As someone who has gone through the trauma of divorce, and the even greater trauma of a financial settlement, I have great sympathy for Paul McCartney. While £24.3 million may seem like a lot of money to just hand over to a woman that has basically done nothing for Paul’s career, and has not contributed in any way to his personal wealth or supported him while he has accumulated it, you have to say that in many ways Macca has got away lightly.

First off, there is a child involved and she has custody, therefore standard financial settlement rules suggest that she should be deserving of not only half of his fortune, but 60%.

That’s right, the parent with care should retain 60% of the matrimonial assets, which means Macca could have have ended up paying £240 million, if the judge’s assessment of his wealth was accurate.

I had to pay 60% of my assets when I got divorced, so while I didn’t quite fork out the £24.3 million that McCartney did, in real terms I paid a lot more than he did.

From the BBC website.

The judge awarded a lump sum of £16.5m and assets of £7.8m.

The summary judgment stated that Ms Mills had sought £125m and been offered £15.8m by Sir Paul.

The judge ruled that Sir Paul was worth £400m, whereas Ms Mills claimed the singer was worth some £800m.

Clive Bellmore