McCartney, portrait of a haunted man

The mind that was once a production line of musical invention was clearly preoccupied.

The boyish face that has become familiar to every living generation showed nothing but bewilderment.

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The former Beatle had spent the evening at a pub in Notting Hill, West London, with his daughter, fashion designer Stella, and her husband Alasdhair Willis.

He drank several pints of Guinness over a period of three hours, then returned with the couple to their £1.5million terrace house nearby.

There he spent another couple of hours before emerging, eyes red and glazed, and hailing a cab back to his own home in St John's Wood, North London, walking the last few hundred yards alone.

The evening was a strong show of family support for McCartney as he struggles with the acrimonious end to his four-year marriage to Heather Mills.

"They were all being very affectionate and supportive," said a fellow drinker in the pub, The Cow.

"There was the occasional ripple of laughter from the table. It wasn't all doom and gloom."

Stella, along with her sister Mary and brother James – the children McCartney fathered with his late wife Linda – are said to have been his rock in recent months as the divorce sinks further into bitterness.

He pays tribute to their role in an interview out today, and tells USA Today that he is hoping for a "happy" outcome for the sake of the couple's daughter Beatrice, who is three tomorrow.

"It's a very difficult time for me," he says.

"But with the support of my friends and family, I'm managing to get through."

"I'm just hoping for a happy resolution, particularly for the sake of our beautiful daughter, Beatrice, and my other children, who are all beautiful. Fingers crossed."

The interview was conducted before the storm over leaked legal papers alleging he mistreated Heather. Last week, the star's lawyers insisted he would "vigorously" defend himself against claims that he was violent towards Miss Mills during their marriage.

The papers, revealed in the Daily Mail, allege 64 year-old McCartney subjected her to four attacks, one in which he stabbed her in the arm with a broken wine glass and another when he pushed her into a bath.

McCartney's legal team, led by Prince Charles's divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton, are said to be constructing a "robust" defence.

This week, Miss Mills, 38, threatened to sue three newspapers over revelations about the divorce.