Date: November 15, 1998

£138M - AMAZING FORTUNE LEFT BY LINDA MCCARTNEY GOES TO HER CHILDREN, ANIMAL CHARITIES AND CANCER RESEARCH

LINDA McCARTNEY left a £138 million fortune in her will - part of which will go towards helping the fight against breast cancer, the disease that killed her.

Her four children get the bulk of her estate, but millions have been set aside for breast cancer and animal charities. A trust fund is being set up to benefit the good causes and medical research well into the next century.

Children Stella, 26, Mary, 28, and James, 21, by ex-Beatle Paul - and Linda's daughter by her first marriage, 35-year-old Heather - are beneficiaries of a separate fund.

A friend said: "Not many people realise that Linda was worth a huge amount of money in her own right.

"Paul involved her in everything he did and she was a director and shareholder in all of his companies.

"Linda also made a fortune from her vegetarian foods, and her wishes were to keep her good work going."

The final details of meeting the terms of the will are being worked out by Paul's lawyers.

The names of the organisations which will benefit have been kept a secret.

Most of Linda's estate is made up of the shares she owned in Sir Paul's companies.

She was a director of MPL Communications Ltd, McCartney Music Ltd, McCartney Productions Ltd, MPL Ltd, Juggler Pictures Ltd, and Juggler Ltd.

The string of MPL companies - which stands for McCartney Publishing Limited - are worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

They generate huge revenues every year from Macca's songwriting royalties and lucrative investments built up over 30 years. Linda's name was officially removed from the company records on April 17 this year - the day she died in Tucson, Arizona.

But in the last few years of her life Linda also made huge profits from her own £35 million-a-year vegetarian food ventures. Another big earner was Linda McCartney's Home Cooking book, a worldwide best seller.

Her veggie foods have accounted for about 20 per cent market share since the launch in 1991. The frozen meals range from Britain's best-selling vegetarian sausages to Golden Nuggets and Triple Tikka Crunch.

Paul McCartney's spokesman Geoff Baker said of the will: "This is a private matter. Only the family and the lawyers would know anything about this kind of matter."

Linda's best friend, TV writer Carla Lane, said: "Linda and I never talked about money - it didn't mean anything to her.

"She lived for Paul and the kids. All she ever wanted to do was help the animals and it's good that even after her death she is still helping them."

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