A bitter day in Heather McCartney's video diary

LONDON - With her video camera trained on waiting cameramen, Saturday was just like any other day for Heather Mills-McCartney.

On a day when her daughter Beatrice was celebrating her third birthday, Lady Mills-McCartney kept up her daily ritual of chronicling her encounters with the circling media on video as she drove from her East Sussex home.

Her fleeting appearance came after yet another week of acrimony in her increasingly bitter divorce battle with Sir Paul McCartney - claims of violence on both sides, more secret tapes and further intrigue about who was behind the leaks.

Yesterday, Bea spent a low-key afternoon with her mother and friends at a two-hour party at a children's activity centre in East Sussex, before leaving with her father.

In contrast to the private gathering, in just a few days' time Sir Paul will up the ante in terms of profile.

Beneath the glare of a packed house at the Royal Albert Hall, to the sound of a soaring chorus, which he scored, he will make his return to the public arena when his new classical work, Ecce Cor Meum receives its premiere.

He will take an ovation from an audience expected to include P Diddy, Tony Bennett and possibly Madonna, a close friend of his daughter Stella.

The occasion marks his first major appearance since his divorce descended into mud-slinging and acrimony after court papers alleging Sir Paul was cruel and occasionally violent were leaked.

It will also be a very pointed rebuff to his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Eight years in the making, the work is inspired by, and dedicated to, his first wife Linda, who died in 1998 from breast cancer, not the woman with whom he has shared his life for the past six years.

He will get through this moment of scrutiny with a little help from his friends and family.

Before he takes his bow, Sir Paul will be seated in one of the velvet-draped boxes beside his daughter Stella, and two of his other children, James and Mary.

Others in the audience will include friends and supporters such as Kate Moss, with her boyfriend Pete Doherty, as well as the musician and TV presenter Jools Holland.

"It will undoubtedly be a very poignant occasion. Everyone will be rallying round," said one insider.

Although scheduled months ago, the performance comes after further hostility between the two camps.

Claims that Sir Paul showed a violent streak in his first marriage have been compounded by tapes made by Linda's confidant, Peter Cox, which are alleged to show that their 29-year marriage was not as rosy as the world had believed.

The McCartney lawyers have already stepped in to stop those tapes being made public.

The already hostile relationship between the former Beatle and his wife, nicknamed Lady Mucca by The Sun, plummeted to new depths just under a fortnight ago when court papers prepared by Heather were leaked.

These held allegations that Sir Paul was abusive and violent during the three-year marriage.

The gloves were off and the off-the-record backbiting began.

The pages were sent anonymously to the Press Association news agency's head office in Howden, East Yorkshire.

The company's IT team has now traced the source of the original fax to a newsagent in central London, Drury News, whose proprietor remembered a brunette woman sending the fax.

It has also emerged that Heather's PR adviser, Phil Hall, has been sidelined from handling the minutiae of the case in favour of the PR Office, the firm which looks after the account for her lawyers Mishcon de Reya.

In an interview this week with USA Today, Sir Paul, who has been attending rehearsals of Ecce Cor Meum, which translates as Behold My Heart, said he was still hoping for a peaceful end to the multimillion-pound divorce.

"I'm just hoping for a happy resolution, particularly for the sake of our beautiful daughter, Beatrice, and my other children," he said.

Now, however, in the words of his own song, it looks more likely to be a "Tug of War".

- INDEPENDENT