A British court ordered former Beatle Paul McCartney today to pay his estranged wife Heather Mills £24.3 million sterling (€30.9 million) after an acrimonious divorce battle.
Speaking after the judge's ruling, Mills said: "I am so glad it is over. It is an incredible result in the end. "We are very, very pleased," she added. McCartney declined to comment.
McCartney (65) married the former model and charity campaigner Mills (40) in 2002 but they split four years later, blaming media intrusion into their private lives. They have a daughter, Beatrice, aged four.
Mills criticised McCartney's lawyer Fiona Shackleton, accusing her of handling the case badly and of calling her names.
Mills, who sacked her lawyer and represented herself in court, urged would-be divorcees to do the same thing. "You can be a litigating person," she said. "You'd save yourself a fortune."
Justice Hugh Bennett, giving details of the settlement, said: "She sought an award of almost £125 million pounds. Sir Paul proposed the wife should exit the marriage with assets of £15.8 million pounds inclusive of any lump sum award.
"The judgment decided that the husband should pay the wife a lump sum of £16.5 million , which together with her assets of £7.8 million pounds means that she exits her marriage with total assets of £24.3 million."
The court ruled that the judgment be made public, but stayed publication pending Mills' appeal against it being made public.
Ms Mills, speaking to a phalanx of reporters on the steps of London's High Court, said she was appealing "because the judgment involves private secure matters of my daughter ... everything about her is in there."