Former topless model Heather Mills says she has tapes that will prove her claims of abuse and drug use by her estranged husband, Paul McCartney.
Friends of Mills say she will use the secret tapes to back up her story that the ex-Beatle pushed her around if their bitter $1.5 billion divorce battle comes down to it.
Selected pages of Mills’ explosive divorce petition revealed on Tuesday state that McCartney choked Mills, stabbed her and emotionally tortured the amputee by denying her a bedpan and refusing to let her breast-feed because, “They are my breasts!”
McCartney’s lawyers fired back, saying that Mills’ claims are contradicted in her own self-help book, “Life Balance: The Essential Keys to a Life time of Well Being,” pub lished in April.
In the divorce documents, Mills alleges that “the cute Beatle” refused to let her get out of bed before he was ready to do so.
But in the book, Mills writes: “As a working wife and mother, I have learnt that setting the alarm 30 minutes earlier each morning can make all the difference. It allows me a little bit of personal space before the day begins.”
Mills, 38 – who in 1988 posed for a German porn magazine oiled up and appearing to perform a sex act on a male model – says in the book she has “a very loving and open relationship” with her husband. The book was published at the same time she claims in court papers her marriage was had “irretrievably broken down.”
Mills also complains in the court papers that she was expected to prepare two dinners every night, one for baby Beatrice and one for McCartney, without assistance and “despite her disability.”
But in an interview with top Brit celebrity interviewer Michael Parkinson in 2003, she praises her husband for “bringing me breakfast in bed every morning, no matter how he feels. And I do the dinner, so we’ve got that agreement. It’s thoughtfulness.”
“Suggestions that Heather simply made up the accusations about Paul attacking her are, understandably, incredibly upsetting for her,” a source close to Mills told the Daily Mail of Britain.
“Whatever she says or does now, Heather feels she cannot win – people are siding with Paul.
“But she is confident that she can actually prove some of these claims. Without going into specifics, she reckons to have tangible evidence showing that Paul not only verbally attacked her but was also physically aggressive.
“As well as charting much of the marriage breakdown on her digital camcorder, and having witnesses who will testify to her claims, Heather has another killer piece of evidence in the form of an audio recording.
“She is being quite cagey about it, but it seems that she may also have some kind of video recording of the pair [fighting].”
The source added: “It has never been Heather’s intention to use the tapes, which she feels prove that Paul raised his hands to her, but if she has to, she will. It is dynamite stuff and if used, really could destroy Paul.”
Mills’ spokesman would not deny that his client had the secret tapes, telling the Daily Mail, “Heather has got independent corroborating evidence for what she has claimed.”
Supporters of McCartney said they are not concerned about the alleged tapes, including the singer’s former publicist and pal of 15 years Geoff Baker. He called Mills’ claims “wicked lies.”
“To brand Paul a wife beater is the most absurd f- – -ing claim anyone can make,” Baker told the Sunday News of the World.
The newspaper also reports a McCartney aide said Mills would leave the bewildered Beatle for weeks at a time to look after their daughter.
The allegation would mean Mills was happy to leave her daughter with a man she called a violent drunk in the divorce papers.
Those papers were anonymously handed over to the media with four pages missing. The missing material contains names of at least four of McCartney’s staff, who Mills says could be witnesses to her claims in the divorce trial, set for April.
The Sunday Times of London reports the names include office staff and at least one nanny who could be forced to provide affidavits and give evidence to Britain’s High Court if the couple do not reach a settlement.
Amid the mudslinging, McCartney, 64, broke down recently in front of music execs in Las Vegas, according to The Sun.
“Paul said he didn’t want to talk about the divorce. But as soon as someone tried to comfort him by saying they had been through the same sort of thing, he broke down in tears and said he was struggling,” a source told the paper.
The source said Paul told them: “Without her and my other children I don’t know how I’d get through all this. I’m terrified that Heather will take her away from me.”
McCartney’s youngest daughter, who turns 3 on Oct. 30, has been hit the hardest with the back and forth allegations made between the two warring camps, since her parent’s split in April.
McCartney and Mills planned to throw a lavish third birthday party for little Beatrice – but their feuding ways have led to the celebration being scrapped, according to the British newspaper Daily Star.
Because the estranged couple can no longer stand to be in the same room, they decided to cancel the party, which was expected to take place next Saturday, the paper claims.
This has left the two estranged lovers to fight over who will spend the day with the toddler on her birthday.
Heather reportedly had planned a lavish do, while Paul wanted a more intimate family affair at his English country estate in Peasmarsh, East Sussex.