Sir Paul McCartney had to fulfil one important condition before Heather Mills agreed to marry him, she revealed yesterday. He had to agree to stop smoking cannabis.
Heather Mills McCartney - as she now calls herself - said her husband would use the drug as regularly as others drink cups of tea.
"Him and (his first wife) Linda smoked it every day for the whole of their lives together," she said of a relationship that lasted more than 30 years. "But I would not get married to him if he was taking drugs. I hate it.
"I could not have him lying to our child (they have a two-year-old daughter, Beatrice) about not taking drugs and then going out for a sneaky puff."
Despite having slept on the streets as a teenager and then spent several years working as a model - both worlds where drug abuse is rife - 37-year-old Heather said she had never been tempted to experiment herself.
"I've never taken drugs in my life," she said.
"One time at Ascot two models ran into the toilets and sniffed some cocaine off the cistern and I was, like, totally shocked.
"I never drank either until I met Paul. I was drunk (recently) on two glasses of wine at a Christmas party. I'm a very cheap date."
Her abstinence is in marked contrast to the early years of her 63-year-old husband, whom she married in 2002.
As a Beatle, he was a the forefront of the Sixties psychedelic revolution. And in an interview two years ago, he said that drugs had "informed" much of the band's music including songs such as Got to Get You Into My Life (which was about pot) and Day Tripper (about LSD).
He also admitted that he had tried both heroin and cocaine when the Beatles were in their prime.
In 1980, McCartney was arrested at Tokyo airport after customs officials discovered half a pound of marijuana in his luggage. He spent ten days in a Japanese prison cell before being released and deported.
Despite his habit, it appears Sir Paul had little difficulty giving up smoking dope following his fiancee's ultimatum. "He says he had a good incentive," she said when asked if he had found it hard to stop.
Heather said her revulsion of drugs came from having spent time counselling addicts.
"Fifty per cent of people can smoke joints their entire life and be fine. But the other 50 per cent, if there is a history of depression in their family or in their genes, then they can not smoke marijuana."
Given her own family's history of mental instability, she was sure that she "go wacky" if she ever tried it, she said.
In the interview with the Observer magazine, Heather said she was having difficulty sleeping because of screeching voices in her head.
"It was good," she said, when asked about being with her husband during his current tour of America, "but I didn't sleep well. The screaming always goes on in my head."
Confused, the interviewer inquired whether she was referring to Sir Paul's fans screaming outside the hotel - before being put straight.
"The screaming of the dogs and cats I had seen on the videos (about animals being skinned alive in China for their fur)," she said.
"Little puppy dogs and girl private cats, their faces so trusting. Just before the noose comes."
Heather, who is campaigning for a EU wide ban on fur from China, was also scathing about celebrities who wear fur such as Naomi Campbell.
She described the London-born supermodel as a "stupid, superficial hypocrite" after she started modelling fur having previously led a campaign for Peta, the animal welfare group.
Linda didn't get in the way of anything. That's why he married her. She was passive. With him anyway. Not that I'm saying that's wrong. Hey, I would have done the same if I had the chance to be Mrs. McCartney.
It's called an opinion and everyone is entitled to have one. Half the posts on here are opinion. And yeah, we will talk and talk. This is a message board. That's sort of the purpose. You know, to share opinions. You want just the facts, then you're in the wrong place. People discuss, people chat, and yeah, sometimes it's frivilous. So what? I don't think you need to be insulting.
Linda wasn't a pushover by any means. I remember reading an article/interview that started off with the interviewer entering the house, asking if Paul was ready, and she said he was upstairs having a snit. She went up and told him he was being childish and the company had arrived, and he (the interviewer) said he was taken aback that someone would talk to Paul McCartney that way. She didn't steal any of the spotlight because she knew what the score was, but she held her own. They kept their family life incredibly private given the circumstances, so I've got to disagree with Sandra about this one.
Okay. It just seemed that she sort of put her life on hold for him. You know, it was all about him. But maybe that's what she wanted. I think he was lucky to have her. I really wasn't trying to put her down. That's a cool story though Junior. Good for her. But it was her husband. I mean, he's not 'the Paul McCarntney' anymore after you had a couple of his kids and put up with his depression and so forth.
And didn't he break it off with Jane Asher because she wanted a career of her own or something like that? That just got me to thinking that he liked a woman more dedicated to him and his needs than their own.
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DM's Beatles forums › Solo forums › Paul McCartney › It's the cannabis or me, Heather told McCartney