Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney has spoken of his love for model girlfriend Heather Mills for the first time on a national television programme.

Sir Paul, who lives in Peasmarsh, near Rye, admitted "Yeah, I love her" on the ITV programme Stars And Their Lives, screened tomorrow (Sunday).

The singer also told how he arranged charity meetings so he could see campaigner Heather, who lives in Hove.

Heather, 32, who lost part of her left leg when she was hit by a police motorbike, is the subject of the programme, presented by Carol Vorderman.

Heather was determined not to talk about her year-long relationship with the millionaire musician, who has not talked about his love life since his wife, Linda, died of cancer.

But Sir Paul secretly arranged to come on the show as a surprise guest. Heather had no idea until he appeared in front of the studio audience and gave her a lingering kiss.

Sir Paul, 58, then revealed he had pursued Heather from the moment he first laid eyes on her when she was presenting an award for courage and appealing for help with her charity, The Heather Mills Trust, which provides limbs for landmine victims around the world.

He said: "When I saw her at that award show, I thought 'wow, she looks great'. A very beautiful, true, fine woman. That was the first impression and when I heard her speak I was very impressed.

"So I found out her telephone number, like you do, and rang her up. I said we should talk about some charity stuff and that I liked what she was doing. So we had three or four meetings, all very prim and proper.

"We talked about the charity and I realised I fancied her, but I decided to play it cool."

Heather said: "I couldn't believe it. I was a bit naive, actually, and I just thought 'here's a guy who does a lot of work for charity'. I thought he was very cute but it didn't enter my head that he fancied me.

"At the end of one meeting I got into a lift and just felt these eyes in my back. I turned round and saw him peeping round a corner. I said 'I think you're eyeing up my bum'."

Sir Paul admitted: "I was!"

Heather told Carol: "I love him."

He replied: "On national telly?"

Heather added: "You started it." Then, smiling broadly, Sir Paul replied: "Yeah, I love her."

Heather told how Sir Paul has brought romance into her life.

She said: "I always had a dream of a knight in shining armour. Someone who was romantic. I never went for guys with money, I just wanted romance.

"I remember last Hallowe'en he said come round for something to eat and he had carved out 20 pumpkins with smiley faces.

"I just started crying because he had done this for me. He's the most romantic man I've ever met."

Sir Paul was still recovering from the death of his beloved wife two years ago, when he met Heather in the summer of 1999.

He said: "I'd been going through a hard time. Now, I've got romance back in my life. I love her and I get a lot of pleasure from that."

Stars And Their Lives will be shown on ITV tomorrow, at 6.50pm.