McCartney Divorce Battle Even Uglier

She May Have Tapes Of Him Admitting Abuse; He May Say He Was Victim

(CBS)  What's already in the public domain is scintillating and intense enough, but the mudslinging promises to get even worse in Paul McCartney's divorce battle.

Over the weekend, a report surfaced that there were tapes of McCartney admitting he abused his now-estranged wife, Heather Mills McCartney.

It was just the latest salvo in the battle for public sympathy, reports CBS News correspondent Rich Roth.

"All you need is divorce," Roth says, "to set the British press scrambling, now with claims and counter-claims that the former Beatle was a heartless, wife-beating drunk during his four year marriage — or that he wasn't, and that Mills has audio tapes to prove it — or she doesn't."

To one of McCartney's former public relations people, Geoff Baker, none of what's going on is much of a surprise.

"The public is not stupid," Baker observes. "They can see what's going on; they can see this is some kind of absurd ritualistic tar and feathering."

And, Roth says, it's covering both sides, with friends of Heather saying she'll claim he also abused his first wife, Linda, and friends of Paul saying he wasn't the perpetrator of violence in his marriage to Mills, but the victim.

Yet, in British courts, bad behavior in a marriage is almost never an issue deciding what most divorces are all about: what happens to the money.

Says family law lawyer Vanessa Lloyd-Platt, "Is conduct relevant in this country? No it's not, so anything she says about how she believes he has behaved toward her is completely irrelevant to the finances."

But, Roth points out, not at all irrelevant, according to the pulse-takers of public mood, to how the battle's perceived.

"It seems have turned people much more toward him," says Capital Radio disc jockey Johnny Vaughan, "because they simply don't believe McCartney's capable of this, so it's almost like the more strong the allegations, the more everyone just thinks how bad she is."

Though, Roth notes, it will no doubt get more complex.

This is like Shakespeare, says classical disc jockey Simon Bates: a drama filled with fame and vengeance.

"It's probably the best show biz story, I guess, well, since Richard Burton got married for the third time. But It's also a story that has a real depth to it, because it's about personal misery, one of the biggest superstars in the world. The only thing that would get better is if the queen decided to divorce the Duke of Edinburgh."

"With months before Paul and Heather decide, or a judge orders, how much of his fortune she'll get, public opinion is the only court in session," Roth concludes, "and the only issue on trial is image. But for a celebrity, that's priceless."

[sherryanna]

The first time I realized Heather Mills was a publicity-hog was when I saw her and Paul McCartney on Larry King Live and she refused to talk about anything regarding the fact that she was going to marry "Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle." She told him point-blank that she was on his show to talk about the land-mines issue, etc. and no one knew her from Adam and most people who tuned in did so because Paul McCartney was going to be on. She seemed very cold too and you could tell that Paul was giving her nearly all of the air-time.

These new allegations of hers seem so fake and I doubt that anyone who has known or known of Paul these last 30+ years is buying her stories. In the end, I think she's going to find that all her trash-talking about Paul McCartney is going to work against her...

[sherryanna]

The first time I realized Heather Mills was a publicity-hog was when I saw her and Paul McCartney on Larry King Live and she refused to talk about anything regarding the fact that she was going to marry "Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle." She told him point-blank that she was on his show to talk about the land-mines issue, etc. and no one knew her from Adam and most people who tuned in did so because Paul McCartney was going to be on. She seemed very cold too and you could tell that Paul was giving her nearly all of the air-time.

These new allegations of hers seem so fake and I doubt that anyone who has known or known of Paul these last 30+ years is buying her stories. In the end, I think she's going to find that all her trash-talking about Paul McCartney is going to work against her...

Heather Mills can continue to leak out details of what she thinks is a bad marriage, but in the end where it really counts, she doesn't have a leg to stand on!

[lestb35]

What a raving witch. It's Paul frigging McCartney. What was he thinking. Did I hear right that he didn't have a pre-nup. Paul, Paul, Paul. Dude, what were you thinking? PS.- I always liked Linda.

[tina2free2]

I think Heather is lying because she is known for using rich men to get their money she is a gold digger what kind of woman will go after a man right after the love of his life dies from breast cancer she would because she is taking advantage of this situation to munipulate him to trap him. anyways he should of listened to his children in the first place because kids sometimes know when someone does not have good attentions like they knew heather was only trying to use him for his money because everybody knows he is rich she knew this that is why she trapped him by munipulating him to marry her and to get her pregnant so he would have to give her money for child support and she will make up any lie to get more money off of him she probly set him up to say he abused her and taped him so she can get even more money off of him she is committing extorshing she is lying somebody should investigate her i know alot about paul because i am a big fan of his i've been since i was ten i love the beatles and paul was my favorite well anyways thats all i have to say goodnight

[theyelladawg]

Why are you devoting so many electrons to such an unimportant issue? Paul's attraction to Heather is simple proof of God's sense of humor in giving men a brain and a *** but only enough blood to use one at a time. Yes. Paul's a great songwriter and an obviously nice guy who attracted his opposite (= ignorant ***). But so what. The vitriol will stop when the Press stops paying attention - which should have been from the beginning. It's a divorce. Get a GRIP!

[danmikel]

One Million for each year of marriage a home the the kid plus support. Thats it.

[pwperez]

McCartney has contributed far too much good to the world to be damaged too signifigantly by this sordid "tell all". What surprises me is that he apparently did not see this potential in her. Being in show business as long as he has been, I figured he had seen it all. He would have been the last musician I'd thought would be in this situation. Two sides to every story though...Paul will have his turn.

[mgpm-2009]

I knew Heather Mills was a phoney when I heard Paul say in an interview that she'd never heard much Beatles music and didn't know when his music was playing. Please... I'll say this for her, she was very successful at trapping a multi millionaire. I doubt she'll be successful at getting as much of his money as she wants. She's pretty transparent.

[gtorlando]

Unless they find Paul with a smoking gun or a bloody knife, the public will always be behing him.