Sir Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda’s youngest daughter Stella speaks on the heartbeaking loss of her mum nearly three decades ago
Fashion designer Stella McCartney is urging women to not ignore free NHS breast cancer checks after opening up about losing her mother to the disease in a rare interview.
The daughter of Beatles legend Sir Paul was 25-years-old when she lost her mother Linda, aged just 53, in 1998 – three years after she was diagnosed with the illness.
But in a new insight into her private life, Stella, 53, has revealed how she goes for mammogram screenings with her trusted eldest sister, Mary, 55, and says it is vital other women do the same.
Her warning comes just a week after British pop singer Jesse J, 37, shocked fans by revealing she had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer after a period of “in and out of tests.”
The Bang Bang star, real name Jessica Cornish, is now posting regular updates to her 13.9 million Instagram followers so they can keep up to date with her progress.
Urging women to get tested, Stella said: “I love the idea of going with my sister and my best friends on International Women’s Day every year.
“I think it is a nice way to celebrate that process. Go and get your mammograms. My sister is my best friend. It is like no other.”
Stella has previously described how her mother’s death was ‘the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to encounter’, and says the feeling of loss is with her every day.
But although her mother passed away 27 years ago, Stella says the pain does not get any easier especially as she watches her own children – sons Miller, 20, Beckett, 17, and daughters Bailey, 18, and Reiley, 15, – grow up not knowing who their grandmother was.
She said: “My mum didn’t see my kids. I was just 28. It is the greatest loss, especially when you become a mother. I was so young and passing down motherhood, what a beautiful gift. It is just not you not having her and you losing her it is them not knowing her too. Like “She didn’t know you”.
Stella recently praised Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles for speaking out about her own breast cancer scare.
She said: “I think it was courageous for you (Tina Knowles) to share your story and I wish more people would share it. I wish more people would have shared that what when my mother was alive, hoping that she would still be alive. So I commend you for talking about it. Everyone should get mammograms. It is all about prevention. It is so important.
“I have spent a lot of time at a breast centre in Kettering and I highlight this disparity in breast cancer mortality. I ask so many questions and some don’t know they can get free screenings.”
Today, Stella says her mother Linda continues to guide her in the way she conducts her family life with husband Alasdhair Willis and in the way she runs her business which saw her receive a CBE from King Charles in 2023 for her services to fashion.
The designer – who takes after her mother in her love of animals and refusal to eat meat and uses no leather or fur in creations for her eponymous label – says her ethos is partly inspired by her mother’s beliefs.
Stella said: “What an influence my mum was. Obviously in my life she guides me how I conduct myself in my business and in my home.”
But despite the trappings of the McCartney name, Stella admits she is just like any other mother at home, especially when it comes to her daughters who often steal treasured items from her catwalk collections.
She said: “I have an 18-year-old daughter but she is now an age when she is stealing all my major clothes. She is like “Can I go into the archive?” and she whips out the most iconic pieces. She is like “Oh that is the 1997 runway.” And I never see it again.”
“But my kids do get mad at me. There is that Saturday Night Live sketch where they say “I am your mother”.
“My kids always play that to me. But I said to my daughter once “The only mission I have as a mother is to pass on the thing I have learned.” My boys are different.”
Source: Mirror
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