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Deal in sight as Paul and Heather give peace a chance
Last updated at 15:29pm on 13.02.08Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are back in court today as they continue to edge steadily towards a record divorce settlement.
A change in mood in court 34 of the Royal Courts of Justice came yesterday as the couple had the chance to talk in heartfelt terms about how they met, how they were attracted to each other and their love for their daughter, Beatrice.
There were even rumours that the pair were in giggles during part of the evidence, but there were also times when tears were shed.
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Day three: Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills arrive at the London's High Court this morning
A source said the divorce looked likely to be settled this week.
Yesterday, the couple also had the opportunity to discuss their respective assets, which would have included their properties as well as clothes, artwork, jewellery and the computer technology.
As the Daily Mail revealed last week, the pair are edging steadily towards a record settlement deal which could see Miss Mills walk away with £55million made up of a lump sum of £20million and annual payments of £2.5million for the next 14 years until four-year-old Beatrice turns 18.
The Mail understands that as part of the agreement Miss Mills could forever be "gagged" from talking about the breakdown of the marriage.
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Giving peace a chance: Macca and Heather are said to be edging steadily towards a record divorce settlement
Miss Mills, it is planned, will be Beatrice's main carer but Sir Paul will have equal visitation rights - and his property portfolio will remain his in the agreement.
Sir Paul is understood to have agreed to pay for round-the clock security for Beatrice and her mother after Miss Mills recently revealed that she had been on the receiving end of "death threats" and is pursued relentlessly by paparazzi photographers.
The ex-Beatle is also thought to have agreed to pay Miss Mills's outstanding legal bill of some £2million from her former lawyers Mishcon De Reya.
Outwardly yesterday the pair looked to have turned a significant corner in the divorce.
Miss Mills emerged from court with a broad grin across her face. The former model looked relaxed and happy throughout the day compared to Monday when she refused to speak to the press and seemed anxious and at times upset.
Although she was unable to comment on the proceedings she did smile at reporters and whisper: "Can't speak, can't speak."
But when her legal adviser David Rosen was asked why her mood had lifted, he said: "She's happy."
It was the first outward sign that the warring couple are getting closer to a settlement and that things were going Miss Mills's way.
Sir Paul said "no comment" as he left the building at the end of the five-hour session. He too looked more relaxed than he had the previous day.
Throughout the day, tensions between the couple had appeared to be lifting.
Sir Paul, 65, had arrived looking cheery in comparison with his black mood the previous day.
He even shook the hand of Miss Mills's personal trainer Ben Amigoni - the man he once suspected was having an affair with his wife.
That was during the height of the animosity between the warring couple following the breakdown of their four-year marriage in May 2006.
Mr Amigoni and Miss Mills, 40, - who met five years ago at a London gym - have always denied having anything but a professional relationship.
Yesterday the two men swapped pleasantries for several minutes outside the courtroom where the five-day hearing in front of Mr Justice Bennett is being held behind closed doors.
Sir Paul, dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, approached the fitness expert and greeted him with a warm handshake.
Even Sir Paul's £500-a-day solicitor Fiona Shackleton broke her icy demeanour and was seen smiling and laughing with a female colleague-The hearing - due to last until Friday - will resume today.
Away from the court, Miss Mills's father claimed that she will leave the country with Sir Paul millions as soon as the divorce is settled.
Mark Mills said his daughter would set up home in either France or America because she has become such a hate figure in Britain.
Mr Mills, 66, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, who has at times had a strained relationship with his daughter, added that he thought she deserved £80million - a tenth of Sir Paul's reported worth - which would be enough for her to relocate, look after Beatrice for life and also donate some to charity.
Reader views (24)
Suppose for the sake of argument you married someone who had once been in soft porn movies, but she didn’t tell you, and you didn’t ask, because not in your wildest dreams would it occur to you.
Wouldn’t you have grounds for saying the whole thing was a fraud, and telling her the game is up, darling? On yer bike!
