Paul McCartney, Heather Mills granted preliminary divorce decree

Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press - Ap

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney were granted a preliminary divorce decree on Monday.

By ROBERT BARR , Associated Press

Last update: May 12, 2008 - 10:49 AM

LONDON - Sometimes love isn't all you need. A judge in London granted a preliminary divorce Monday to former Beatle Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. If no one objects, the divorce will be final in six weeks.

Mills, 40, will emerge from the rancorous divorce with a settlement of $47.5 million but a reputation damaged by her televised outbursts against McCartney.

Neither McCartney nor Mills was in court Monday, which might have been a good thing. At the end of a hearing in March, Mills stole the show by emptying a pitcher of water on the head of McCartney's lawyer, Fiona Shackleton.

"Mrs. Shackleton said something under her breath so I cleansed and baptized her," Mills said afterward. "I thought she looked fantastic — I thought it did her the world of good."

Mills will retain custody of the couple's 4-year-old daughter, Beatrice. McCartney will retain the bulk of his fortune, estimated by the court at $880 million.

The split makes McCartney, at age 65, the last of The Beatles to get a divorce.

John Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono. Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen, divorced after 10. And George Harrison's marriage to Patti Boyd ended after 11 years.

But McCartney's marriage to the former Linda Eastman endured 19 years, until her death in 1998.

He married Mills, whose left leg was amputated below the knee after a 1993 motorcycle accident, in an Irish castle in 2002. They separated four years later.

Last year, Mills claimed in interviews that McCartney had failed to protect her and their daughter from slander, death threats and other abuse, and she accused the media of persecuting her.

In November, she said she had been "treated worse than a murderer or a pedophile," despite years of work for land mine victims and animal welfare charities.

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