Lawyers for McCartney say he'll "vigorously" defend himself against divorce allegations

Lawyers for Paul McCartney say he will "vigorously" defend himself against allegations that he physically abused his estranged wife, Heather Mills McCartney.

Photo: Lawyers for McCartney say he'll "vigorously" defend himself against divorce allegations

Britain's Daily Mail newspaper on Wednesday reported details of an alleged court document filed by Mills McCartney containing accounts of mistreatment and drug use during the couple's four-year marriage.

"Our client will be defending these allegations vigorously and appropriately," law firm Payne Hicks Beach, representing Paul McCartney, said in a statement Wednesday.

The 64-year-old rocker and 38-year-old anti-land mine campaigner announced their separation in May and have begun divorce proceedings in an increasingly acrimonious split. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

Mills McCartney's spokesman, Phil Hall, described the divorce proceedings as "highly confidential" and said he could not confirm whether the document cited in the report was genuine. He said Mills McCartney had been "shocked" by the Daily Mail's story.

The newspaper did not reveal how it had acquired the document, which alleges that McCartney once attacked his wife with a broken wine glass, stabbing her in the arm and causing profuse bleeding. It also claims that he used illegal drugs and drank to excess.

The newspaper reported that the purported 13-page submission also alleged that McCartney had pushed his estranged wife into a bathtub while she was pregnant with their child, reports AP.

It said the document, said to be filed by Mills McCartney in response to the former Beatle's divorce petition, lodged in July, also claimed McCartney had later objected to his partner breast-feeding their daughter.

The newspaper quoted the alleged court papers as saying McCartney had told his wife "they are my breasts."

It reported that the document alleged McCartney had grabbed his wife's neck and started choking her during a trip to the U.S. in 2003 and on an earlier occasion pushed her over a coffee table.