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The divorce battle between Sir Paul McCartney and his estranged wife Heather is getting nasty as they call in Charles and Diana divorce lawyers
Sir Paul McCartney and estranged wife Heather Mills have raised the stakes in their increasingly acrimonious divorce battle, hiring the same two lawyers who represented Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they split in 1996.
Mills, who married the former Beatle in 2002 and has a daughter, Beatrice, with him, has named Anthony Julius of leading law firm Mishcon de Reya to fight her side.
Julius, dubbed Anthony Genius, represented Diana in her divorce case, winning her £17 million. However, Mills is in line for a much larger payout and could pocket as much as £200 million of Sir Paul's estimated £825 million fortune.
It has already been widely reported that McCartney had hired Fiona Shackleton, who acted for Prince Charles against Diana, to argue his case.
Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, but the marriage collapsed amid mutual accusations of adultery. They separated in 1992 and finally divorced in 1996.
Getting nasty
When the McCartneys announced their separation in May, they promised it would be amicable. But Mills' spokesman Phil Hall confirmed on Tuesday that McCartney had frozen their joint bank account and sent a "legal letter" to his wife to complain after three bottles of cleaning fluid were taken from his Sussex home to clean Mills' nearby office.
On Monday Police were called to the home of Sir Paul McCartney after Heather Mills tried to get into his home after finding the locks had been changed.
According to the Daily Mirror, she arrived at Sir Paul's home in St John's Wood with their daughter Beatrice for an arranged visit.
When she arrived she could not get in and when her driver tried the intercom and got no answer her security guard scaled the wall
Unreasonable Behaviour
McCartney cited Mills' "unreasonable behaviour" in the divorce papers and Mills responded by vowing to file counter-claims in Britain and the United States.
Unhappily married
The couple met in 1999 at a charity event a year after the death from breast cancer of McCartney's first wife Linda. They got engaged in 2001 while on a short break in the Lake District and wed the next year at a remote countryside castle in Ireland.
Mills has been the target of lurid allegations in British tabloids since separating from McCartney, but he has strongly denied she married him for his money, saying in May there was "not an ounce of truth in this".
Sir Paul already has three children from his marriage to Linda - musician James, photographer Mary, and fashion designer Stella. He also has a stepdaughter, Heather, from Linda's first marriage.
