Mills and boons?

Larry King, the veteran US chatshow host, is not often lost for words. But when Heather Mills is in full flow, there really is no stopping her, particularly when she is talking about her favourite subject, herself, and — of course — her charity work.

The former Lady McCartney was ostensibly on his show last week to invite people to donate old prosthetic limbs to the people of Haiti via a charity called Physicians For Peace.

However, no sooner was the camera lens fixed on her than Mills was quickly off on a tangent.

"Well, we started this programme, Larry, in 1994 after I had lost my leg,' she intoned. 'I was working in the war in the former Yugoslavia and we had to find a really quick way of getting limbs to the amputees there... If you go on our website, heathermills.org, you can talk to many people and learn things."

And on she went. And on, and on. Of course, there is nothing wrong about working hard for charity. It is admirable that Mills' work has helped many people.

The former escort girl has transformed herself into a self-styled "charity campaigner". But like so much in Mills' life, there is — how shall we say? — a blurring of fact and fiction.

Now back in the UK after a stint in the US, Heather has returned to the spotlight on Dancing On Ice show. She fled two years ago for America after she received £24.3 million (Dh142.6 million) in a divorce settlement from Sir Paul McCartney, saying there was a media "hate campaign" against her.

‘Agenda and purpose'

While in the US, Heather appeared on the reality show Dancing With the Stars and found it did wonders for her credibility. It seems she is hoping for the same to happen in the UK via Dancing On Ice.

Her determination to skate, despite being an amputee, has won her many fans and although she was the favourite to be eliminated, she has already survived two public votes.

"Heather Mills is great — but my advice to her would be stop talking about your leg and your charity work and be judged on your dancing," says former Dancing On Ice contestant Coleen Nolan.

Her former hairdresser David Paul, who fell out with Mills soon after she appeared on Dancing With The Stars, is now scathing of his former client. He spoke of her charity work, saying: "I don't think anything she does is genuine. Everything she does has an agenda and purpose."

Heather's divorce settlement gave her two homes and other assets worth £7.8 million (Dh45 million), a lump sum of £14 million (Dh82 million) and a further £35,000 (Dh205,055) a year to help bring up Bea, her daughter with Sir Paul.

Surely this huge sum would be enough for the Tyneside-born former underwear model who was once so poor she stole food just to have enough to eat? Apparently not. According to friends, Heather, 42, is already complaining that she is running out of money.

Mills says her fee from Dancing On Ice will go to her latest cause, the Hunts Point Alliance for Children in New York's South Bronx. It was to this charity that Heather, two years ago, promised her biggest — and to date, only — major public charity donation (although she claims "99 per cent" of her donations are anonymous).

She offered to provide $1 million (Dh3.67 million) of vegan food to the charity which works in America's most poverty-stricken urban ghetto. Mills became involved with the New York community group when she befriended its founder Maryann Hedaa at a charity function. When she announced the donation, she was given an honorary congressional award. But the charity is still waiting for much of its money.

‘Less than candid'

Writing on Twitter in August, she said she was renting out her plush New York apartment — where Nicole Kidman and Calvin Klein were neighbours — "to fund [a] free cafe in [the] Bronx for kids", adding "sad to see it go".

Mills' divorce from Sir Paul also showed she had a history for not giving as much to charity as she claimed.

During the bitter divorce proceedings, Mills claimed she was a millionaire before she met Paul and had always donated 80-90 per cent of her earnings to charity. But Justice Bennett, who accused her of being "less than candid" in her evidence, said this appeared to be unlikely.

Mills had been unable to produce records of money sent by her to any charity between 1997 and 2000. He added: "More-over, her tax returns disclose no charitable giving at all.'"

His judgement revealed that, although she had promised that her £110,000 (Dh644,424) Dancing With The Stars fee would go to the animal rights charity Viva!, she actually gave them only £50,000 (Dh292,876).

Former publicist Michele Elyzabeth, who looked after her US interests, now claims Mills still owes her money and says: "She is a calculating person — not the person she portrays. She lied to everyone."

Many of the friends Mills has left are on her payroll. After winning her divorce settlement, she took 20 of them on a £250,000 (Dh1.4 million) holiday to Richard Branson's Necker Island. Mills' sister Fiona is the director of many of her companies. Mills' boyfriend, Jamie Walker, who was a holiday representative, appears to have no other source of income and works as her odd-job man.

She has got rid of her £3,000-a-week (Dh17,578) security guard, but sports trainer Ben Amigoni is still an almost daily visitor to her house and she has a personal assistant. Beauty therapists and hairdressers are constantly on hand.

Says one acquaintance: "Since the trip to Necker, Heather has not made any grand gestures. But there is a drip, drip frittering away of money. "I think Heather thought she would make millions after the split — that she would be the new Larry King with her own chat show.

"But she is living in a dream world. Heather is a nobody. And that is why she is back in the UK."

It seems ludicrous to think that Mills has got through a £14 million lump sum in such a short space of time. And it is sad to think that she could not even keep her favourite landmines charity from folding.

It seems, when it comes to the former Lady Mucca's finances, it won't be long until she's really skating on thin ice.