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Divorce talks stall over Heather's right to speak about life as Mrs McCartney
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McCartney Divorce Case Breaks Down Sky

McCartney divorce case in tatters as Heather refuses deal to stay silent Mail

Macca: 'I'm living a nightmare' NOTW

HAPPY XMAS: WAR IS OVER
Happy Christmas EXCLUSIVE Maccas to sign £50m divorce deal by Xmas
By Sean Hamilton Showbiz Editor Sean.Hamilton@Sundaymirror.Co.Uk

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills will sign a divorce deal by Christmas.

The couple - who met for eight and a half hours in court on Thursday - are to compromise for the sake of their daughter Beatrice, three.

A meeting to hammer out a deal, estimated to be worth £50million, is expected by the end of November.

The financial settlement should be signed off by Christmas, according to a friend of Sir Paul.

The deal Macca, 65, is believed to have offered Heather, 39, includes a lump sum and yearly maintenance fees for Beatrice.

But she has refused to accept his demands for an absolute gagging order. However, both sides want to avoid a full High Court hearing next year which would involve a public slanging match.

Sources close to the couple say they are both aware they will have to compromise.

Macca does not want the disturbing contents of her leaked divorce petition to come out. In it she accused Paul of drunkenness, assault and bullying - allegations he denies. And Heather wants to avoid his counter claims, which have so far remained secret, to become known.

They also want Beatrice to enjoy a happy Christmas. There is even talk of the two parents spending time together over the festive period. Paul's friend rubbished claims that this week's hearing ended in deadlock - insisting "great progress has been made".

Former Beatle McCartney was described as "very relaxed and happy" about the way things went at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London.

The pal added: "Many of these claims about a deadlock are ludicrous. They are the closest they have been for years - and both delighted the end is now in sight.

"They are both going to be at Bea's birthday party at the end of October - and want to have good news for everyone.

"Then it should just be a formality of signing the papers the lawyers are preparing."

Sir Paul and Heather have been working out the details of their custody arrangements for Beatrice - writing in clauses allowing them both to work abroad for periods.

One of the main reasons Paul is keen to settle soon is to enable him to embark on a major world tour next year - which is impossible until the divorce is finalised.

The pair were not expected to face each other until February in the High Court.

But Sir Paul and Heather both softened their positions - allowing the early hearing this week to take place.

*YEAH, YEAH, YEAH IT'S A LENNON SONG

I find this whole thing staggering. They are talking figures way beyond what anyone could spend in several life times. She has been in his life two minutes and seems to be sponging for all she can get. I just wouldn't have the brass neck to do what she is doing. Maybe that's why she's where she is and I'm where I am

He would have been much better off just 'Hiring' a 'Companion' and changing her for a new model every 6 months

Divorce 'like going through hell', says McCartney



Paul McCartney has described his divorce as like "going through hell".

The 65-year-old ex-Beatle insisted he would keep his dignity by not speaking about the break-up, but admitted: "Going through a divorce is a very painful thing."

He told the Radio Times magazine: "As Winston Churchill once said: 'If you're going through hell, keep going!' The only solution is to remain dignified. If I don't keep a silence about it, I lose this idea of being dignified.

"But I've a wonderful baby. She's a great joy to me, as are my elder children, so I'm a lucky man."

McCartney spent eight hours in court last week with Heather Mills, the mother of his three-year-old daughter Beatrice, without coming to an agreement.

McCartney and Mills, 39, who wed in 2002 before splitting four years later, were reported to be disagreeing over the music legend's demands for a confidentiality settlement.

But reports over the weekend said the pair would sign a £50m (€71.9m) deal by Christmas, with a deal hammered out in November, for the sake of their daughter.

In today's interview, McCartney denied he has been dating Renee Zellweger, Rosanna Arquette and Christie Brinkley.

"Well, I went on holiday in America and went to concerts - James Taylor, Tom Petty - and there were lots of well known people," he said.


"And I stopped by to say 'Hi' to Christie Brinkley and, unbeknownst to me, someone took a picture. And suddenly everybody's going: 'Ooooh Paul, I don't know if you should marry her!'

"I went on holiday. I met a lot of people. I started a lot of rumours. But there's no truth to any of them," he said.

McCartney described the Queen as a "babe", saying: "I've got a lot of time for the Queen. She's fun, she's funny, she's amazing.

"The Queen's a babe!"

He added: "I know what fame is. But she knows what real fame is. I remember when we were touring Britain - about '64, I suppose - and we were in one of those line-ups and she was staying at Windsor.

"And she said: 'Where are you playing tomorrow evening?' And I said: 'Slough, ma'am'. And she said (claps hands excitedly): 'Oh, that's just near us!'"

McCartney, who admitted to looking himself up on the internet, said he was glad The Beatles had never reunited, adding: "The potential disappointment of coming on and not being as good as The Beatles had been... that was a risk we shouldn't take."

