'Dormant volcano' Heather Mills explodes - against legal advice - in another stinging attack on Macca

Following her round of TV and radio appearances last week, she gave a magazine interview in which she described herself as a dormant volcano which is now exploding.

Heather Mills lashes out at 'jealous Stella McCartney'

And after comparing herself to Princess Diana and Kate McCann, she likened her plight to that of the late Paula Yates.

Miss Mills, 39, accused her estranged husband of being tight-fisted and gave a barely-veiled threat that she would make more embarrassing revelations about their marriage.

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While Sir Paul is keen to reach a settlement as soon as possible, she added that she plans to drag her feet over divorce negotiations until the two-year anniversary of their separation in May.

Her latest assault on the 65-year-old star, in Hello! magazine, was against the advice of her legal team who warned her not to go on the offensive.

Miss Mills's close circle fear she is damaging her chances of achieving her aim - a £50million payoff and a custody deal over the couple's four-year-old daughter Beatrice.

But once again she came out all guns blazing. "This is a man that hangs on to his money," she said. "He wouldn't be as rich if he didn't.

"Who needs that kind of money? I'm still keeping quiet about the total truth, giving him a chance to help us move on and get out of this awful situation.

"I want the freedom to be able to tell my story should I need to defend myself. I offered to Paul that if he protects me from the inevitable hatred I'll receive because I am a wife of a Beatle, I'll never say anything derogatory about him.

"He wants me to be gagged and they won't give me a divorce until I'm gagged. So I'm waiting for the two-year separation.

"I've been this dormant volcano for 18 months and now I've had the explosion of my feelings."

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Miss Mills gave the interview to Hello! after a round of shows in the UK and U.S. which she hoped would gain sympathy but led to widespread ridicule.

She was told by aides that she could have scored an own goal by claiming to be suicidal, possibly wrecking her chances of gaining custody of Beatrice.

Undaunted, she told Hello! that Sir Paul should have protected her after their split: "Someone that powerful. When I left, I said, 'I don't want a penny, all I want is for you to protect me.'

"He won't talk or acknowledge anything ever. He just pretends everything doesn't go on. I've asked him to protect me for 18 months. He knows I was suicidal but did nothing. Enough is enough. I have to stand up and take the brunt of what I'm going to be put through again ... He forced me into a corner."

Miss Mills compared herself to Sir Paul's late wife Linda, claiming: "They will carry on abusing me, like they did Linda, for the rest of my life. She got horrific stuff because she had the extreme Beatles fans in those days. She was absolutely abused for most of her life. And once she died she was revered, because that's what they do.

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"Look at poor Paula Yates (who died of a heroin overdose in 2000). They abused her and then suddenly turned it around when she was dead. Well I'm not going to have that. I need to speak out on behalf of thousands of people who have been put through the same."

Miss Mills, who asked for her interview fee to be donated to an animal charity, added that she had offered Sir Paul a pre-nuptial agreement, which he refused because it was not "romantic".

She insisted: "I don't want (Beatrice), you know, to go through any more than she already is, with having divorced parents. I want her to love her father and love her mother and be loved by them."