, it is nice and cute. They are just bright and wide-eyed like couples are when they are about to get married - they are just like a couple of excited teenagers up there."

Baker said the money raised from the sale of photographs would go to the couple's charity Adopt A Minefield UK. The cash would buy prosthetic limbs for about 50 children who have been maimed by landmines. Mills lost a leg in 1993 when she was hit by a police motorcycle. Earlier family and friends of the bride-to-be leapt to her defence in the face of "rubbish" written in some newspapers about her.

The former model's sister Fiona Mills said the bride-to-be was "thoughtful, giving and loving. For the record, my sister is a truly thoughtful, giving and loving person who has always devoted herself to others, whether that be via her charity work or simply helping her family and friends."

She also condemned Press stories about her sister using information from her stepfather Charles Stapley and Alfie Karmal, to whom Ms Mills was married briefly until 1989. Mr Stapley, with whom she lived for five years in her teens when her mother set up home with him, told the Mail on Sunday that the anti-landmines campaigner was a fantasist who had been creative about her youth to "make her past sound more exciting".

Her friends were also keen to defend Ms Mills for 18 years, said she had been "over-enthusiastic" in helping others, be they members of her family or the disabled. "She has courted publicity it is true, but has she ever abused her power to generate it? I think not," Mr Goodhand-Tait said.

He added: "The public wants Paul and Heather to be happy. They've both known more than their fair share generously and have found that what they both need now is love."

Mr Baker said: "Paul thought that was hilarious, so did Heather."

Although Baker could give little away about the wedding plans, he said about 98% of the guests were close friends and family rather than celebrities.

Mr Baker confirmed the couple would have a Protestant Church of Ireland service at St Salvator's. He said all of Paul's children would attend as would the family of Sir Paul's former wife Linda.

Mr Baker also said he did not think the couple had signed a prenuptial agreement protecting Sir Paul's personal fortune of more than 700 million. "It's not really them," he added.

A vegetarian meal would be served at the reception and around 300 guests would stay at local hotels. The guests would arrive tomorrow into Dublin and Belfast airports and would be brought to the castle by car and bus.

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