Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are under a strict order from Mr Justice Bennett, the High Court judge for their divorce settlement hearing, that they risk contempt of court proceedings and fines if details of the negotiations are leaked to the media.

On the second day of the private hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, Sir Paul and Ms Mills came and went with barely a look towards the waiting press. Sir Paul said: “No comment”, and a member of Ms Mills’s entourage said: “We are under strict instructions to say nothing.”

The hearing has a line up of top family lawyers for Sir Paul, including Nicholas Mostyn, QC, and Fiona Shackleton, the solicitor who acted for the Prince of Wales in his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales.

Ms Mills is acting for herself. However, David Rosen, from a firm in Edgware, is acting as a “McKenzie friend”, advising her unofficially. The role is usually taken by a lay person who advises litigants acting on their own. David Swede, a managing partner at the firm, said that Mr Rosen, of the litigation department of Darlingtons, became involved through a referral from another solicitor.

It is believed that Sir Paul has offered a sum in the region of £20 million with annual payments to support Beatrice, the couple’s daughter, but that Ms Mills is arguing for a sum nearer to £70 million – in part because of the costly security protection that she claims to need.

Sandra Sinclair, of SAS Daniels, a law firm, said that Britain’s was the best jurisdiction in the world for wives seeking a divorce settlement but that Ms Mills could find herself in trouble at the Royal Courts of Justice.

“She must be mad to do it herself. She will be up against one of the finest legal teams in the world,” she said.

There has been speculation among divorce experts that the settlement could reach £60 million.

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