Paul McCartney and wife separate

[chyam]

What a shame. Maybe the demands of his performing schedule has gotten too much for her or maybe she wanted him to retire and he didn't. Who knows... Anyway, hope this doesn't alter any touring plans. We've seen him the last two times he's been on tour. Fantastic concert. We're hoping to see him again and take DD.

Or maybe he was touring so much to be apart from her.....I had read on yahoo that they had terrible "rows" and it was difficult for them to even be together anymore. Personally I never have liked her she just seemed so smug and cold to me, nothing at all like Linda other than looking somewhat like her. To me she just never seemed a happy person, where he on the other hand always seems to be.

 

[azgal81]

That's so hollywood!

 

[ducklite]

I don't think she is a gold digger - just in WAY over her head. And he had become accustomed to being married to a grown-up.

I agree. The fact that didn't know much about the Beatles makes me think that she fell for the man, not the legend. I fully believe that a good part of the reason for the breakup of Charles and Di's marriage were teh same reason. Difference in age, media frenzy on her that she wasn't used to.

I think the media is in general more brutal in Europe that it is here. Here you don't see mainstream papers advertising every little private detail, unlike many of the papers in Europe. If the NY Times prints an article about a celebrity it's done in good taste on because it's actually something newsworthy, as opposed to "She ate a huge sandwich of egg salad on a bagel with a side of chips and then proceeded to unbutton the top button of her pants." That's the kind of fodder you'd read in The Enquirer, which no one in their right mind believes anyhow.

As a journalist, I often interview celebrities. Although I will sometimes ask "personal" questions, especially as a few minutes of small talk at the start of the interview, they are more bordering on "How's your new baby?" or "I know you've got a black belt in karate, do you still train?" (The latter is one of the best ice breakers I've ever had with a celebrity, it was something that was their passion and they became very open through the entire interview after I asked about it. ) If someone was to decline to answer a "personal" question, I certainly wouldn't push the subject. I don't ask anything "personal" that I wouldn't ask a distant acquaintence at a cocktail party. I will ask uncomfortable questions about their careers, although sometimes I end up deciding it's not a good idea to publish the response.

I also defer taking photo's of celebrities with their children without explicit permission, although taking their photo sans kids in a public place I will do (and I don't mean their driveway), but I'd never jump out of a bush or stalk them for it.

Anne

 

[Laura]

British tabloids are absolutely BRUTAL. Anyone from the UK who's mildly famous over here is pretty huge over there. I haven't been over there since those two got married, but I bet the press probably hounded Heather from day one.

There's a British singer who basically did a one-hit wonder over here in the '80s. He cheated on his wife with the nanny, and it was all over the news, especially the tabloids. I was spending a semester in London at the time, and it was just insane how much "news" coverage there was of it. Fortunately, the OJ trial was ending at the same time I was over there and I got to miss a lot of that.

I hardly think Heather is a gold-digger. She does so much humanitarian and animal rights work. Besides, one would think an ex-Beatle could spot a gold-digger a mile away.

 

[wdw4us2]

Maybe Paul should have looked for someone closer to his age who would understand about his fame and popularity. I think this is the problem with a lot of May/December celebrity marriages that don't last.

Heather is too young to realize exactly what Paul and The Beatles mean to many people.

 

[Shugardrawers]

C'mon over Paul. There's a REAL woman waiting right here for you. It's cool with Dh. He said you can be my freebie.

I'm going to slip into something sexy now and wait for the door bell to ring.

 

[PeterPanette]

I'm afraid that another factor that may have figured into this split-up is the fact that his adult children never warmed up to Heather. Maybe things were better recently, but I remember when their engagement was announced, there were reports of some tantrums being thrown by his kids. I felt so bad for him then. (That's if you can believe the rumors printed in the papers)

 

[mickeysgal]

C'mon over Paul. There's a REAL woman waiting right here for you. It's cool with Dh. He said you can be my freebie.

I'm going to slip into something sexy now and wait for the door bell to ring.

Now you just hold on a minute here, Shugardrawers. On another thread you said you were waiting for Jack (from 24) to show up at your house with his man bag. Come on - you can't have standing offers out to both these guys! Thats just not fair to the rest of us.

 

[mickeysgal]

Heather is too young to realize exactly what Paul and The Beatles mean to many people.

