Former Beatle Paul McCartney‘s ex-wife Heather Mills told the BBC that she was told by a journalist at the Mirror Group admitted to learning of a possible story by listening to a voicemail McCartney left on her phone. CNN host Piers Morgan was the editor of one of the company’s signature newspapers at the time, the Daily Mirror.
The journalist whom Ms Mills said contacted her is not CNN presenter Piers Morgan, who was the editor of the Daily Mirror at the time. However, the message in question appears to be the same as one which Mr Morgan later admitted to having listened to. In a 2006 article in the Daily Mail, Mr Morgan referred to having heard a recorded message which Sir Paul had left for Ms Mills.
Morgan responded to the claims in a lengthy statement:
Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001.
The BBC has confirmed to me that this executive was not employed by the Daily Mirror.
I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills.
What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media. This is well documented, and was stated in their divorce case. Further, in his judgement, The Honourable Mr. Justice Bennett wrote of Heather Mills: ‘I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid. Overall she was a less than impressive witness.’
No doubt everyone will take this and other instances of somewhat extravagant claims by Ms Mills into account in assessing what credibility and platform her assertions are given.
And to reiterate, I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone.