Heather Mills McCartney may have just become the $63 million woman. Or not.
After months of waging an increasingly acrimonious and public divorce battle, Paul McCartney and his estranged wife have reportedly reached a confidential settlement that will see the anti-land mine activist pocketing the seven-figure payday for her part in their four-year marriage.
Though not according to her lawyers.
Britain's, ahem, ever reliable News of the World was the first to report the financial settlement Sunday—which, for those keeping score, amounts to a take-home income of more than $1,800 for each hour of marriage to the knighted musician—saying that the former model would also receive properties in Beverly Hills, worth $12 million, and London's tony St. John's Wood neighborhood, not far from the Beatles' famed Abbey Road studios, worth $8 million, in addition to her hefty payday.
The out-of-court deal is reportedly more than McCartney earned during his four years of marriage. But however substantial, parting with the cash will hardly force him to fly coach: The settlement, if it even exists, accounts for just 3 percent of the music legend's $1.6 billion fortune.
Of course, it's shaping up to be a very tenuous "if."
McCartney's lawyers have yet to comment on the report, but it didn't take long for Mills McCartney's team of legal eagles to shoot down the story.
"With regard to the article in yesterday's News of the World, we would like to state that there has been no offer made whatsoever at any time to our client and therefore no settlement has been agreed," the firm of Mishcon de Reya said Monday.
While the settlement would bring an end to the messy and long-drawn-out proceedings—the couple announced their split in May and officially filed for divorce last June—it would also mean that McCartney would not get the chance to publicly clear his name from allegations of verbal and physical abuse.
In court documents leaked to the media last fall—which Mills McCartney denies either leaking or filing in the first place—McCartney was accused of shoving his pregnant wife into a bath and into a glass table, humiliating her in public and forcing her to use a bedpan, among other more damning accusations.
The singer chose not to respond to the claims, issuing a statement instead saying he would "vigorously" defend himself at the appropriate time and place, which he went on to specify would only be the courtroom.
McCartney has long pleaded with the press to keep the matters of his divorce, a play-by-play of which has been graciously chronicled by the British tabloids, a "private matter." But while his appeals have been roundly ignored, he has clearly won the case in the court of popular opinion.
Mills McCartney has been savaged by the press, hounded by photographers and suffered a series of embarrassments—including being locked out of her home when McCartney's house workers reportedly failed to recognize her—in the months following their split, all of which have been caught, and in certain circles, relished, on camera.
On Sunday, the same day that word of a purported settlement broke, other tabloids were reporting that McCartney was moving forward on editing all remnants of the 39-year-old Mills McCartney out of his life.
The 64-year-old has struck a deal with council planners to bulldoze a $1.8 million cabin built specifically for his soon-to-be former missus on an estate in the English countryside. Mills McCartney lived in the home for several months following the duo's separation to ensure that both parties got equal face time with their two-year-old daughter, Beatrice.