Colin White (Pic: Phil Coburn)
The flirtatious blonde in the low-cut top smiled as she looked the young barman up and down.
As she sipped her drink, she coyly played with her hair and fluttered her eyelids.
"You look just like Johnny Depp - I bet you get that a lot," she told him in a strong Geordie accent.
Then she tried to persuade him to become a vegan. By now most people would have guessed who she was. But not Colin White. "I just thought I was being chatted up by a fit blonde nutritionist," the barman said.
The "fit blonde" was actually Heather Mills, and she had called into the pub where Colin works for a drink with some girlfriends.
Hours earlier the details of her £24million-plus divorce from Sir Paul McCartney had been made public.
But unlike most of the nation, 25-year-old Colin - who doesn't watch TV or read newspapers - was blissfully unaware.
He said: "She was looking straight at me and smiling. I just knew they were signs she fancied me. It was quite flirty and quite nice, to be honest. Barmen and barmaids get it a lot."
Colin - who bears a striking likeness to Pirates Of The Caribbean heart-throb Johnny Depp - said: "She started talking to me about how I should be eating vegetarian food and how being a vegan, not using or eating any animal products, was such a good thing.
"She said, 'You have to try veganism. If you're interested in well-being, it's a one-stop journey and you'll love it'.
"She looked very stylish and classy in boots and a red coat, which she took off to reveal a black sleeveless low-cut top.
"She said nutrition was really important in a diet and that it was possible to eat well and be a veggie. I said I like to eat meat which she frowned on and kept saying I should be a vegan too. I said I didn't think that's for me."
Heather - who yesterday flew to America with daughter Bea - then went and sat down with a group of girl pals - and Colin slipped into the kitchen to tell a workmate how he was being hit upon.
"I actually went and told my friend, who's a chef, 'There's a fit nutritionist out there who's trying to chat me up. She's a bit older than me but she's very pretty'," he said.
"He went out to have a look and recognised her straight away. He knows Heather from other times she's been in the bar whenever I haven't been around.
"He said, 'Look mate, that's the woman who was married to Paul McCartney... the one who lost a leg'."
The encounter happened at The George pub in Rye, East Sussex, near Sir Paul's Peasmarsh estate, on Tuesday - the same day the details of 40-year-old Heather's bitter divorce settlement were revealed. She had been condemned as "inconsistent, inaccurate and less than candid".
The day before Heather had stood ranting on the court steps after emptying a glass of water over Sir Paul's solicitor Fiona Shackleton.
When Colin found out who she was, he says he felt slightly sorry for her. "When I was told she was getting divorced I felt sympathy for her," said Colin, who lives in a rented flat near the pub.
"My parents are divorced so I know what a difficult time it can be.
"It's a horrible thing for someone to have to go through, no matter how rich and famous they are.
"So I went over to her table and talked to her. She talked a lot about her charity work, such as trying to help people who had been injured by landmines. We didn't talk about the divorce at all."
Bespectacled Colin, who at 5ft 7ins is a couple of inches shorter than Heather, added: "She had Leffe beer and yes, she did say I looked like Johnny Depp but I get that a lot.
"Sometimes I play on it by wearing a pirate hat on nights out with friends, but it's just for a laugh. I was just a shoulder for Heather to lean on, really. She has a good sense of humour and we got on well. At closing time she left and we parted as friends."
His dad Ken said: "Colin is young, single and good-looking and if there's somebody attractive chatting him up, he might as well take advantage. He is quite popular with the ladies."
Colin refused to say if he and Heather planned to meet again..."I can't say. I'm a gentleman."
'She was smiling & flirty.. I knew she fancied me'
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