RAMA, Ont. -- Paul McCartney, currently going through a messy divorce from Heather Mills, will get by with a little help from one particular friend.

That's if Ringo Starr has anything to do with it.

The one-time Beatles drummer told the Toronto Sun in an exclusive Canadian newspaper chat yesterday that all he can offer is support to his former bandmate.

"I talked to him three weeks ago and I just said, 'I'm here if you need me.' That's all you can be," said Starr.

The media coverage of the split has taken a nasty turn with allegations that Mills, who has admitted posing for pictures for a 1988 sex book, hid from McCartney the fact that she was also a high-class prostitute. She has denied this claim.

"The British press are relentless. You would like them to stay out, but I'm afraid if you want them (initially), then they're going to stay in," said Starr. "I talk to Barbara (Ringo's wife Barbara Bach) in England every day and it's getting ugly.

"Break ups are always hard and they have to deal with it, not me," said Starr earlier at a press conference.

Starr himself will celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary this year, and said the secret to his marriage to Bach is simple.

"I'd like to say it was all down to me -- but that's not true," he said with a chuckle. "Nothing has changed in our life. I fell in love with that woman in 1980 and I was blessed that she loves me and that's why we've got 25 years."

Starr was on side with McCartney's stance against Canada's seal hunt, which brought McCartney to eastern Canada earlier this year with Mills when they were still a couple.

"Yeah, s--t, why are you bashing those poor baby seals on the head for someone to wear a fur coat?" said Starr. "Give me a break. I'm a vegetarian too, so it's easy for me."

In other Beatles-related news, Starr will be at the June 30 opening of Love, the Cirque du Soleil Fab Four show at the Mirage with songs chosen by longtime Beatles producer George Martin. Starr wasn't sure if McCartney would also attend.

"I don't know if we'll both be at the opening, I can only speak for myself," Starr told the Sun. "I'll be at the opening because when we planned this tour, the night before I'm in San Diego, then I have a day off so I can do the Cirque opening and then the next day, I actually play Vegas at the Mandalay Bay.

"Hopefully, I'm just going to see it," he said when asked if he might be brought on stage that night. "I've not seen any of the act around the music but I've always loved Cirque du Soleil."