By the heady standards of celebrity divorce, Sir Paul McCartney will escape lightly, even if he ends up paying Heather Mills an ear-popping £30 million.

He comes in at only sixth place in a new ranking of celebrity divorce settlements that was published yesterday by Forbes.com.

His predicted payout to the former model is dwarfed by the $150 million (£75 million) that singer Neil Diamond gave Marcia Murphey, a former television production assistant, at the end of their 25-year marriage in 1994.

Even that hefty bill could soon be beaten by the retired basketball star Michael Jordan in his split from his wife, Juanita, a bank clerk he married at the height of his fame in 1989.

Forbes estimates that she could get almost half the $350 million that he made from his career and his “Air Jordan” training shoe endorsement deal with Nike.

Lea Goldman, the Forbes editor who compiled the Top Ten list, said that the lesson was: “Sign a prenup and make sure a lawyer is present.”

Celebrity divorces pale by comparison with those of business moguls. Roman Abram-ovich’s break-up with his wife of 15 years, Irina, may cost the multi-billionaire £1 billion.

The largest public settlement was the £500 million paid by Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer, to his ex-wife, Soraya, in 1982, according to Guinness World Records.

But showbusiness divorces grip public attention and set visible trends for “civilians”. “We are seeing that younger celebrities who get into marriage are really tightening the screws in their prenups with a Britney Spears-type arrangement,” Ms Goldman says.

Thanks to an ironclad prenuptial agreement, Ms Spears will reportedly pay out only $1 million for her two-year marriage to Kevin Federline, a dancer. But Ms Goldman adds: “When you have been married 10 or 20 years, you cannot plan for these things and you are going to end up paying.”

Steven Spielberg met Amy Irving when she auditioned for Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. When they split after four years in 1989, Irving contested their prenuptial agreement, which was reportedly scribbled on a napkin, because she did not have a lawyer. She was awarded $100 million, about half Spielberg’s fortune at the time.

Sir Paul’s marriage to Ms Mills lasted only four years, but Forbes estimates that he earned between $100 million and $120 million during that time.

“We believe she is going to take this as far as she can take it,” Ms Goldman said.

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