McCartney also told the magazine: "It's been a difficult time. But music is a great healer. Music is the therapy for me. In fact, going through difficulties has only concentrated my desire to make good music."

Asked what it would be like if the Beatles reformed, he added: "That's the 'what if' syndrome and I don't go there ... but since you're leading me down that flowery path, we could imagine that John would be this fantastic elder statesman, very much in command of his lifestyle, I'd be alongside him singing magnificently; George would be playing like an angel on his guitar, we'd be gelling, sound like nothing anyone's ever heard before with all the power of modern amplification.

"And, behind us, would be the world's greatest drummer. And it'd be fandabidozi!"

* The full story is in the Radio Times magazine, out tomorrow.
breakingnews

Sir Paul McCartney: I'll give Heather £25million
WORLD EXCLUSIVE He ups initial offer of just £3MILLION Divorce deal could be finalised this week
By Fiona Cummins, Showbiz Reporter



Macca and Heather Mills are on the brink of a divorce deal after he offered her £25million.

Heather's legal team is urging her to accept the cash, which is a huge increase on Sir Paul's opening offer of between £3million and £5million.

The fine print, including a gagging clause to stop Heather telling her story, is still being discussed. But the two sides are said to be "within touching distance" and could shake hands on a deal by Friday. A source said: "There is no guarantee - but it's the closest they've been."

Cheeky Sir Paul McCartney initially offered Heather Mills a tiny £3million slice of his vast £825million fortune as a divorce pay off.

But her lawyer Anthony Julius laughed off the sum and has talked Macca up to £25million - a deal the warring pair seem to be on the brink of signing.

One well-placed source said yesterday: "They are nearing a possible settlement. There has been so much speculation about this case but here are the hard facts.

"Paul, on the advice of his lawyer Fiona Shackleton, originally offered Heather between three and five million. But there was absolutely no way Heather's legal team were going to accept that.

"Anthony Julius is a formidable operator and decided to play hard ball.

"He's crossed swords with Ms Shackleton before when they went head to head in Prince Charles and Diana's divorce and he knows how she works.

"There has been serious wrangling going on behind the scenes for months and months and months and he has finally managed to get them to hike the package up to about £25million.

"There is no guarantee they will settle but it's the closest they have been."

The estranged couple's legal teams are still negotiating on the detail of the deal - including the confidentiality clause that Macca has insisted Heather must sign.

But the 65-year-old ex-Beatle's lawyers are also believed to be counselling him to compromise. A settlement is "within touching distance".

Some divorce experts had predicted Heather, 39, would pocket up to £60million.

Anthony Julius, nicknamed Anthony Genius, has a reputation as one of the toughest negotiators in the legal world and is well respected by his peers. He is credited with securing Princess Diana's £17million deal.

One expert said: "Considering he's managed to get Heather around five times what was originally offered, it proves that Anthony deserves his reputation as one of most feared negotiators out there.

"It's unlikely a judge would award Heather any more and Anthony will be aware of that. I'm sure his advice will be 'Take the money.' Don't forget they were only married four years and he built up the bulk of his fortune before they met.

"It's actually a very generous settlement and Anthony Julius has done a sterling job.

"It also means Heather can avoid paying for expensive lawyers for another four or five months and can walk away now, knowing she can start getting on with her life."

The saving on legal fees will be considerable - as Mr Julius and Ms Shackleton both charge around £500 an hour.

Macca's £25million offer is believed to have been made after last week's pre-divorce hearing in London.

Heather is expected to decide whether to accept the offer by the end of the week - and maybe as early as Friday.

The Mirror told on Saturday how Macca was prepared to go all the way to a full public divorce hearing in February.

A source close to McCartney said: "Paul is in quite a strong position. His legal team knows a judge is unlikely to award Heather a package of much more than about £25million so he has offered that and now all he has to do is sit and wait.

"It's now in Heather's hands. Paul has always been prepared to go all the way but if it can be sorted out before then, he's not going to stand in the way."
Mirror

Pay me £50m by Friday or I'll see you in court, Heather tells Macca Mail

The cost of catharsis


'For many, the only fun to be had from splitting up is bitching about their ex - it's a sacred ritual'


Tellingly perhaps, divorcing couple Paul McCartney and Heather Mills have stopped arguing about what has been said and done, and are now arguing about what might yet be said and done. If reports are to be believed, Macca wants Mucca to keep her trap shut about their time together, while Mucca wants to work the US chat-show circuit. Macca is dictating that Mucca say 'only good and positive things', and seeking to impose some kind of 'gagging order', which Mucca doesn't think is realistic. Unfortunately for Sir Paul, Heather may be right.


