Heather Mills Says She Wanted a Quiet Divorce

Nov. 1, 2007 — -- A day after a startling interview with a British television channel, Heather Mills McCartney, Paul McCartney's estranged wife, spoke with "Good Morning America" about her disgust with the media and allegations that she's a gold digger.

Breaking a nearly two-year silence about her ongoing divorce, Mills told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that she has received death threats and has considered suicide since her separation from the former Beatle. She refuted the suggestion that she was after any money.

"Please protect me," Mills said she asked McCartney. Her appeal, she said, was not heeded beyond one paragraph in her defense posted on McCartney's Web site.

She seems to imply that there was the possibility of a quiet divorce, but McCartney would not accept that. "It could have all been over, and done with very, very quietly," if McCartney had protected her, she said.

Now, however, Mills claims that she was not provided any security amid death threats and has been put in a position to ask for money for herself and the couple's daughter Beatrice.

She also said that she now owes her lawyers $3 million.

Mills directs her worst vitriol toward the media, who she said manufacture lies. She points out that she has recently won a libel case, and wants to hold the press accountable for what they say. She accuses the media of "abusing people who don't have the platform" she does to protect herself.

Mills announced that she has set up the Web site Youcare.com for people to log on and register supposed lies reported in the press.

Mills was a contestant on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in the United States, an experience she said she enjoyed. She also said that she would like to live in America but cannot because McCartney does not want their daughter to grow up with an "American accent." Instead she said she's "stuck in a village" so that her daughter can be close to her father.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Mills' press spokesman Phil Hall has quit since Mills' outburst on British TV. In the interview, Mills wept and accused the media of branding her a "whore" and a "gold digger."

Reuters quoted Hall on Mills' outburst as saying, "It was definitely the wrong thing to do."

Mills hired Hall in 2006 when she and McCartney announced their split. Mills, 39, married McCartney in 2002.