FROM turning vegan after losing her leg to making friends with Fatboy Slim, Heather Mills has revealed all about her life in Brighton.

The former model suffered a punctured lung and the loss of her left leg after being hit by a police motorcycle in 1993.

During an interview on The Argus Podcast, Heather said the unfortunate accident sparked the start of her vegan journey.

“I was a typical Geordie - sausage, two meat and veg growing up,” she said. “But they kept chopping my leg off more and more.

“Luckily, my girlfriend came in and said, ‘you got to go vegan’. I first thought vegan schmegan, but my leg closed and healed after two weeks – bear in mind I’d been in hospital for five months and nothing had happened.”

The 54-year-old’s awakening to a vegan lifestyle led to her opening VBites café in Hove in 2009.

The Argus: Heather Mills at VBites cafe in Hove in 2009 Heather Mills at VBites cafe in Hove in 2009

“We showed you could replace every single product like for like with a meat, fish, dairy or cake alternative,” she said.

“We took away the myth that veganism was just lettuce food. It took a long time, but finally people are understanding it.”

The activist and businesswoman, whose grandmother used to run a post office in Westdene, said she still visits Brighton and Hove on a regular basis.

She also revealed how she came about to live in the star-studded Western Esplanade, Hove, with the likes of Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook – who went on to purchase VBites café in 2013.

After renovating a property in Cross Street, Heather made a permanent move down south while she was married to Paul McCartney.

“Brighton is where a big part of my heart is. We used to go here on summer holidays from Newcastle, and my grandmother would take us on the beach and use those penny slot machines,” she said.

“I had a meeting years later with Norman Cook about some other business and said, ‘you’ve got house on the beach, how do you do that?’. And he said it’s a private road and they don’t come up very often.

“But an ex-editor of a newspaper and his wife were selling one of the houses on the beach. So I bought the house and the café next to it.

“I lived there for a number of years until we had to move.

“I only knew Norman and Zoe [Ball], who were absolutely fabulous. All the other known people came well after I’ve left.”

Other famous residents have included Adele, David Walliams and Nick Berry.

Heather will be back in Brighton on June 8, where she will be a speaker at the Acumen Business Convention at The Grand Hotel.

The full episode of The Argus Podcast featuring Heather Mills will be available on Saturday, May 28, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.