LONDON - It's been a hard day's night, but Paul McCartney will finally learn Monday how much of his huge fortune he must hand over to estranged wife Heather Mills. The rest of the world may have to wait a bit longer.
British law dictates that divorce cases are heard in private, and judge Hugh Bennett will deliver his ruling at a closed-door hearing at London's Royal Courts of Justice.
But given the huge interest in the case, the judge could decide to release some or all details of the settlement after he hears submissions from the couple Monday, court officials said.
The settlement also would become public if either side challenged it in the Court of Appeal.
McCartney, 65, and Mills, 40, went to court last month to decide on Mills' share of the former Beatle's fortune, which is estimated at as much as $1.6 billion. Media reports have suggested McCartney offered his wife around $50 million and that she was seeking at least double that amount.
"Heather Mills is obviously going to get what in common terms is a large financial settlement,'' said Patricia Hollings, a divorce specialist with London legal firm Finers Stephens Innocent. "How large it is going to be compared to his assets is another matter.''
London's Evening Standard newspaper Friday quoted an unnamed source as saying the settlement would be around $50 million, but that it was unclear whether that included provision for the couple's four-year-old daughter, Beatrice.
Hollings said Mills might receive as much as $100 million -- and that the judge might give her more in exchange for keeping quiet about the marriage and the divorce.
"My guess is he is going to be fairly inventive in how he deals with it,'' Hollings said. "He may give her a heightened sum of money to make up for the fact that she won't be able to go out and publish her autobiography as she would like.''
The settlement has been a long time coming for the couple, who separated two years ago, after four years of marriage. At the time they said the parting was "amicable'' and insisted "both of us still care about each other very much.''
But the split has grown fractious since McCartney filed for divorce alleging his wife's "unreasonable behaviour.''
Mills -- a former model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident in 1993 -- claimed McCartney had failed to protect her and their daughter from slander, death threats and other abuse, and accused the media of persecuting her. In November, Mills said she had been "treated worse than a murderer or a pedophile,'' despite years of work for landmine victims and animal welfare charities.
When the couple and their lawyers appeared for a six-day hearing before Bennett last month, photographers craned to catch a glimpse of them entering the grand, neo-Gothic court building, and reporters huddled outside the courtroom door.
But few details emerged.
Legal experts said the fact that the couple have a child would be taken into account in a settlement -- but so would the relative brevity of the marriage and the fact that most of McCartney's wealth was generated before he married Mills.
McCartney met Mills in 1999, the year after the death from breast cancer of his first wife, Linda. That marriage was one of rock's most enduring unions, and produced three children including fashion designer Stella McCartney.
Mills and McCartney married at an Irish castle in June 2002, amid rumours the former Beatle's children disapproved of their new stepmother. The couple's daughter was born the following year.
Provisions for Beatrice in the divorce settlement are not expected to be made public.
