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McCartneys divorce proceedings start

Posted on: Saturday, 29 July 2006, 08:55 CDT

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."

Source: REUTERS

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