Paul McCartney Settles with Ex Heather Mills

The Short Marriage

Sir Paul and former model Heather Mills met in 1999. The two wed in 2002 in a 17th Century Irish Castle with 300 friends and family looking on. Many apparently had a huge problem with him marrying Mills, who was 25 years his junior. Designer daughter Stella McCartney often accused Heather of being a gold-digger. The two have a daughter together named Beatrice.

The Ugly Divorce

The couple announced that they were filing for divorce in 2006 and at first said that the divorce was "amicable." The niceties soon ended as Mills began publicly accusing McCartney of being physically violent toward her -- Paul retorted by making less than flattering comments about his ex-wife in public. These comments were, of course, "overheard" by the press and subsequently published in newspapers and tabloids around the globe.

The Orginal Offer

McCartney, who is reported to be worth close to a billion dollars, allegedly originally offered Mills a settlement of an estimated £50 million as long as she would sign a gag order, agreeing not to talk about their life together, ever. A later report stated that he offered around £16 million. Mills rejected both offers.

The Settlement

The long road to finalizing the Mills-McCartney divorce seems to be over for both of them as the court has awarded Mills a little over £24 million. The press is calling this multi-million dollar settlement a "win" for McCartney and a "loss" for Mills…if you can call £24 million a "loss," that is.