LYING side by side on the pristine ice, with a fluffy white baby seal in the foreground, Sir Paul and Lady McCartney looked for all the world like a happy, committed couple. Helicoptered in to the ice floes of Canada’s Gulf of St Lawrence by the Humane Society International, the pair were there to help pressure the country’s government into stopping the brutal annual seal cull. Kitted out in matching red body suits and woolly hats, they spoke passionately about their desire for an end to the killing.

At one point Heather leaned over to play with one of the pups, only for it to try and bite her. Her husband instinctively moved forward to pull her back, a protective hand on her hip, a worried expression on his face. It was to be one of their last public appearances together. Just ten weeks later, the couple announced they were to separate.
Advert for The Scotsman Digital Archive

If the case goes as far as the courtroom, McCartney vs Mills could make the Tommy Sheridan trial look like an afternoon repeat of Perry Mason. What started off as an amicable separation has degenerated into what looks like a bitter divorce case filled with accusations and counter attacks; changed locks, frozen bank accounts and pornographic photographs. Most recently, the stakes were raised when Sir Paul hired Fiona Shackleton, the fearsome lawyer who represented Prince Charles in his divorce case. Heather retaliated by appointing the brilliant Anthony Julius, who represented Princess Diana. Listen carefully, and you can almost hear the tabloid press licking their lips.

Julius, a senior partner with Mishcon de Reya, nicknamed Anthony Genius, has a formidable reputation, acting as Princess Diana’s lawyer (for whom he secured a £17 million settlement) and consulted by Jerry Hall before she divorced Mick Jagger. He also successfully defended Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt in a high-profile libel trial brought by David Irving, who was described as a Holocaust denier, and handled Gill Faldo’s divorce from golfer Nick. Described by the vast-brained Stephen Fry, another client, as “probably the most intelligent man I have ever met”, he was reading Homer at the age of eight, Hegel in the original as an undergraduate and left Cambridge with a first in English. He is likely to be caring and sensitive towards Heather, while bringing his ruthless legal knowledge to the case in hand.

THE GLAMOROUS SHACKLETON, meanwhile, who acted for Prince Andrew when he divorced Sarah Ferguson and later for Prince Charles during his divorce, rejoices in her nickname, Steel Magnolia. It was Shackleton who proposed that Princess Diana drop the title Her Royal Highness, and once argued that Maya Flick, divorcing Mercedes-Benz tycoon Friedrich Flick, could not possibly be expected to live on £20 million a year thereafter. Educated at Princess Anne’s alma mater, Benenden, and the proud recipient of a third-class degree in law from Exeter University, the former debutante is now solicitor to Princes William and Harry and has also worked for the Aga Khan. Expect the immaculately coiffed Shackleton to bring her renowned steeliness to the case, and to be ruthlessly protective of Sir Paul’s earnings. Sir Paul has also hired Nicholas Mostyn, QC, whose many divorce-related successes have earned him the nickname Mr Payout.

“With the amount of money Sir Paul has, it’s not surprising he went to the best people out there,” says Alan Kaufman, a partner in family law at top legal firm Finers Stephens Innocent, which has handled some of the most high-profile celebrity divorces of the past decade. “My experience is that it’s much easier to talk to people who have experience at that sort of level.

“They were able to settle the Charles and Diana case amicably,” he continues. “Just because these two have been hired doesn’t necessarily mean that Sir Paul and Heather are gearing up for a fight.”

It all started off so well. On 17 May, the couple put out a statement saying that they were to go their separate ways. “Our parting is amicable and both of us still care about each other very much,” they said. “But we have found it increasingly difficult to maintain a normal relationship with constant intrusion into our private lives.” With a young daughter, Beatrice, they hoped they would be given some “space and time” to “get through this difficult period”.

There was more. “It’s been suggested that she [Mills] married me for the money and there is not an ounce of truth in this,” Sir Paul wrote on his website. “I’m very sad to see that some insensitive people would choose a moment like this to spread these vicious rumours.”

Heather put in her tuppence as well. “The press made me out to be a golddigger and I decided to keep my mouth shut and say nothing,” she said in an interview to promote her recently published book, Life Balance. “Looking back, I think that was a mistake. That period turned out to be the darkest and most difficult in my life – worse than losing my leg.”

Following the separation statement, a flurry of stories appeared concerning Heather’s health. Having recently undergone corrective surgery on what remains of her partially amputated leg, she was said to be confined to a wheelchair, the shock of the split having left her unable to walk.

But there were more shocks to come. Less than a month later, photographs purporting to be taken from a pornographic video, allegedly featuring Heather, were published. Just a few days later a story appeared in the News of the World, alleging Heather had worked extensively as a vice girl in the 1980s, indulging in lesbian and group sex for the entertainment of some extremely wealthy Arabs, in return for cash.

