Paul's divorce heats up
2006-08-21 10:25
Samir Tounsi
London - Celebrity lawyers, big money stakes and front page headlines in the British tabloids: former Beatle Paul McCartney's pending divorce from wife Heather has all the hallmarks of a US-style rupture.
But there are also echoes of Prince Charles' split from first wife Princess Diana, with both sides enlisting the help of legal big guns as the couple's private problems are picked over for public consumption.
Former model Heather Mills-McCartney, 38, has chosen Lady Di's former lawyer Anthony Julius to represent her, a snip at £500 an hour.
Julius, 50, comes highly recommended. Nicknamed "Anthony Genius", the late princess is said to have thanked him for "giving her wings" following her £17m divorce settlement from king-to-be Charles in 1997.
Not to be outdone, the singer-songwriter has entrusted the defence of his interests to Charles's former brief, Fiona Shackleton, the woman dubbed "the steel magnolia" and lawyer to Prince William and his brother Prince Harry.
But the financial stakes are higher for commoners Mills and McCartney, even if he is pop music royalty and a knight of the realm.
Ennobled Sir Paul, 64, is richer than the Prince of Wales, with an estimated personal fortune of £825m, according to several British newspapers.
After four years of marriage, Lady Heather is reported to be asking for almost a quarter of it - £200m - for herself and the couple's two-year-old daughter Beatrice.
Taking sides
Yet reports suggest McCartney - who with John Lennon sang the number-one hit Can't Buy Me Love in 1964 - is "only" offering £30m.
The McCartneys have been off the newspaper front pages in the last week because of the police operation against an alleged conspiracy to blow up US-bound aircraft.
But they are increasingly making a return as the "divorce of the century" gathers pace, with the majority of the popular press clearly taking sides in favour of "Macca" and a queue of unnamed friends eager to spill the beans.
According to reports, McCartney is said to have frozen the couple's joint account and changed the locks on their seven-million-pound home in the posh St John's Wood area of north London.
The last incident saw Lady Heather - who lost a leg in an accident with a police car - find the door to the St John's Wood house locked in early August. Police were then called when her bodyguard tried to get over a security fence.
To add insult to injury, a clutch of photographers were on hand to record Lady Heather's anguish, which was later shared with millions of readers.
The latest twist: details of how Sir Paul was in New York while Lady Heather on a "shopping therapy" trip in Los Angeles - with clear implications that their gulf was physical as well as emotional.
London's Evening Standard newspaper reported on Friday she is filming a "fly on the wall" documentary about the break-up.
- AFP