The ill-fated marriage of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills has been officially ended.

The same judge who who awarded the former model £24.3 million as a divorce settlement pronounced a decree nisi at the High Court on the grounds that the pair had been separated for two years.

Mr Justice Bennett presided over a brief private hearing before he granted Miss Mills her decree when Sir Paul's legal team of Nicholas Mostyn QC and solicitor Fiona Shackleton addressed the judge. The lawyers declined to comment when they left court.

Neither Sir Paul nor Miss Mills, who was not represented at the private hearing, were in court.

Their battle over money ended on March 17 with Miss Mills receiving £24.3 million from Sir Paul, whose fortune was put by the judge at £450 million.

The following day the judge released full details of his ruling, despite a last ditch attempt by Miss Mills to stop its publication.

The former Beatle's wife was criticised in the judgment for giving "inconsistent and inaccurate" evidence.

Mr Justice Bennett said she had conducted her own defence "with courteous, yet steely determination" after earlier sacking her own lawyers.

But he concluded: "Overall she was a less than impressive witness."

In contrast, the judge praised Sir Paul for giving balanced evidence during the six-day hearing.

Sir Paul, 65, married former model and charity campaigner Miss Mills, 40, in 2002, four years after his first wife Linda died of breast cancer.

Mills and Sir Paul separated four years later. They have a daughter, Beatrice, aged four.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.