The newspaper allegations, over which Heather has said she intends to sue once the divorce case is through, were said to have “deeply shocked” Sir Paul, and Heather was said to be devastated. True or not, two days later Heather used the word “divorce” when referring to the split for the very first time. The gloves were off.

Before long, Paul had submitted a divorce petition to the courts, blaming the split on Heather’s “unreasonable behaviour” and claiming she had been “argumentative” and “rude to staff”. This was a long way from the “constant intrusion” that had previously been blamed for driving the two lovebirds apart. The whole thing had descended into what, if it weren’t for the sums of money involved, could be mistaken for a playground spat. Heather’s counter-claim, stating that Sir Paul is a mean person who, once they were married, had become boring and selfish, only furthered the belief that behind all the smiles, something had been rotten at the core of this marriage for some time.

Boring and selfish or not, Sir Paul was now on the attack. A rumoured offer to Heather from his camp for a quickie divorce, in return for the suggested sum of £30 million (a relatively small chunk of his £850 million fortune), was apparently turned down – with his friends apparently letting it be known that, in Sir Paul’s view, Heather had now left herself wide open to accusations about being a “gold digger”.

Speculation is rife as to how much cash she may ultimately get. “Most of the big issues around the negotiation that will be happening now will centre on what sort of settlement Heather will receive,” says Kaufman.

“It’s a short marriage, only four years, and it may be that what she is entitled to is a fair share of the increase in Sir Paul’s assets since the marriage took place.”

Tabloid editors keenly salivating for a court case, could, however, be waiting a while. “It’s highly unlikely to come to court,” says Susan MacLeod, head of the family law unit at Anderson Strathearn. “It’s far more likely that they’ll both be trying desperately to keep it out of court, and keep the details behind closed doors.

“Well, wouldn’t you?”

But details have seeped out, nonetheless. Sir Paul has apparently frozen their joint bank accounts, a move he allegedly took without first informing Heather, leaving her confused in front of a cash machine, unable to draw out money for the weekend. He also apparently sent her a legal letter after three bottles of cleaning fluid were taken from his Sussex farm, although it is thought this was just a small element of a longer legal communication.

Meanwhile, according to a friend of Heather’s quoted in a Sunday tabloid, it was Heather who paid the mortgage on their home in Hove, and she allegedly went on chat shows in order to raise money to pay staff, including her personal secretary. If true, these claims are likely to be raised in the divorce case.

THE STRANGE INCIDENT in which police were called to Sir Paul’s home on Monday has also raised eyebrows as to the perceived acrimoniousness of the split. Heather arrived at the pair’s London house in St Johns Wood with their daughter Beatrice – whom it is claimed she had arranged with Sir Paul to drop off – to find that the locks had been changed. When one of her security guards climbed over the wall to let her in, McCartney’s security team phoned the police. McCartney’s camp claim that she turned up unannounced.

And then there are the pre-divorce details, most of which we knew, but had been persuaded by the McCartney media juggernaut to forget. The stormy row in a Florida hotel that resulted in an engagement ring being flung out of the window and the long-held rumour that, while Sir Paul was happy to hang out on his farm at Peasmarsh in Sussex playing music and chilling out, Heather was more keen to hang out with the A-List in London.

While many had their doubts over the advisability of the marriage at the time, taken in context, it seems to have been doomed almost from the start.

These days, Mills is looking gaunt. Photographed leaving Julius’s offices earlier in the week, her face appeared pale, the bones in her neck standing out awkwardly, an incongruous orange scrunchie pulling her lank blonde hair back.

Apparently, she has been busying herself with charity work since news of the divorce first broke. According to her website, which intriguingly makes no mention of the divorce, in June she invited Paris Hilton round for a cup of tea in order to show her a DVD which details the plight of cats and dogs being skinned alive for their fur. Hilton burst into tears, and promised never to wear fur again.

Interestingly, she has hired Phil Hall, a former editor of the News of the World, to head up her PR team, a move that suggests that while the accusations rage, she is planning to fight fire with fire. It also suggests she is unlikely to return to the relative obscurity from which she emerged when she first met Sir Paul.

As for Sir Paul himself, well, he turned 64, a milestone which he marked quietly with family. The words of a song he must surely have come to loathe, (“will you still feed me, will you still need me”) were perhaps circling in his mind.

It could be some time before either is able to return to normal life – a life free from lawyers, divorce petitions, frozen bank accounts and changed locks. Who emerges wiser, happier, richer, or poorer, remains to be seen.