British Tabloids Turn Up Heat On Heather Mills McCartney

Paul McCartney is marking two milestones in a week -- but the first occasion isn't exactly the happiest.

Sunday marked the fourth wedding anniversary for Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney -- and it came with more British newspaper headlines about a purported sordid past for the estranged wife of the former Beatle.

The British newspaper the Daily Mail reported Sunday that years before she met McCartney, Mills was allegedly paid to have sex with a wealthy Arab businessman. Reports of past liaisons were also published in the tabloid News of the World.

Lawyers for Mills strongly deny the allegations. They said the timing "is clearly designed to cause maximum hurt to Heather, her husband and family at this sensitive time."

Earlier in the week, the British tabloid The Sun published part of series of pictures taken in 1988 from a German book, "Die Freuden Der Liebe" ("The Joys Of Love") that purportedly shows Mills and a half-naked man in a " variety of lurid poses," the Mail reported.

A former executive at News International, which owns The Sun and News of the World, told the Britain's Guardian Newspaper Sunday that the papers previously were reluctant to publish any damaging information about Mills because of her marriage to the beloved -- and powerful -- McCartney.

Mills and McCartney announced their decision to separate last month.

This coming Sunday, McCartney, who penned the classic "When I'm 64" with John Lennon, will turn 64.

McCartney was born James Paul McCartney on June 18, 1942, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England.