The McCartney-Mills Divorce Settlement: Mine was Not Quite as Expensive

The drawn out saga of the divorce between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills appears to be nearing an end. After two years of accusations and counter-accusations, a judge in the case has awarded Heather Mills the tidy sum of $48.6 million. This is quite a bit less than the $251 million she was asking for, but a bit more than the $31.6 million Mr. McCartney had offered, according to CNN. There are still issues to be worked out, such as Ms. Mills' request not to have the transcripts of the settlement released. This settlement did fall short of the UK record for a divorce settlement, which comes in at $96 million.

For those of us that have been through a divorce, it is unlikely that such financial stakes were on the line. Nevertheless, any divorce will bring with it heartache, financial strain and usually just a little bit of anger.

In my own case, I was divorced after 7 years of marriage, and we had been together for a total of 10 years. We had had our share of problems, for sure, but the end did come as a bit of a surprise to me. As in any disagreement between people there is more than one side, I will try to be as fair as possible, but keep in mind that I am biased toward me. I needed to travel for my job, and left for the week, as usual on a Tuesday. That day began with a kiss, and the both of us saying "I love you," etc. When I returned on Friday, there was no one there, and half of the stuff was gone! I suspected something was amiss.

Our case was a little odd in that we never had personal contact again, only though attorneys, so I never did discover exactly why my wife left. Perhaps in the end it was a good thing, like tearing off a bandage quickly. It did not hurt too long. In a few ways we were fortunate, we were renting so there was no real estate to divide. In addition, we had no children, so this made things simple.

The only point of contention was a sizable sum of unpaid bills. This is where I was going to draw the line. I hired a very good attorney at $200 per hour and began to fight it out for an equal division of the bills, as I thought was fair because she was also employed. The trick was is that she made just little enough to get a free legal aid attorney. I thought for sure that with my high-powered attorney I would win. However, one thing I did not think about was that I was paying $200 per hour, and she could hold out indefinitely. I decided better to just give in and move on with my life.

Through this experience, I discovered a few good life lessons. It is a far better thing to move on into a bright new future than to waste time and emotional resources over a few dollars. This attitude has served me well as I realize that even a painful ending of one chapter of my life has led to a new and more beautiful one.

So, this summer I will be marring my soul mate. Wish us luck!

Works Cited

CNN News. (2008). McCartney's ex-wife awarded almost $50 million. Retrieved from CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/03/17/mccartney.mills/index.html