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LONDON -- Sir Paul McCartney didn't shy away from saying those three special words to his girlfriend Heather Mills -- even though he had to say them in front of a British television audience.
The famous Beatle's televised admission of love came during the filming of ITV's Stars and Their Lives program, to be aired Sunday. This week's episode features Mills, a former model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after she was run down by a police motorcyclist in 1993.
Mills, 32, had planned not to talk about her year-long relationship with the musician, but McCartney made a surprise appearance during filming, suddenly appearing on stage in front of the studio audience.
Mills admitted: "I love him."
McCartney, 58, replied: "On national telly?"
"You started it," Mills protested. "I was going to say nothing tonight about it."
Then, smiling broadly, McCartney confessed, "Yeah, I love her."
The couple, who confirmed they were dating last March, met at a charity function when Mills appealed for help for her own charity, The Heather Mills Trust, which provides limbs for victims of war around the world.
McCartney admitted that he was smitten instantly.
"So I found out her telephone number _ like you do _ and rang her up and said we should talk about some charity stuff and I like what you're doing," he said. "So we had three or four meetings, all very prim and proper."
"She came to the office to talk about the charity and I realized I fancied her. I did fancy her from the start but I was playing it cool," McCartney added.
Mills revealed that McCartney, who lost his wife of 30 years to breast cancer in 1998, is a true romantic. Last Halloween, she said he invited her to his house and surprised her by carving 20 pumpkins with smiley faces to decorate the room.
"I just started crying that he'd done this for me," Mills said. "That was the icing on the cake. He's the most romantic man I've ever met."
McCartney said that after the difficult period following Linda's death, he now has "romance back in my life."
"I love her and I get a lot of pleasure from that," he said.
The couple refused, however, to reveal any future plans. Mills would only say, "We live for today. That's all we've got."
