Paul McCartney's marriage to ex-model Heather Mills was formally ended on Monday as a judge granted them a decree nisi, two months after they struck a high-profile bitter divorce settlement.

High Court judge Hugh Bennett pronounced the decree on the basis that the couple had not lived together for two years. Neither the former Beatle nor campaigner Mills was present for the ruling.

McCartney's lawyer Fiona Shackleton — who was drenched when Mills poured water over her on the last day of the divorce negotiations — made no comment as she left after the decree nisi hearing.

A decree absolute normally follows six weeks and one day on from the decree nisi, completing the divorce proceedings.

Mills was awarded £24.3-million ($48-million, €30.8-million) in a divorce accord finally hammered out in March, after prolonged and acrimonious negotiations.

McCartney married Mills in a lavish ceremony in Ireland in June 2002, four years after his first wife, Linda, died from breast cancer. But endless speculation about their marriage, with reports of furious rows, soon surfaced.

The British press was never keen on Mills even though McCartney denied she was a "gold-digger" chasing his fortune. They announced an "amicable" split in May 2006 — but then spent nearly two years hammering out the details.

In the March divorce ruling, Mills was slammed as "less than candid" by the judge, who said she had made "wholly unrealistic" demands on the megastar musician.

AFP