Beatle Paul to remarry

LONDON, England -- Former Beatle Paul McCartney, who lost his first wife to cancer three years ago, has said he is engaged to be married to model Heather Mills.

McCartney, 59, proposed to Mills, who campaigns on behalf of landmine victims and the disabled, on Monday during a trip to Britain's Lake District, his spokesman said. The two plan to marry sometime next year.

A statement on behalf of the couple said: "Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are pleased to announce their engagement.

"The couple are looking forward to being married 'some time next year.'

"Paul and Heather said today they would like to thank their relatives and friends for all the great support they have shown them since they met two years ago."

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Mills, 33, is a former swimwear model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after she was run down by a police motorcyclist in 1993.

The couple met at an awards ceremony and saw each other as friends before they began dating.

Sir Paul's spokesman told PA: "He bought the ring in India earlier in the year. It is sapphire and diamond, but predominantly sapphire."

The couple had taken a holiday near Jaipur, the capital of one of India's poorest states, Rajasthan. Asked whether the pop legend's proposal was on one knee, he said: "I think it was."

The spokesman added: "They are both delighted, as are the kids and as is everyone."

In a rare interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" last month Sir Paul spoke about the death of his wife Linda, to whom he had been married since 1969. Linda, an acclaimed photographer who had been a crusader for vegetarianism and animal rights, died from breast cancer on April 17, 1998, at the family's Arizona ranch.

McCartney, who has three grown children and a stepdaughter from his first marriage, said he had cried for 14 months after Linda's death, but felt he was finally ready to get on with life.

"We knew it was coming, but we tried to pretend we didn't know it was coming," he told Larry King. "I don't know. It's just impossible to talk about.

"I cried a lot ... Sometimes I'd be sitting around people and just burst out crying," he said. "And instead of doing the manly thing and saying, 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't do it,' I would just go, 'Oohhh,' and just cried a lot."

King asked McCartney, who was knighted in 1997, if he worked to keep alive her memory as a friend and animal activist.

"Well, I don't really have to," he said. "She's all around me, you know. And everybody I know knows her and remembers her. And so I talk a lot about her."