Agreed. However to tell you the truth, I'm not sure that anyone can fully realize and cope with this. His legend status is beyond normal comprehension.

 

[Deb in IA]

Heather is too young to realize exactly what Paul and The Beatles mean to many people.

I agree as well.

I read that Heather was upset that Paul was getting all the attention, and that she, a model, amputee, and activist, should be recognized more for HER work.

Of course, Paul and the Beatles were (in the words of John Lennon) "bigger than Jesus Christ" before Heather was even born.

 

[dadto1]

reuters reports the settlement to be in the 100 million pound mark. Equated to $289,000,000 US dollars. Thats about 25% of his 1.56 billion fortune. Quite a nice settlement that would be.

Would only draw about $8.67 million per year in a basic 3% money market account!

 

[Maleficent13]

Heather is too young to realize exactly what Paul and The Beatles mean to many people.

I disagree with this; I am roughly Heather's age and I know *exactly* what Paul and the Beatles mean to many people. No, obviously I didn't live it, but I'm a rational person who took history in school and listened to my parents' stories. Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I wouldn't have paused and thought, "Wow...am I prepared to live the rest of my life with Paul Mccartney the Beatle, as well as Paul McCartney the man?"

 

[carolfoy]

reports today reckon she'll get around £200 million!! thats around $360 mill. I don't reckon she's a gold digger and there WERE reports that misquoted her when she said she'd didn't know the beatles music - apparently what she had said was she wasn't really a fan, which given that she wasn't born when they were big isn't really surprising.
They are all over the newspapers today

http://www.thesun.co.uk/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/dailymail/home.html?in_page_id=1766

 

[lucyblondecat]

Poor Paul, he never got over Linda I don't think. That was the great love of his life.

 

[Shugardrawers]

Now you just hold on a minute here, Shugardrawers. On another thread you said you were waiting for Jack (from 24) to show up at your house with his man bag. Come on - you can't have standing offers out to both these guys! Thats just not fair to the rest of us.

Well, I firmly believe variety is the spice of life but that wasn't me. I've never seen 5 minutes of 24. Paul I'm obssesive about. You can have Jack, I'll take Paul.

 

[grimley1968]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the hard feelings Paul's grown daughter had about this marriage. That may have had a role in making the marriage difficult.

I'm sure Heather is a nice person and is very attractive, but, sorry, she is no Linda. If Paul had any thoughts of "replacing" Linda in his life (how can you replace a Wings bandmate and true soulmate?), I'm sure those hopes were dashed pretty quickly. And when your grown daughter won't talk to you, that has to make the marriage that much harder to maintain.

 

[eclectics]

I heard that some of Paul's friends are now saying they are kind of glad about the split as they thought Heather was so unlike Linda. They said she was a downer, a controller, and a big "sourpuss" about everything. Sound familiar? Anyone remember Yoko?!

 

[Christine]

I think it's because of the pot-smoking. I heard a story about 2 weeks ago that Paul was a huge pot smoker and Heather demanded that he get off the Mary Jane's before the marriage. Apparently he did. But I bet that's what did the marriage in.

 

[grimley1968]

I heard that some of Paul's friends are now saying they are kind of glad about the split as they thought Heather was so unlike Linda. They said she was a downer, a controller, and a big "sourpuss" about everything. Sound familiar? Anyone remember Yoko?!

As much as I tend to dislike Heather (I suspect she was extremely controlling), I don't want to compare her to Yoko. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy. Yoko is Public Enemy #1. Uggghhh. What a gold-digging woman she is! I was all of about 2 when the Beatles broke up, but I think I knew the reason why even then.

 

[lucyanna girl]

It is always sad to see a marriage end, especially when there is a small child involved. I cannot imagine all the pressure being in the spotlight would bring. As a second wife I can also say having step-children takes some getting used to. My DH had three children from his first marriage who were 19, 18, and 14 when we married 21 years age. I had two sons, ages 11 and 7. Together we have Sarah, age 14. After this long we just say we have six children. I am lucky in that his first wife and I have become very good friends, I think it helped that they had been divorced for six years before i meet him. But all of this did not happen overnight. Most every argument we ever had was over a child, his, mine, or ours.
Add this to being in the public eye, touring, a small child, and all the others and it takes a very strong commitment to make it work.

Penny