PAUL McCartney and his estranged wife Heather Mills McCartney met in a closed court in London yesterday to try and hammer out a divorce settlement at the end of their four-year marriage.
The former Beatle was believed to have made an offer of £20 million but Heather, who is the mother of the couple's three-year-old daughter Beatrice was said to be holding out for £50 million.
The hearing was carried out in secrecy yesterday, with
even the keyholes of the courtroom taped up, but commentators believe the divorce is likely to become the most expensive UK divorce ever.
Divorce lawyers believe Sir Paul, whose fortune is reckoned to be £825 million, will have to shell out more than the £48 million paid by insurance broker John Charman to his former wife Beverley, in May.
Some experts say the deal thrashed out behind the closed doors of the Royal Courts of Justice in Holborn could see Sir Paul ordered to pay out £70 million to his second wife.
Divorce specialists says a silence clause, requiring that neither of the participants speaks to the press, is likely to be included as part of the settlement.
Sir Paul and Heather Mills McCartney arrived separately at the rear of the court. The former Beatle wore a sober dark grey suit, while his former wife was helped into the building by minders.
The couple met at a charity event in 1999 and married in June 2002, four years after Paul McCartney's former wife Linda died of breast cancer.
McCartney's relationship with Linda was one of the most enduring in show business and it was said that during 30 years of marriage the couple only spent one night apart.
McCartney's second marriage was dogged by negative publicity from the beginning, with reports that McCartney's three grown-up children from his former marriage disapproved of Heather Mills.
Newspaper reports also suggested Heather Mills had not been entirely honest about details of her former life. However the former Beatle stood by his young wife and strongly defended her in the press.
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".
However reports suggested the couple were at war, with extraordinary claims coming from sources close to each of the parties. Lurid details began emerging about Heather Mills's life before her marriage and the tabloid newspapers nicknamed her "Mucca".
Mills, a 39-year-old former model and activist, who campaigned against landmines and animal cruelty recently appeared as a contestant on the US television network's Dancing With the Stars programme.
She was the first person to compete on the show with an artificial limb.
