Mills rejects 'gold digger' jibes

Mills denied exaggerating details of her earlier life

Heather Mills has rejected suggestions that she is a "gold digger" for marrying Sir Paul McCartney.

The former model said the taunts were insulting to Sir Paul - one of the UK's wealthiest individuals.

"They're saying he's not talented, he's not sexy, he's not good-looking, he has absolutely nothing about him except a bank balance," said Mills.

She told an edition of BBC One series Tabloid Tales that she had offered to sign a pre-nuptial agreement before their wedding last year.

You can sit and say 'she's after his money', you know, you can sit and say 'she doesn't get on with the kids'

Heather Mills

However, Sir Paul dismissed the idea as unromantic - and told her such agreements were illegal in the UK in any case.

According to the latest Sunday Times entertainment industry rich list, Sir Paul is the 29th most wealthy person in the UK with a fortune of £760m.

Mills told interviewer Piers Morgan how she feared the criticism of her might impact on her anti-landmine charity work.

She said: "You can sit and say 'she's after his money', you know, you can sit and say 'she doesn't get on with the kids'.

Sir Paul turned down the idea of a pre-nuptial agreement

"I don't worry or complain about that. The things that get to me is when physical harm, damage and long-term damage is going on with my charity work."

Mills has been accused of exaggerating some episodes of her earlier life in her autobiography Out On A Limb, which was written before she met Sir Paul.

Former friends contradicted many of her accounts in a Channel 4 documentary screened last week.

But she said there was no reason for making those incidents up.

She said: "I did do a lot of things that, you know, teenagers that are rebelling do.

"I stole from a jewellery shop because two guys were stealing stuff and I was getting blamed all the time so I did it in the end."

She said she had told of the incidents in the hope of inspiring others to put bad things behind them and move on with their lives.

Tabloid Tales is screened on BBC One on Tuesday.