Throttled, stabbed in the arm and denied a bedpan

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills married on 11 June, 2002, in a lavish ceremony in a 17th-century castle in Ireland. But according to legal documents filed by Heather for the upcoming divorce hearing, their marriage had serious problems within four months. Here are extracts of the deposition filed by Heather.

October 2002: The petitioner loudly pointed out that the respondent was in a bad mood, in front of other people. When they returned home the petitioner and respondent began to argue about the petitioner's behaviour. The petitioner grabbed the respondent by the neck and pushed her over a coffee table. He then went outside and, in his drunken state, fell down a hill, cutting his arm.

12 May 2003: The couple were in a hotel in Rome when the petitioner behaved coldly towards the respondent, who was pregnant and who was distressed by a derogatory newspaper article about her. An argument ensued in which the petitioner became angry and pushed the respondent into the bath. The respondent suffered distress but was made to go to the petitioner's evening concert.

May 2003: Following the concert, in a fit of pique because the respondent refused to go to the aftershow party, the petitioner directed a female bodyguard to abandon the respondent, leaving her exposed to hordes of fans. The respondent was forced to take a 30 minute walk back to the hotel because no taxi was available.

August 2003: In Long Island the respondent asked the petitioner if he had been smoking marijuana. He became angry, grabbed her neck and started choking her.

October 2003: The petitioner often told the respondent when she was pregnant that he did not want her to breast-feed their child, making the comment "they are my breasts" and "I don't want a mouthful of breast milk".

19 November 2003: The petitioner required the respondent to defer an essential operation on her leg because it would have interfered with holiday plans.

19 December 2003: The respondent had a broken pelvic plate but petitioner insisted that she cook for him while she was on crutches, could barely move and was in agony.

Mid-November 2004: The petitioner failed to protect Ms Mills from adverse press reports despite being in a position to do so. The respondent was warned that a forthcoming article about her was about to come out in The Sunday Times magazine and included the line: "The best thing that ever happened to Heather Mills McCartney was losing her leg" which was distressing.
As the petitioner had been asked to participate in the half-time entertainment for the Superbowl on Fox TV owned by Rupert Murdoch (who also owns The Sunday Times), the respondent asked the petitioner to tell Mr Murdoch that he would not confirm his participation in the Superbowl unless he agreed not to run the story. The petitioner refused to assist in this way.

September/October 2005: The petitioner called Ms Mills an "ungrateful bitch" in front of their driver when she explained why an office he had provided was not right for her. Having refused to allow the respondent to use his spare office on the floor beneath their apartment, which would have allowed for a creche in one part of the office, the petitioner had insisted she use an office that was far too small and was 20 minutes walk away. When the respondent went to view it, she was chased by paparazzi and was so demoralised by the experience she never used the office.

22 April 2006: Shortly after the respondent's revision amputation surgery she was forced to crawl on her hands and knees up aeroplane steps because they were not wide enough to take her wheelchair. The petitioner had assured the respondent he had taken care of her disability needs in connection with the trip.

April 2006: An argument occurred during which the petitioner poured a bottle of red wine over the respondent's head and then threw what remained in his wine glass at her.

The petitioner then reached to grab the respondent's wine glass, and broke the bowl of the glass from the stem. He then lunged at the respondent with the sharp stem of the glass, which cut and pierced the respondent's arm just below the elbow causing her to bleed profusely. He proceeded to manhandle the respondent, flinging her into her wheelchair and wheeling it outside, screaming at her to apologise for "winding him up".

April 2006: The respondent asked the petitioner not to leave her alone with their daughter Beatrice at the Cabin (because it is isolated in a forest). She had just had surgery on her leg, was in a wheelchair, and was anxious about her ability to cope by herself. Notwithstanding this, he walked off. The respondent then telephoned the petitioner, and asked him to return. The petitioner mocked her pleas, mimicking the voice of a nagging spouse, and refused to return.

April 2006: It is alleged that Ms Mills found the petitioner, staggering, undressed him and ran the bath and helped him into it. She then phoned the petitioner's psychiatrist for advice and was told not to attempt to move him, to get a duvet and two pillows, to empty the bath of water, cover him, and leave him there.
The respondent thereupon dragged herself upstairs, on her hands and knees (she was unable to wear her prosthetic leg as the wound from surgery had not yet healed) and brought back down the pillows. She found that the petitioner had vomited on himself.
She rinsed him off, and got him out the bath. At that time the respondent had a broken plate in her pelvis and she was in agony.

27 and 28 April 2006: On 27 April the respondent knew the petitioner would be too hungover to help her with Beatrice and due to her own incapacity as a result of an operation, she had to call the babysitter to help get Beatrice to nursery.
The following day the petitioner went to London but said he would be back in time to help the put Beatrice to bed. He did not arrive back at her bedtime even though he knew the respondent
could not cope on her own.
The petitioner arrived home drunk and demanded dinner and called the respondent a nag.
That evening the respondent realised the marriage had irretrievably broken down and left, crawling on her hands and knees while dragging her wheelchair, crutches and basic personal possessions to the car.

No date given: The respondent asked the petitioner if she could buy an antique bedpan to keep under the bed at night so she wouldn't have to crawl to the bathroom when her prosthetic leg was not fitted.
The petitioner objected, saying it would be like being in "an old woman's home".