Mills Awarded $48.6M From McCartney

Mills Awarded $48.6M From McCartney


LONDON (AP) — A judge awarded Heather Mills a total of $48.6 million Monday in the financial settlement of her divorce from former Beatle Paul McCartney.

A document released by the Family Court said the judge awarded Mills a lump sum of $33 million plus the assets she currently holds worth $15.6 million.

"I'm so, so happy with this," Mills told reporters following the closed hearing.

The court also ruled that the couple's 4-year-old daughter Beatrice should receive a "periodical payments order" of $70,000 per annum. On top of that, McCartney will pay for the child's nanny and school fees.

Mills had sought almost $250 million, while McCartney had said she should receive $31.6 million, including her own assets, which the court assessed at $15.6 million.

Judge Hugh Bennett found that the total value of all of McCartney's assets, including his business assets, was about $800 million. He said there was no evidence to support the widely published figure that was more than twice as much.

McCartney left the court without making any statement.

"I'm so glad it's over," Mills said at her impromptu news conference.

"It was an incredible result in the end to secure mine and my daughter's future and that of all the charities that I obviously plan on helping and making a difference with — because you know it has been my life for 20 years," she said.

"Obviously the court do not want a litigant in person to do well, it's against everything that they ever wish, so when they write the judgment up they're never going to make it look in favor.

"But all of you that have researched know that it was always going to be a figure between 20 and 30 million (pounds), Paul was offering a lot less than that, which you'll see in the judgment, and very much last minute to put me and Beatrice sadly through this ... incredibly sad."

Paul McCartney ‘to go on tour again’

Sir Paul McCartney is set to go on a world tour in a bid to put his bitter divorce from Heather Mills behind him, it has been revealed.

The former Beatle has reportedly told friends that he wants to get back on the road.

If Paul, 65, did decide to embark on a world tour, the potential earnings would almost certainly help him recoup the $48.6m settlement that was awarded to Heather on Monday.

A source said “He has kept a low profile for the last two years. Now he just wants to get out there again. That is what he does best.

“He is receiving offers on a weekly basis from promoters all over the world. When he tours, he breaks box office and merchandising records. He’s such a big draw.

“He will be 66 in June but is in remarkably good shape and will have no trouble withstanding the rigors of traveling the world performing.”

The singer netted around $55m from touring between 2002 and 2006, according to evidence he submitted during the six-day High Court hearing last month.

New Macca Book?

Sir Paul McCartney's life will apparently be examined in detail in a new biography.

British author Howard Sounes is reportedly in advanced talks with HarperCollins' non-fiction department to the UK rights of the book.





It will give the Beatles legend's life "the epic treatment" according to The Independent.

Details of Sir Paul's divorce from Heather Mills were released in full on Tuesday and Sounes' new biography, to be released in late 2010, would examine the singer's life right up until the end of the bitter court battle.

Any book deal would reportedly to be a "substantial investment".

Sounes' agent, Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown said: "Howard will be putting everything into context. Usually McCartney's story in books ends in the 1970s when he formed Wings. This will be a wide sweep of his career and show how he's an amazing artist.

"John Lennon has been given the epic treatment several times over but no one has talked about Sir Paul in that way."

Sounes - who wrote 2001's acclaimed biography Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan and Fred And Rose, the macabre book about he life of serial-killers Fred and Rosemary West - has apparently promised not to rake up the sordid details of Sir Paul's four-year marriage to Heather Mills.

Wise added: "Sounes will approach this with an independent eye, but it will not be a muck-raking biography."

But a spokeswoman for HarperCollins said: "The agent has rather jumped the gun. We are in discussion but we still haven't bought it."