heather millsHeather Mills has said she felt compelled to sue her former PR spokesperson Michele Elyzabeth for the sake of her daughter, Beatrice McCartney.

Heather is suing her former publicist for in excess of £250,000 for libel and breach of confidence after Michele made a series of allegations about the former model in various newspaper articles. The case is expected to be heard in the High Court before the end of the year.

Heather explained to the Mail on Sunday: “For a long time I have tried to maintain the moral high ground by staying silent and refusing to respond to everything that’s been said about me.

“I didn’t want my daughter Beatrice, when she is 12 or 13, to read something upsetting which has come from me. I wanted to protect her, even though all these falsehoods are hurtful and devastating to me.

“Staying quiet just wasn’t working, so I’ve decided I can’t allow it to go on, otherwise all these falsehoods will be repeated over and over again.

“I want to do good things with my life. It’s very tempting, when you have been through what I have, to simply disappear, but people won’t let me, and I need to move on with my work.”

Michele claims Heather repeatedly lied during her divorce from Paul McCartney and was “tight”, refusing to pay for anything including Michele’s own fees. But Heather claims the two women fell out after she failed to invite Michele on her £250,000 holiday to Richard Branson’s Necker Island earlier in the year.

Heather flew out around 25 friends and family members to the Caribbean for a week of luxury as a way to say “thank you” for the support they’d provided her with during the divorce but: “I didn’t invite Michele because places were limited and I’d already started to have my doubts about [her].

“She phoned me up demanding to know why she wasn’t invited, so I just had to say to her: ‘Look, I just can’t deal with this any more, I’m going to have to let you go.’

“I fired her, she didn’t resign.

“From the start people warned me not to get involved with her, but I warmed to Michele and she could be very sweet. I trusted her and feel devastated that she’s betrayed me.”