Heather Mills McCartney promised to grant her husband Sir Paul a quick and easy divorce and "walk away with nothing" if he admitted responsibility for the breakdown of their marriage, she said today.

The 39-year-old former model, who went on British television yesterday to accuse the media of driving her to the point of suicide, used an American television interview to criticise the ex-Beatle for not speaking out against articles which led to her receiving death threats.

The estranged wife of Sir Paul, 65, told America’s Today show that she had offered him a "very gentle and quick divorce" but was rebuffed.

“All I can say is when we first split, I said to Paul: ’I’m going to be crucified. You know why we split. You know the truth. They don’t need to know the details, but you need to stand up and say: "I’m responsible for the breakdown of this marriage."

“’If you say that, I’ll walk away with nothing, and we’ll do a very gentle and quick divorce.’ And he promised he’d do that. I have evidence of that. And he did nothing.”

Mills McCartney says she has spent £1.5 million on legal fees

She told NBC there were “so many” lies about her. “They say I’m a fantasist, a liar, a whore, everything you can possibly think of is being said and it’s just, it’s outrageous. It’s so hurtful, man.”

She went on: “I fell in love with a man, not a Beatle. I fell in love with someone that chased me for three months, that people forget, that wooed me, that was a broken man when I met him. And everybody around him knows he wouldn’t perform, he hadn’t performed for a long time. If actually someone sat down and did their proper research and looked at the facts, I was a huge support for Paul.

“I put all my own work, except my charity, on hold for the seven-and-a-half years we were together.”

Asked who she thought was behind the death threats, Mills McCartney told NBC: “Well, I can’t say who I think it is because it will affect our family, but I know a lot of information and, you know, certain people don’t want certain things coming out because of their image.”

She also continued her criticism of the tabloid press for “putting front-page news about divorces instead of front-page news about global warming and important issues”.

She suggested that there is a cap on damages and costs in English libel cases of $100,000 (£48,000). Sir Elton John accepted £100,000 in damages last year from the Daily Mail, which had suggested that the singer banned guests from talking to him at a charity fundraising event.

“[Newspapers] will get six months of abusive lies front-page news out of you, and then they will only have to pay 50,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars damages. In the meantime, they’ve created devastation everywhere, and you get an apology the size of a postage stamp.”

Yesterday, in TV interviews in the UK, Mills McCartney compared herself to Princess Diana and Gerry and Kate McCann, and accused Sir Paul of stalling on their divorce settlement.

Crying and with her voice breaking as she leaned forward in her seat, Mills McCartney also attacked the tabloid press.

She choked back tears and put her head in her hands while attacking the media for subjecting her to the same treatment as Diana.

She pledged to campaign to change the press laws, and said she had received death threats and wondered whether she might be “revered” like Linda McCartney if the “death threats came true”.

Mills McCartney met Sir Paul in 1999 at a charity event and they married at a remote countryside castle in Ireland in 2002.

She gave birth to the couple’s child, Beatrice, in the autumn of 2003 and the pair announced their separation in May last year.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone