McCartneys divorce proceedings start

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) – Former Beatle Paul McCartney has filed
for divorce from his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney, and
she will in turn file counter claims in the case, her spokesman
said on Saturday.

British tabloids reported that McCartney, 64, had begun
formal divorce proceedings this week, citing Mills’
“unreasonable behavior” for the break-up.

His representatives were not immediately available for
comment.

But Mills, 38, plans to file counter claims both in Britain
and the United States in the high-profile split, which was
first announced in May.

“Heather’s going to be filing her own counter-claims about
matters both in this country and America,” her spokesman said.

“Any view she has on her divorce will be handled
discreetly. She does not feel the need to repudiate claims that
she may be headstrong or feisty.

“She is hugely disappointed that matters of such a
confidential nature should be aired in public and feels it is
inappropriate to speak about such delicate matters when a child
is involved.”

The couple, who married in 2002, have a two-year-old
daughter Beatrice.

They met in 1999 at a charity event a year after the death
from breast cancer of McCartney’s first wife Linda Eastman.

The divorce could prove costly for the singer, whose
personal fortune is estimated at 825 million pounds.

Lawyers believe McCartney could lose up to a quarter of his
wealth in a private settlement, because the couple did not sign
a pre-nuptial agreement.

McCartney has strongly defended Mills from suggestions she
married him for his money, saying in May that “there is not an
ounce of truth in this.”

Since their split, Mills has been the target of lurid
allegations in the tabloids, prompting her to launch legal
action against one paper that printed claims that she was once
a prostitute.

She dismissed the allegations as “untrue and highly
defamatory.”