HELP! Gloom of Macca’s girls at doomed wedding
First view from inside Paul and Heather’s wedding – but did grim-faced Stella and Mary know what was coming?
IT’S the must-have wedding snap for newlyweds – the happy couple celebrating with their closest family and friends after they tie the knot.
But not everyone was smiling after Sir Paul McCartney married Heather Mills.
Take a closer look at Macca’s wedding party picture and you’ll spot his daughters Stella and Mary looking decidedly glum.
The pair – daughters of Sir Paul’s first wife Linda, who died of cancer four years previously – were said to have been less than overjoyed by their father’s choice of partner.
The remarkable picture is a portent of the bitterness that would follow the wedding in 2002 – as Sir Paul and Ms Mills separated in 2006 and went through a bitter and messy divorce in 2008. Astonishingly, the image is the first to emerge of the former Beatle and Ms Mills from their wedding reception.
In another never-before-seen picture, Sir Paul acts out a mock striptease in front of his delighted bride during the reception, which was attended by 300 guests.
Sir Paul, then 59, and Ms Mills had ordered a media blackout of the event in Ireland.
These pictures belong to the family of Sir Paul’s late housekeeper Rose Martin, who was among those invited to the event at the 17th Century Castle Leslie in County Monaghan. 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 Sir George Martin, Pretenders singer Chrissy Hynde, and model Twiggy.
The couple turned down a £1.5million offer from Hello! magazine for exclusive photos of the event. One official portrait – of the couple outside the church – was published, for charity.
These photos and other memorabilia, including the invitation – featuring Sir Paul giving Ms Mills a piggy-back – are being sold at Omega Auctions in Stockport, Cheshire, next month.
Mrs Martin’s family decided to sell them after her death aged 92 in 2013. Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said: ‘They decided the best thing was to pass them on to fans.’