FILE: Beatles legend prepares to face his estranged wife in the divorce courts

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are preparing to meet in court for the most celebrated - and potentially most costly - divorce battle in British legal history. The McCartneys case is due to be heard in London's High Court Family Division on Thursday (October 11). The hearing is almost certainly connected with money - how much Heather wants and what Sir Paul is prepared to pay to avoid further court hearings which could become public if either takes the fight to the Court of Appeal. It has been put forward in the past that Sir Paul has offered in the region of 20 million pounds (40,812,628 U.S. dollars) and Ms Mills is after something more like 50 million pounds (102,030,638 U.S. dollars). Divorce lawyers believe there will be a settlement, with Sir Paul agreeing to increase his offer from his estimated 825 million pound (1,683,505,532 U.S. dollars) fortune. The deal is expected to outstrip the 48 million pounds (97,949,233 U.S. dollars) insurance broker John Charman, 53, was ordered to pay his former wife Beverley in May this year in the biggest contested divorce settlement to date. Sir Paul and Ms Mills, who have a three-year-old daughter, Beatrice, announced last May that they were ending their four-year marriage. Former Beatle Sir Paul, 65, faces a total payout approaching 70 million pounds (142,842,632 US dollars) to provide for Ms Mills, 39, and their child, according to some divorce specialists. When the couple announced their split, Sir Paul denied statements that his wife had married him for his money and said the parting was "amicable". Subsequent spats in the courts over what was believed to be care of their child and public statements by Ms Mills did not support this. They married in June 2002, four years after his first wife, Linda, died of breast cancer. Linda and Paul McCartney married in 1969, and had three children - Mary, Stella and James. That marriage was one of showbiz's most enduring unions. Sir Paul and Ms Mills met at a charity event in 1999, and their relationship immediately made headlines, not simply because of the difference in their ages but also because of the supposed disapproval of Sir Paul's children.

ITN Source | October 18, 2007

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