First of all, respect to Ms Mills. If rumours are to be believed then sticking to her guns about wanting to tell all on a future Oprah special could cost her up to £20m from the divorce honeypot, which seems a lot for the privilege of sitting next to a plastic cheese plant, 'spilling'. But then, what do we mere mortals know of high-stakes divorces? What most of us do know about is the post-relationship urge to vent - how what was once a warm, quiet love can suddenly turn nasty, vengeful and very (very) loud. Trying to put a 'gagging order' on that would be like whispering 'Ssh' to a whirlwind.

Still, could these kinds of 'gagging orders' work for ordinary mortals? Probably not. For many, the only fun to be had from splitting up is bitching about their ex - it's a sacred ritual. After all, you've put up with a total idiot for how long? Now you're finally free it's unfair that you can't have a period of 'reflection', debating what went wrong (something they did), how it could never have worked (because of them), how there are always innocent victims (you), and difficult decisions to be made - throw clothes out of window, or attack them with garden shears?

Moreover, some might argue there already is a working 'gagging order' system in place - namely along the lines of the old CND term 'MAD' (Mutually Assured Destruction). Just as Russia and America scared each other into mutual military impotence with their threats of nuclear holocaust for decades, so too have former couples down the years operated a 'Golden Silence' system that can only be broken by one of them breaking ranks and telling the world about their former partner's third nipple, miserliness, lack of hygiene, and/or selfishness in the bedroom. At which point the injured party goes public with their own carefully complied 'revenge dossier' and boom!, all hell breaks loose (see Tarrant vs Tarrant).

While no one is perfect, it has to be said that some people can get a little gender-extreme in response to splits. In female terms this entails a quasi-black widow syndrome, where you wouldn't mind having them sent to sleep with the fishes (all women go a bit Tony Soprano when disappointed in love). Men are just as bad, remaining the sex prone to pressing 'erase' on everything to do with their former partner with unsettling (insulting) swiftness. Either that or they're busy posting lewd pictures of them on the internet ('This is a naked photo of the woman who just dumped me - isn't she hot?').

However, in my opinion, none of these examples comes close to the unbearable creepiness of the 'Let's be reasonable' break-up, when your ex goes round telling everyone what 'a truly wonderful person, with fine qualities' you are. See what I mean - enraging. It's the romantic equivalent of one of those 'with regret' form letters they send out to announce corporate redundancies.

Obviously these people are so full of pent-up rage, in years to come they will be caught going on homicidal rampages with hunting knives between their teeth. But at the time, you think, 'What's going on? Don't I merit a couple of crazed, embittered rants?' Or in the case of Mills, some ill-advised chat-show appearances? Indeed, Mills's urge to spill may be just her way of showing she once cared (or something).

All of which explains why post-relationship gagging orders wouldn't work. The human post-split impulses will always be there - for our pain to be acknowledged and, ultimately, given the respect it deserves. Failing that, just make sure the other person cops the blame for absolutely everything.

barbara.ellen@observer.co.uk

Macca's revenge: How the tables have turned on Heather Mills

DailyMail

Heather Mills: I get worse press than a paedophile Mirror

Mucca: I'll die like Diana Sun

Heather, Heather... calm down, dear


It would be remiss of me to ignore the extraordinary tirade against the media by Heather Mills on GMTV this morning in which she compared her plight to that of Princess Diana and Kate McCann.

"They've called me a *****, a gold-digger, a fantasist, a liar, the most unbelievably hurtful things, and I've stayed quiet for my daughter," she said. "I've had worse press than a paedophile or a murderer and I've done nothing but charity for 20 years."

She revealed that she had contemplated suicide because of the alleged "hate campaign" by a "specific portion of the media" which had peddled lies, distortions and innuendos. This has resulted in her receiving death threats.

Example of a lie? Asked if she is seeking a clause in her divorce settlement allowing her to sell her story of her marriage to Paul McCartney, she replied: "It's rubbish. I can sell my story right now."

Can she? Not according to what she said only a moment before, as the Daily Telegraph's full transcript reveals (you'll need to get to page 3). She said: "I'm gagged at the moment because I'm not allowed to say a word while the media are fed this spin by a certain corner".

So let me get this right: she can sell her story but she is also gagged. How are we supposed to take her seriously when she contradicts herself so obviously?

Then there is this matter of spin. Are we to believe that newspapers have not been spun by people acting on her behalf? If so, what is her PR doing? Advising her to keep her mouth shut while refusing to respond himself to all phone calls from journalists?

The McCanns' media plight is of an entirely different order to Mills's difficulties. There is no equivalence at all. In truth, her interview was good knockabout stuff, but it is not the kind of assault on the press that can be taken seriously.

I have no doubt that some reporters and photographers have misbehaved. But Mills protests too much. As Michael Winner used to say in that irritating insurance advert, and tends to repeat rather often elsewhere: "Calm down, dear. Calm down."


guardian