Sir Paul McCartney left a private divorce hearing at the High Court in high spirits yesterday, smiling and whistling and giving his usual two-fingered victory salute.

By contrast, his estranged wife, Heather Mills, made a low-key exit. Reports suggest that Mr Justice Bennett has thrown out some of the claims made by Ms Mills in her claim for her share of Sir Paul’s estimated £825 million fortune.

The couple’s lawyers issued a joint statement urging against misreporting of the case. “The parties both ask the media to respect their privacy and the confidentiality of the proceedings, as they work to settle the outstanding issues between them in their divorce,” it added.

The hearing, which started on Wednesday and is thought to have concluded yesterday, is believed to be a preliminary action before the main divorce case this year. The case was heard in private amid an almost unprecedented level of secrecy. The parties were not listed as is usual at the entrance of court 47 and the hearing was identified only by its case number: FD06D03721.

They announced the end of their marriage last May. The courts in this country are not bound by prenuptial agreements and the couple did not sign such an agreement before their wedding in 2002.

Last August Ms Mills was allegedly locked out of their £7 million home in St John’s Wood, northwest London, with their two-year-old daughter, Beatrice. A newspaper photographer recorded the scene. The McCartney camp later accused Ms Mills of stage-managing the event to generate sympathy.

Two months later a copy of Ms Mills’s divorce papers was leaked to the media. In them, Sir Paul was accused of verbally and physically abusing her. Sir Paul, 64, strenuously denied the allegations.

Yesterday he looked relieved as he left the Royal Courts of Justice just before noon, made his victory sign at the media and climbed into a car.

Ms Mills, 39, left the court 45 minutes later through the back of the building, using a judges’ private exit, and was ushered into the front seat of a chauffeur-driven car. She wore dark glasses and walked impassively past the media without offering any comment.

Ms Mills, a former model who lost part of her left leg in a traffic accident, arrived with her solicitor, Anthony Julius, who secured a £17 million divorce settlement for Diana, Princess of Wales. Sir Paul was accompanied by his solicitor, Fiona Shackleton, who acted for the Prince of Wales in the divorce.

None of the lawyers would confirm that the present proceedings are over, but all the legal documents were removed from the courtroom and the case was not listed by the court to continue today.

Mr Justice Bennett has overseen a number of big divorce cases. In 2005 he ordered Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, to pay his former wife £30 million. In the same year he said that the wife of a footballer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was entitled to 40 per cent of her former husband’s income for the following four years. He said an offer of £80,000-a-year maintenance was “thoroughly mean and unfair, given the size of the husband’s income and his personal expenditure”.

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