- Max, London
I read the charges Ms Mills made against her husband and they seem unreal to expect a man of his calibre to take on her health problems when they have money to hire nurses, full time cook, child care, etc. My husband was a law student and I had servants, full time cook, yard man driver, cleaner and laundress--Our daughter was four.
This woman should count her blessings and be thankfully she was able to marry someone with money in her physical condition and her poor and dysfunctional background. She definitely has problems and needed a lesson on how to live with a 64 year old man. They sure are not the same as one her age and she needed to have older woman friends or a mother to have been able to consult with. She really is to be pitied because she lost her mother and is missing a link in her emotional growth and advisory capacity a mother makes in a daughters life. As far as all the money she is asking for, I am sure she will get what she needs and not more as these judges aren't unreasonable -I do wish the judge would order her to go back and get an education in something in order for her to have more self confidence instead of this false façade. This poor man at his age having to deal with this with all his past success and evidently happy marriage -This should be a lesson to these men that can't see these women coming -Maybe the judge should have Paul teach a class in opportunistic women.
- Maxine K. Youngblood, UK
I think Heather Mills knew exactly what she was doing when she married Paul - she is just a gold digger and is probably holding the child of that marriage as bait. We females are not all like her thanks goodness - Immigrate to another country Paul so you don't have to pay her a penny.
- Finolla, Cambridge - England
Even if Heather DID make a big mistake marrying Sir Paul (her words); one usually isn't REWARDED for making mistakes. You made it, you deal with the consequences!
- Sharon Horodyski, UK
Normally in these cases, I tend to come out on the side of the woman but HMM really takes the biscuit. Sure, she should be entitled to some kind of settlement as she and Paul have a child together, but clearly she is after much more than she is entitled to.
Re her accusations, I'm sure Paul is no saint. If someone is treated like a demi God for the majority of their adult life, I'm sure that has some effect. But to state the marriage has 'ruined her life' is ludicrous. Had that been the case she would have instigated a quickie divorce with a reasonable settlement, dropped McCartney from her name, kept out of his way, retreated from her public life (for what its worth) and refrained from even mentioning his name again. I think this would be most peoples strategy in order to escape from an abusive marriage and an association with someone they despise?
But no, she is hanging onto the McCartney connection as if her life depended on it, and the main thing standing in the way of a settlement seems to be her refusal to keep quiet about her ex and their marriage. A huge multi million settlement isn't enough, she has to keep milking the McCartney cash cow in order to gain more fame and wealth. Her so called charitable activities are driven by her relentless desire to stay in the public arena, otherwise why doesn't she just bung them a million each and disappear?
- Wendy K, London
Had she not taken advantage of a grief stricken man not one person in
the world would know or care who Heather Mills was. To say she helped his
career is beyond belief, but she has no grasp on reality or the truth.
The victim here is Bea.
- Liz, USA
It seems to me that Heather Mills wants as much public sympathy as she can get ,she married an icon who before he met her ,seemed to be a man who kept his personal life quiet and private,
- Diane Deanes, hull humberside
When there is a library of females wishing to be taken out why buy the book? Paul had many warnings about people after his money from his family and friends.
He fell in to the biggest and costliest marriage trap.
It is his own fault. Tough.
- P Dean, northwick England
He was mad in the first place - why would a young woman be interested in an old man if it wasn't for the money? And what's more, he should have taken legal advice prior to the marriage. BUT - the British legal system is on the side of the woman and the most heinous crime Paul McCartney can commit is to be male in a divorce court actually, to be male and the father of an under-age child in a divorce court! Let the world of men know divorce makes men pay BIG forever.
- John Robinson, Liverpool
OK, so she's not a terrific person. But he married her and had a child with her, so maybe that suggests he is not so terrific either.
Frankly, they are both fairly ghastly, but both probably hoped the marriage would work. But it hasn't, so just let them settle it in that way which is so alien to the rest of us. Huge amounts of money. I only wish I'd been able to do the same. McCartney won't suffer if he gives her millions to reassure Beatrice that her parents live financially similar lives, so I don't care one way or the other.
