When all their troubles seemed so far away
First view from inside Paul and Heather’s wedding – but did grim-faced Stella and Mary know what was coming?
THE bride looks on with delight as her new husband playfully acts out a mock striptease at their wedding reception. And if the groom looks comfortable performing in front of 300 people, that’s because the man in the waistcoat is Paul McCartney.
Astonishingly, the image is the first to emerge of the former Beatle and Heather Mills from their wedding day in 2002.
Paul, then 59, and Heather ordered a media blackout of the event in Castle Leslie, Co. Monagahan and until now have succeeded in keeping pictures out of the public eye.
The photographs capture the couple’s joy on their big day and there’s only one clue that hints at the bitterness that would follow – Paul and Heather divorced acrimoniously in 2008.
In a group shot of the wedding party, Paul’s children, Mary and Stella, are the only ones not smiling. The pair, daughters of Paul’s first wife Linda, who died of cancer four years previously, were said to have been unhappy with their father’s choice of partner.
The pictures belong to the family of McCartney’s late housekeeper, Rose Martin, who was among the guests. The ceremony was shrouded in such secrecy that on the invitations, guests were told only to arrive at a hotel at Heathrow Airport at an appointed time from where they would be flown to an unnamed destination.
Other guests included the only other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, the band’s legendary producer George Martin, Pretenders singer Chrissy Hynde, and model Twiggy.
The couple turned down a £1.5m offer from Hello! magazine for exclusive photos of the event. One official portrait – of the couple outside the church – was published, with proceeds going to charity. These photographs and other memorabilia, including the invitation – featuring Paul giving Heather a piggy-back – are being auctioned next month.
Mrs Martin’s family made the decision to sell them after her death aged 92 in 2013.
McCartney married his third wife, American socialite Nancy Shevell, in 2011.