LONDON: Heather Mills McCartney's lawyers have announced she is suing two British newspapers over "false, damaging and immensely upsetting" statements they published about her divorce from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya named London's Daily Mail and Evening Standard as the subject of legal proceedings, adding that a suit would also be taken against The Sun. There was no immediate response from Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail and Evening Standard.
Ms Mills McCartney had been vilified in the media and was now being stalked by photographers, the law firm said in astatement yesterday. Mishcon de Reya alleged other newspapers had also printed false statements, but said the three listed would be the focus of the lawsuit.
She cannot sue - for now, at least - every single newspaper that has published false, damaging, and immensely upsetting statements about her.
She should not thereby be taken to have accepted that these statements are true, the lawyers said.
The McCartney divorce has become the most sensational marital break-up in Britain since Prince Charles and Princess Diana parted a decade ago, sparking immense rivalry in the British media for the best scoop.
Ms Mills McCartney's lawyers said British media claims that she had been offered a pound stg.
30million ($74million) settlement by her husband were false and the truth is that no settlement offer, in any amount, has been made .
She is pursued everywhere she goes. She is stalked by press photographers, who congregate outside her home and chase after her in cars - regardless of hersafety or the safety of her daughter, her lawyers said.
Mishcon de Reya issued a copy of a letter, reportedly from The Mail on Sunday's investigations editor, Dennis Rice, offering Ms Mills McCartney's sister Fiona a substantial sum for details about the divorce.
The lawyers said that the letter had been hand-delivered and promised anonymity.
It requires no imagination to conclude what kind of information was being sought from our client's closest confidante, nor why the assurance of confidentiality was believed to be necessary, the firm said.
We ask on behalf of our client for the media, as a matter of common decency, please now to show some restraint.
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