Esther Rantzen: Yes, she's a bully and liar. But I still admire Heather Mills's spirit
The saddest thing about Heather Mills is that she has cast herself as a heroine and she so nearly was one. And yet, time and again, she broke the spell, hurled away her halo, and whirled about like the Wicked Witch of the West, radiating anger.
Her website is a rambling, ranting expression of that rage. I've seen her close up, I worked with her for years and - like so many of her ex-friends, ex-colleagues and ex-lovers - I have admired and despaired of her in equal measure. If only, we sigh.
I first met Heather when she was a guest on my talk show and I was enormously impressed, as everyone is on their first encounter.
Just look at the effect she had on American viewers of their version of Strictly Come Dancing, called Dancing With The Stars. She won every heart.
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Working relationship: Esther with Heather in their TV days
- It's not just that she is a sexy blonde. It's not even that she uses her sturdy Geordie accent with such effect.
It's the physical courage that drives her on, the way she refuses to allow her amputated leg to disable her.
She dances, throwing herself through the air flamboyantly, she rides, she skis, and given her romantic history, no doubt she is just as acrobatic in bed.
I got to know her best in the half dozen years we presented a Sunday morning ITV show together.
Just before the series started, we sat together in a photographic studio, and she whiled away the time by showing me the jewellery she had hung on to after a love affair broke up.
She went along with Zsa Zsa Gabor who said: "I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back."
Only in Heather's case, I remember, it was a large and lovely emerald. I was amused.
She was so practical and unembarrassed about her ambition and, as she told me the stories of her deprived and difficult childhood, I understood why the jewellery was such an important prop.
Now, I know the stories she told about abduction and abuse actually happened to someone else, not her, and that doubts have been cast over her tales of hardship, but that just makes the Heather enigma more fascinating, not less.
On screen she was an asset to our programme.
She worked on some important campaigns, fighting for better artificial limbs to be available for other amputees, and for police to recognise during car chases how dangerous it is when the "red mist" descends and they drive like demons. It was a police motorcyclist who cost Heather her leg.
But, off screen, the anger that is her besetting sin was never far away.
When she made mistakes, as we all do, she blamed the nearest technician.
Insecurity again - it takes confidence to admit you're wrong, but it made her very unpopular with the crew.
As time went by, she bitterly resented having to rehearse and once appeared for the dress rehearsal wearing only a towel to prove she'd been interrupted while taking a shower.
That didn't endear her to anyone, either.
Alongside the anger was the inexplicable fantasy. At that time, one of the Sunday newspapers employed a journalist also called Heather Mills.
At a meeting with a senior ITV executive she convinced him she was responsible for the other Heather's columns about social services.
She came to a ChildLine ball, at my invitation, and told my husband, Desmond Wilcox, that she had won a dozen BAFTAs.
Desmond was on the Council of BAFTA, and he knew that was completely untrue. He came back to me spitting: "Don't ever sit me next to that woman again."
Then, she was asked to make a film in Cambodia about the victims of landmines there.
The problem was, there wasn't a director available to go with her.
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Enraged: Heather's infamous appearance on GMTV last week
She happened to meet one of the hottest, most talented producer/directors of the moment, Chris Terrell, who had filmed the BBC's hit Cruise Ship series.
I'm told that, when Heather turns her blue gaze on a man, she's irresistible. He can't escape. Certainly Chris didn't.
He agreed to go with her to Cambodia and, under the midnight stars on a boat on the river, he proposed and sealed their engagement with a little bamboo ring.
She came back wearing it, not quite as chunky as an emerald, but just as romantic.
Their wedding was bought by Hello! magazine. The date was fixed, I was invited and bought a ridiculous hat for myself. Heather saved me from having to wear it.
A few days before the Cambodia film was broadcast, she went to the Pride of Britain Awards, met Paul McCartney and the wedding was off.
It's easy to imagine how impressed he was by the tireless campaigner, enticing in her tight sweater, bravely striding out on her artificial limb, careless of his status as the world's most eligible bachelor.
No wonder he thought his beloved Linda had come back, feistier than ever, to fill his bed. And Heather adjusted her persona to fit his needs.
Suddenly she was vegetarian, although we had filmed her eating chicken curry a few weeks previously.
Now she refused, on grounds of animal cruelty, to report on a young people's charity fishing on a lake, so I interviewed them instead.
She came into the studio one day wearing a fabulous Stella McCartney suit, with a silk lining imprinted with dozens of lipstick coloured "I love you" messages.
We knew it was a matter of time before she blew away on the west wind.
And she did - no goodbyes, just Paul waiting in reception to carry her away. I thought that, at last, her dream had come true.
At last, Heather could become the person she most wanted to be, the world-class celebrity, using her fame to benefit the causes she most cared about. And I do believe she cares.
I've heard her counselling other amputees. I know of the private acts of kindness to help her friends. When Desmond died, the first flowers came from Heather and Paul.
Surely now her new security would allow her anger to cool down. The bullying Heather, the trashy Heather, could be laid to rest.
If only she had stayed kind and kept her irresistible blue gaze on Paul - if only.
Alas, as we know, the marriage has shattered and Heather exploded on the world's television screens this week, her anger as raw and unhealed as ever.
Perhaps it's a ploy, to frighten Paul. Why waste your energy, Heather?
You have a lovely daughter, you will have enough millions to keep you both in emeralds as long as you want, and America loves you. Have the strength of will to dump the Wicked Witch of the West that lurks within, grab back that halo and become the heroine you so nearly, nearly are.
Esther Rantzen: Yes, she's a bully and liar. But I still admire Heather Mills's spirit | the Daily Mail
Esther Rantzen: Yes, she's a bully and liar. But I still admire 
Sane, balanced and totally un-crazy indeed.
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