So, SIR Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are officially "an item"? This coy description by Sir Paul of their budding love affair appeared in British newspapers this week after months of speculation and possibly the threat that it would be revealed anyway in tomorrow's tabloids.

It prompted the kind of "aaah" reaction in the press usually reserved for golden couples like Posh 'n' Becks - in their early days at any rate. But there can't be many people who haven't hoped that Sir Paul would one day find a new love after the death from cancer two years ago of his cherished wife, Linda. But why the earlier denial that he and Mills were romantically linked and why the need to avoid being photographed with his new girlfriend when they were very clearly together?

It could be that McCartney was fearful of public reaction. This was the man, remember, who became a near recluse after his wife's death; visibly ageing in the year following, as the music industry and his fans wondered if he would ever recover. Perhaps also he feared the British public would say here is a 57-year-old man running around town with a woman nearly half his age - Mills is 32 - only two years after his wife's death. Some might describe it as undue haste, but press reaction to the McCartney-Mills union has been unanimously favourable.

But there were other considerations. In his statement confirming what was one of the less well-kept showbusiness secrets of the year, McCartney offered a glimpse of life as one of the best known musicians of all time, and arguably his real reasons for keeping the relationship a secret. "What we don't need is photographers lurking in the bushes," he said. "If this is to develop, then give us a chance. I'm not a politician and we're not spies. I don't want to be surrounded by photographers because that could wreck something."

He went on to describe Mills as a "very good" friend and said they had become close after meeting at a charity event towards the end of last year. "Heather is a very impressive woman. It's early days, but she's great. We've done a lot of charity work together. We've grown very close and have been on holidays . . . I'm doing nothing wrong."

And just to confirm, in case anyone wondered, that McCartney's four children, James, Mary, Heather and the Chloe fashion designer Stella, were happy about their father's new relationship, the Sun quoted a family source saying: "They are fine about it. Paul is happy at the moment and wants it all out in the open.

"He is delighted to have the companionship and they've been having a lot of fun together. Linda is very much in Paul's thoughts, but he knows she would want him to be happy."

McCartney has long endured, and sometimes encouraged, the attention of the press. Since the heady days of the 1960s when he belted out songs like Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds and Help with John, George and Ringo in the Beatles, and later some less memorable ditties with Linda and the band Wings, McCartney really has seen it all. On the other hand, Mills became the darling of the Daily Mail and the Sun only after an appalling accident in 1993 when she was knocked down by a police motorcycle while crossing a London street.

She lost her left leg from the knee down in the accident. But far from withdrawing from public life - she was a part-time model - Mills triumphed over adversity. She went on to publish her autobiography, Out on a Limb, and proudly posed for the newspapers in her underwear without her false leg. She also seized upon the personal insights that overcoming the accident had given her and established the Heather Mills Trust to help raise money for landmine victims, particularly in Cambodia.

The McCartney-Mills relationship may only be in its early days, but press interest is already growing. And the one-time Beatle is surely deluding himself if he thinks the British media will not chart their every dinnerdate, walk in the park and, as with Charles and Camilla, their first kiss in public.

One hopes, however, that the godfather of British rock and roll and the brave Miss Mills will get a little privacy.