How can normal people take an interest in the lives of people so privileged that they argue about £50m, for goodness' sake?
Never mind what Heather Mills gets from Paul McCartney, but worry more about what we normal people get from our break-ups. Nothing; because the law for the rich is different to the law for the poor.
- Monika, UK
I thank God we have a wise judge for this case - it reminded me a bit of the wisdom of King Solomon - when 2 women claimed to be the mother of a baby, only when he offered to cut the baby into two that the real mother was revealed.
It takes two to fight and two to make up and who ever tells the story is always right. Both can be equally right and equally wrong - depends who is telling the story.
Keep up the good work, Judge!
- Sue, London, UK
I am sorry but she has brought all this on herself. She says she isn't in it for the money - as if!
- Stephanie, London
"Unemployable and with no income" is due more to Heather's erratic behaviour and hyperactive imagination than to her separation. She's the one who chose to bring her behaviour into the public domain - she could have continued to behave strangely behind closed doors for years and the public wouldn't be any the wiser.
- Marianne, SW France
This woman lives in a fantasy land, where everyone else is out of step except her. She takes absolutely no responsibility for her own actions, behaviour and completely negative attitudes towards everyone and everything around her.
- Lydia, Oxon, Banbury, UK
If she's suing him because getting married ruined her life, then it sounds to me like Paul has a better case against Heather then the other way around. It sounds ludicrous that that has any place in a divorce case. I hope your judicial system in the UK is fairer then here in the US and that the judge makes her walk with child support and cab fare. Nothing else.
- Rich, USA
Please, please, let's have a gagging order. Heather Mills has turned what could have been a quiet, civilized divorce into a disgusting spectacle. Let's hope for the child's sake that a judge silences her ranting and raging.
- Laury, .Laury, Seattle USA
Maybe he deserves a gag order from her, because one's private life should remain private, not sold to the highest bidder. Maybe the gag order is to force her to have some dignity.
- Tede, NJ, USA
Here in the UK we have a lot of admiration for an actress called Billy Piper who chose to walk away from her multi-millionaire husband with nothing - zilch - as she felt able to make her own way in the world.
Now, If Heather did that, we would be able to believe that she really isn't in it for the money.
- Max, London
The court is just that and will be not be impressed with most arguments however that works both ways and I expect the future Ms Mills to never give up the association she once had with Paul.
- Martin Comeerr, London, UK
She's the one that ruined her own life. She has to take responsibility.
- Donna, Castro Valley, California USA
Yes, the reality of life is that things do change once you get married whether you marry a 'zillionaire' or a regular bloke, but to say he wrecked your life, is utterly stupid, she had a choice to marry him or not, she had a taste of his life before they married, if she couldn't deal with all that then she should have just left him alone and walked away. There would have been a lot less insanity and a poor young child would not be going through so much sadness at such a young age. Maybe Heather might learn here that Fame is not all it is cracked up to be, it can be very lonely at the top.
- Diane, USA
Heather may have lost her dignity and her mind but she's still
got that sense of humour. Not about the money? Needed a good laugh.
- Liz, USA
So, it's "not about the money" for Ms Mills? Can we assume, then, that she'll be giving most of her settlement away to the charities she's apparently so heavily involved with?
- Mark, London
"that her life was wrecked by her marriage to Paul McCartney."
If this really is true, then I wonder what effect this statement has on Paul's conscience? That is something one just cannot ignore....having wrecked some other persons life.
But then again, we've heard so much about Paul & Heather in the last two years, we don't really know what to believe any more.
A gagging order would make me inclined to think that Heather was telling the truth after all about Paul's less charming side, to put it mildly.
Something tells me that the story about Heather & Tim Steel is made up.
She might come across as a tough streetwise lady, but Heather was quite impressed with Paul's attention in the early stages of their relationship.
All these rumours and speculations...when will it ever end?
- Jenny, Amsterdam Netherlands
