Marriage sentence

Judge to name price for Paul McCartney's family troubles

Sir Paul McCartney's divorce proceedings, which have dragged on for almost two years, are nearing resolution. Within the next few weeks, Judge Hugh Bennett will hand down a verdict on the price the famous musician will have to pay for his four-year relationship with former model Heather Mills. It depends on the judge whether this divorce will be a record for the UK, not only in terms of the duration of the litigation, but also in the amount of compensation. Yesterday it became known that the former spouses' lawyers had finally given up hope of agreeing on compensation for Ms. Mills, after which the parties decided to entrust the calculator to Themis. As AFP reports, during the week of hearings held behind closed doors, no agreement was reached on financial issues, lawyer Nicholas Mostyn, representing the interests of the ex-Beatle, said yesterday.

According to British tabloids, the difference in estimates of the deal was £20 million. Allegedly, a week ago, when the final stage of the hearings began, McCartney was ready to part with 80 million, while his ex-wife claimed at least 100, that is, approximately an eighth of the musician’s fortune (he himself, however, has repeatedly claimed that the estimate of his capital is clearly exaggerated). To say that the parties did not agree on a price would oversimplify the problem facing London's top family law lawyers. The same Mr. Mostyn is known in British legal circles under the nickname Mr. Payout and is considered a recognized master of the legal justification of every penny of compensation. Sir Paul and Heather Mills were not just arguing about the amount of alimony or how much time the child of their short and apparently too stormy love, three-year-old Beatrice, should spend with each of them. Among other things, they radically differed in their views on the extent to which revelation can be reached by former spouses in their memoirs.

Unsightly details of the life together of the musician and the former model, whose career was cut short by a car accident in 1993, became known to the tabloids almost immediately after they decided that they could not live under the same roof. Publishers and television people immediately became interested in the complaints of Mills, who accused her husband of rudeness and even cruelty. She was offered to take part in the show, star in a documentary about the life and breakup with the ex-Beatle, and write a book about it. Actually, this is what forced McCartney to gradually increase offers of compensation, the amount of which, according to unconfirmed reports, “started” with only 30 million pounds. The musician insisted that Mills should not wash dirty linen in public; moreover, his representatives periodically emphasized that the model’s words about fights during her pregnancy were lies and that she was the initiator of most family scandals.

Almost from the very beginning of the divorce proceedings, which began in the spring of 2006, the former spouses communicated only through their representatives. But now it is clear that the strength of their mutual hostility, which accumulated both during the marriage and over the past two years, was such that even the lawyers, who seemingly spoke the same language, could not agree on a settlement of the conflict. Realizing that it would not be possible to achieve agreement between the parties, the judge decided to put an end to the scandalous process on his own. If Paul McCartney or Heather Mills do not agree with his verdict and the amount assigned, they have the right to challenge the judge's decision on appeal. In this case, the divorce process, which took place behind closed doors, will continue publicly.

However, experts believe that in any case, the amount that Mills will receive from the ex-Beatle will go down in the history of family law. Let us recall that last year Forbes magazine included McCartney’s divorce proceedings among the ten most expensive in the last quarter of a century.

Fedor SEREBRYANSKY