McCartney and Mills meet in court

Paul McCartney, the most successful musician in pop history, has arrived in court today to try to reach a settlement over his failed marriage.

His estranged wife Heather Mills, who is believed to be representing herself in a case which could set a new record for divorce settlements, turned up in a black Mercedes which came to rest in a disabled parking space alongside the court complex.

The former model, who lost a leg in a road accident in 1993, was ushered from behind the tinted windows of the vehicle and headed for the nearby court, its windows covered to stop anyone seeing through the doors.

McCartney arrived a few minutes later, smiling and looking relaxed but declining to comment on the hearing.

The former Beatle faces Mills across a courtroom where they will be battling over money and access to their child after a marriage that lasted less than four years.

He married Mills in June 2002 just four years after his first wife, Linda, died of breast cancer.

McCartney, with 60 gold discs and 100 million singles sales, has a personal fortune estimated at £825m (€1.1bn) – putting him at risk of facing the biggest payout in British legal history.

Unless one of the McCartneys takes issue with the settlement being hammered out behind closed doors in the Family Division of the High Court and goes to the Court of Appeal, the figures and details will never be known to the outside world.