Blog: Yesterday, Before All My Money Was So Far Away ...

Oct. 31, 2006— -- Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday" on the back of an envelope in 1965. Remember the lyrics?

"Yesterday/ All my troubles seemed so far away/ Now it looks as though they're here to stay …"

How tragically prophetic … "Yesterday love was such an easy game to play/ Now I need a place to hide away/ Oh, I believe in yesterday."

Today McCartney needs a place to hide from all the newspaper headlines about his estranged wife Heather's divorce petition. In some recently-released documents, which may or may not reflect the contents of the real court papers, Heather Mills accuses Paul McCartney of drug-taking and violent behavior.

Get the full story: Watch "Nightline" tonight on ABC.

Among other things, it's alleged that earlier this year he cut Mills' arm with a broken wine glass. The papers also charge that while in Los Angeles back in 2002, grabbed her by the neck before pushing her over a coffee table. And in Rome, apparently, he pushed her into a bathtub during an argument.

The response from McCartney's lawyers is short and to the point: "Our client will be defending these allegations vigorously and appropriately." By "appropriately" they presumably mean in court rather than in the pages of Britain's smutty tabloids.

At stake in the court fight: Paul's estimated $1.5 billion fortune -- and, remember, there was no pre-nuptial agreement.

"I've gone on record as saying that was the biggest mistake of his life possibly," divorce lawyer Alan Kaufman told me. "It's said in the newspapers that he thought about it, it was something he was aware of and he decided love was more important." Kaufman heads the family law team at the prestigious London firm Finers Stephens Innocent.

Just four years ago when they married it was love's young dream. Okay, he was nearly 60 and she was 34. Now it's descended into full-scale tabloid nuclear war.

"[Heather] has got into the ring with a forceful opponent," suggested another top London divorce lawyer, Vanessa Lloyd-Platt. "And she will never win the public relations battle with Sir Paul. Never."