Stella rages against stepmother

Stella McCartney flew into a rage, screaming "I'll kill the bitch" during her father Paul McCartney's bitter divorce war with his second wife, a British newspaper has reported.

Pregnant Stella McCartney reportedly had to be restrained by the former Beatle at the family home upon hearing that Heather Mills had claimed Sir Paul hit his first wife, Linda, who is Stella's late mother.

"I can't believe what she's doing, I'm going to kill her," a source quoted Stella as saying in Sunday's News of the World.

"She's been a manipulative cow from day one.

"The cow won't be happy until she destroys all of us - and our memories of our mother."

McCartney and Mills, 37, had their first face-to-face meeting in more than four months on Saturday at their daughter Beatrice's third birthday party, but kept their distance from one another.

Meanwhile, a friend of Linda said McCartney and Linda's marriage was not as idyllic as many believed and she sometimes became depressed about their relationship.

McCartney was controlling and Linda sometimes thought of leaving the marriage, Peter Cox told the Mail on Sunday in London.

"There were moments when Linda would feel deeply unhappy and depressed about her marriage," said Cox, who has audio tapes that Linda made about her life and relationship with McCartney while working with Cox on a vegetarian cookbook.

"Every marriage has its ups and downs, of course. In her low moments, the idea of leaving him did cross her mind, but she immediately rejected it.

"Her family was the most important thing in her life and there was no way she'd give them up. At the low points, she did feel trapped."

Cox has given an undertaking to McCartney's lawyers that he will not divulge the contents of the tapes. However, there has been speculation that they might yet play a part in the former Beatle's increasingly bitter divorce from Mills.

Mills alleges that McCartney was violent towards her during their four-year marriage, claims he has vigorously denied.

British newspapers reported last week that Mills, a former model, had told friends she believed she had damning information about McCartney and Linda's 29-year marriage, including that he attacked her.

Linda died of breast cancer in 1998.

The Mail on Sunday said it was not thought Linda referred to domestic abuse on any of the 19 tapes she made and gave to Cox.

Cox said McCartney had "a darker side and could be very controlling. Linda often had to dance attendance upon him. He bossed her around".

"It struck me that she didn't have ready access to money," he said.

"For instance, I would often lend her a fiver or a tenner for groceries."

But he said he had no doubt Linda loved McCartney.

"Whatever the strange dynamic of their relationship, Linda was the only one Paul could open up to," said Cox.

"She was like a mother to him. I have no doubt she loved him enormously, despite their problems."