After the death of his first wife, a somewhat sorry-looking and distraught Paul McCartney seemed to have rebuilt himself when he married Heather Mills in 2002. The marriage was short-lived. They separated after four years. A daughter, now four years old, was born during the marriage. Mills asked for £125 million ($252 million) in the divorce settlement. She was awarded £24.3 million (the equivalent of $48.9 million), which includes her £7.8 million ($15.7 million) in assets.
These numbers are mind-boggling in any currency. If Mills was being paid for a job it would be like she was earning £700 ($1,400) per hour. An eight-hour day would be $11,200!
It seems that Mills had quite a colourful past, which the tabloids lost no time digging into and spreading in newsprint. Mills laments that the media painted her as a gold-digger and a whore.
Four-year old Beatrice will be well taken care of financially - the judge ordered she should be allowed $70,000 a year, and McCartney has also to pay her school and nanny fees. (Not at suggesting that he was unhappy to do this.) But the fact remains that this sorry saga will be forever a dark imprint on her young mind. She is the real victim in all this. Think, how as she grows up, not only will she have a bad memory of a broken home, but also she will read all the stories about her mother.
Mills is not satisfied with the huge settlement and plans to appeal.
In the pages of her divorce papers she made many allegations against McCartney, allegations of physcial abuse and humiliation. She alleged that she was pushed over a coffee table, on another occasion pushed into a bath, she was choked, wine was poured over her head, and she was cut with a broken wine glass. She was made to climb up the steps of a plane on her hands and feet, because her wheel-chair could not be accommodated.
Whether these allegations are true, exaggerated or fabricated we cannot judge. But they portray a man that the public cannot really recognise. Mostly McCartney has comported himself with a sense of dignity. Did he really commit the acts alleged, and if so, how was he driven to them?
McCartney is a musical icon of our age. “Let it be.”
Technorati Tags: 
