The Paul McCartney-Heather Mills divorce battle is getting uglier and more expensive. And — not surprisingly — it's providing plenty of grist for the tabloids, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.
Beneath it all, he says, are allegations that Mills, whom the British public has never really embraced, may be a gold digger, and one with a murky past. Mills, losing the battle for public sympathy, has had to enlist her friends, such as Juliet Gellatley, of Viva Charity, who says, "I've found her very warm, very compassionate, extremely dedicated, very easy to work with; none of the tantrums that are associated with some celebrities, at all." It had all started so well, Phillips says.
Mills marrying McCartney after he lost his first wife, Linda, to cancer, and Mills with a tragic story of her own, having lost a leg in a car accident. She offered McCartney a new beginning and another child, a daughter who will turn 3 in October.
But soon, Phillips says, it all started going very wrong. "She wanted to be more known as an individual person, for her charity work," observes show business columnist Neil Sean. " …
He wanted the quiet life, he wanted to live on his farm, he wanted to do a tour every now and again." And, points out Phillips, a divorce process that began amicably has turned hostile. The high-priced lawyers have been called in. Money's involved. She's been offered a nice chunk of his fortune — some say close to $60 million dollars — but wants more, perhaps $400 million. "I think it's going to be nasty, whatever happens," predicts BBC Radio host Jono Coleman. " … They've now got the mega-lawyers involved, Princess Diana and Charles' lawyers; it means it's going to run and run and run, this story." Which, of course, the papers love, Phillips adds.
Mills being locked out of the matrimonial home after Sir Paul changed the locks was big news in Britain. "What we love here in the U.K.," says Sean, "is people, rich people particularly, falling out. We love to see diamonds flying across the floor and people scrambling for them."
What leverage does Mills have? There's always the potential for the spilling of marital secrets, the dreaded kiss-and-tell, Phillips notes. And of course, there's the child.
Asked by Philips which one he'd bet on, Sean replied: "Paul McCartney, definitely. I mean, Paul McCartney, obviously: the power the wealth, everything that he's got, plus, actually, the love of the British public. … They like him, they loathe Heather Mills."
One thing is sure, Phillips says: In a scrap like this, nobody wins.
This sordid tale from KDKA.
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