With an acrimonious divorce dragging on through the courts, a man could be forgiven for swearing off romance for life. Or at least a week or two.

Not Sir Paul McCartney. He has formed a close bond with Sabrina Guinness, a former girlfriend of Prince Charles and heiress to the drinks dynasty.

Big night out: Sir Paul McCartney and Sabrina Guinness set out on their date

Social butterfly: Sabrina Guinness last year

The couple have been in regular contact in recent weeks and Sir Paul has gone so far as to ask her on a date.

Which is why at 8.30pm on Wednesday night, he found himself shuffling nervously on Miss Guinness’s doorstep in West London.

Inside, the 52-year-old socialite had spent the best part of an hour getting ready for his arrival.

She would, however, have been unruffled at the prospect of a former Beatle at her door. After all, her previous dates over the years have included Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas and Rod Stewart.

Miss Guinness opened the door and exchanged a kiss and hug with Sir Paul before they went inside.

They emerged moments later and jumped into his chauffeur-driven Lexus, heading off for a double date with Sir Paul’s daughter, Stella, and her husband Alasdhair Willis.

Friends say they had planned a low-key night at The Cow gastropub, just across the road from Stella’s £1.5million townhouse.

They set off towards the pub, just a few minutes’ drive away.

But when they realised photographers had spotted them, they circled the streets for around 30 minutes.

Gentleman caller: The couple embrace

Sir Paul, 64, eventually asked his driver to pull over on the Portobello Road and dropped Miss Guinness at a friend’s house, before meeting up with Stella and Alasdhair on his own.

The three then dined at an Italian restaurant in Notting Hill where they chose a window seat -presumably so the photographers gathered outside could see that Miss Guinness was no longer with them.

After he went outside to remonstrate with photographers and tell them they had ruined his night.

Royal romance: With Charles in 1979

Earlier, Sir Paul had said of the planned date: “I realise everyone wants to see me with a new bird right now and that’s very flattering. I have known this lady for a while. We enjoy each other’s company.

“When we get together we talk about stuff like the environment and Al Gore, things like that. We have similar views.

“I have had a terrible day at the office and as you probably know I’m going through a pretty difficult divorce right now too.

“I just fancied going out for a few drinks to relax. We’re meeting up with my daughter and that’s that.

“It’s not really a big thing, we have known each other a long time.”

Sir Paul’s spokesman Stuart Bell added today: “There is no relationship beyond friendship.”

Hollywood circuit: With Jack Nicholson

Sir Paul, Stella and Alasdhair left the restaurant at around 11pm and took a taxi to Stella’s home before Sir Paul went on alone to his house in St John’s Wood, North London. Miss Guinness has been resolutely single for some time, but that has certainly not always been the case.

Among her dates in the Seventies was Prince Charles, then perhaps the most eligible of eligible bachelors.

Such was the warmth of her pose when they were photographed together in 1979, there were predictions that they might marry.

Daughter of the merchant banker James Guinness, she grew up with her three sisters and brother in a large and beautiful house opposite Holland Park in West London.

She went on to become a society beauty and a fixture on the London party scene.

In a rare interview, she once explained why she had never married. Apparently, there was a shortage of suitable men.

Rock chic: With Mick Jagger

“I’ve got a lot of girlfriends of my own age, all bright, all pretty, nothing wrong with them at all. And not one of them married because there are no men,” she said.

What men there were, she claimed, had grown up in the tail end of the Sixties, believing they could simply follow in their fathers’ footsteps.

“There was none of the incentive to fight, the need, the determination, that you see now,’ she explained.

“We were the ‘Don’t worry, darling’ generation. Now, when I look around at the men of my era who aren’t married or settled down, they all seem rather hopeless.”