Sir Paul McCartney made a public tribute to late first wife Linda. He was speaking out to publicise a new exhibition of her work at London's James Hyman Gallery.
Macca says that he loved how natural she was.
'She was always very beautiful,' he writes in the Sunday Times magazine. 'She was a very natural girl, naturally blonde.
'Linda was very matter of fact, very down to earth – two of the attributes I really needed at the time.
'She loved the fresh air and the freedom and the privacy of the countryside. She was a great person to hang out with: very funny, very smart and very talented.'
Linda died in 1998 at the age of 56 from breast cancer.
Sir Paul, 65, says he still finds that period difficult to look back on.
'For me, probably the saddest and most haunting photograph in this collection is the self-portrait she took in 1997, not long before she died,' he writes. 'She knew she was ill, but she didn't know she was dying.'
And in a veiled dig at second wife Heather Mills, 40, he adds: 'She didn't go on TV and say "This is who I am – hello" and try to ingratiate herself.'
Meanwhile, Sir Paul's new love Nancy Shevell, 47, has been snapped shopping at his daughter Stella McCartney's clothing store in New York.


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