Heather Mills, the former wife of Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, has disclosed she suffered an "unlucky" skiing accident this week which resulted in her prosthetic leg brace breaking.
An Unfortunate End to a Work Trip
The 57-year-old former model and Paralympic skier was in Hinterglemm, Austria, on a work trip for her vegan health food brand, No Bloat, when the incident occurred. According to her spokesperson, on the final run of her last day, Mills decided to pick up speed on an empty slope. The force proved too much for her custom leg brace.
"The screws released, and the brace came away, leading Heather to a crash," the spokesperson told the Daily Mail. Fortunately, Mills did not break any bones in the fall. However, she must now use crutches for five days while the swelling on her residual limb subsides.
Resilience and a Record-Breaking Career
Demonstrating characteristic resilience, Mills shared a photo on Instagram following the accident. She stood beside a friend in an orange ski suit, captioning the post: "I hope everyone's New Year has got off to a great start," and counted herself "lucky" to be largely unharmed. Remarkably, she completed a scheduled photoshoot on orange crutches the very next day.
Heather Mills, who lost her left leg below the knee in a 1993 traffic accident in London, is no stranger to high-speed skiing. She competed for the British Disabled Ski Team between 2010 and 2013, winning multiple World Cup medals. In 2023, she was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the fastest disabled female skier in the world, a title earned after clocking 102.5mph in Vars, France, in 2015.
Life, Love, and Moving Forward
The skiing mishap came shortly after Mills spent Christmas in Brighton, East Sussex, with her partner, 39-year-old film producer and actor Mike Dickman. The couple, first linked in 2019 after meeting on a train, have kept their relationship relatively private.
Mills's spokesperson confirmed the prosthetic brace would need a few hours of repair at a clinic. "Even though the clinic glue the screws, the force and movement of skiing at speed spin the screws over time, so it was just unlucky," they explained, adding Mills was thankful it happened on her last run.
Since her life-changing accident over three decades ago, Heather Mills has been a prominent advocate for amputee rights and prosthetic technology. She launched No Bloat last autumn, aiming to provide gut-friendly vegan meals for people with conditions like IBS.
Mills was married to Sir Paul McCartney from 2002 until their split in 2008, a divorce that concluded with a £24.3 million settlement. They share a daughter, Beatrice, now 21.
