McCartney, Mills to Be Wed in 2002

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday July 26, 2001 10:00 AM EDT

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Former Beatle Paul McCartney, 59, is engaged to marry girlfriend Heather Mills, 33, sometime next year, his London office announced in a statement released on Thursday. The musician proposed Monday during a trip to Britain's Lake District. "Paul and Heather said today they would like to thank their relatives and friends for all the great support they have shown them since they met two years ago," said the statement. McCartney gave Mills a sapphire and diamond ring he bought in Jaipur, India during a holiday in January. The two met at a charity function when Mills appealed for help for her own foundation, the Heather Mills Trust, which provides limbs for victims of war around the globe. (Mills is a former swimwear model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after she was run down by a police motorcyclist in 1993.) This will mark McCartney's second marriage. Linda McCartney (formerly Eastman) died of breast cancer in 1998, after being married to Paul for 29 years. Mills was married briefly in 1989. In 1999, she was engaged to documentary cameraman Chris Terrill, but the ceremony was reportedly called off two weeks before the wedding. Word of the McCartney-Mills romance, which had long been discussed but not really confirmed, hit the British TV airwaves last October, when unbeknownst to Mills (who was giving an on-camera interview about her trust), McCartney entered from the studio's wings, kissed her on the lips and went on to recount the first time "I realized I fancied her." Regaining her composure, a radiant Mills replied, simply, "I love him." To which McCartney, grinning, echoed, "Yeah, I love her." He added, "I've been going through a hard time -- now I've got romance back in my life."