Firm run by 'Diva of Divorce' who represents multi-millionaire and celebrity clients accidentally ends wrong couple's marriage after computer error
- Have YOU been accidentally divorced? Email eirian.prosser@dailymail.co.uk
A firm run by the 'Diva of Divorce' - a lawyer famed for dealing with multi-millionaires and celebrities - accidentally ended the wrong couple's marriage making a computer error.
The couple, who were referred to as Mr and Mrs Williams in High Court documents, had hired lawyers from Ayesha Vardag's company - who charge £1,200 an hour (plus VAT) - to discuss their impending divorce.
Vardags specialises in high net worth divorces and has successfully helped with the divorces of a number of the elite from millionaires and business tycoons, to international footballers, celebrities and royalty.
The Williamses had been married for 21 years but separated at the beginning of 2023 yet last October the company's online divorce portal issued a final order in the pair's proceedings.
Just 21 minutes after the application was mistakenly submitted a judge granted the couple's divorce order, with them being unaware and still in the in throes of financial discussions.
Mrs Williams' solicitors at Vardags said the application was sent off 'without instruction of authority of their client', president of the family court division judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said.
Three days later lawyers realised the mistake and applied to the High Court to rescind the final divorce order explaining that the final order was meant for 'another client, in a different divorce case'.
Have YOU been accidentally divorced? Email eirian.prosser@dailymail.co.uk
Solicitors at the Ayesha Vardag's company made a huge computer error that saw the wrong couple being divorced
The Diva of Divorce's company specialises in high-net worth divorces and has successfully helped with the divorces of a number of the elite from millionaires and business tycoons, to international footballers, celebrities and royalty
Miss Vardag pictures with her husband Stephen Bence who she married in 2014 following her own divorce
Sir Andrew rejected the request for the decree absolute of divorce to be set aside and said there was a 'strong public policy interest' to keep 'certainty and finality' when divorce orders are filed, The Times reported.
Miss Vardag, 56, said that the judge's decision not to overturn the divorce equated to 'the computer says no' attitude.
She said the judge had made 'a bad decision' adding that 'the state can't be divorcing people just because of an online clerical error'.
Miss Vardag told MailOnline: 'There has to be intention on the part of the person divorcing, because the principle of intention underpins the justice of our legal system.
'When a mistake is brought to a court's attention, and everyone accepts that a mistake has been made, it obviously has to be undone. We've heard from the court staff that this happens a fair bit with the new online system.
'And it should just have been fixed as usual. But here the husband inexplicably took issue and the judge decided, effectively, 'the computer says no, you're divorced'.
She added that it seems now you can 'be divorced by an error made on an online system' which she said was 'not right, not sensible, not justice'.
It is not the first time that the Diva of Divorce's company have been flung into the headlines.
Back in September 2020, as people started making a steady return to office life, Miss Vardag emailed a 955-word directive to her staff informing them of the new dress code.
She forbade her staff from wearing 'wollies' - such as cardigans and knitted jumpers - to the workplace, instead saying they should aim to look 'executive' and like 'the president of a significant country'.
The star lawyer also warned 'hair should be executive, and very long hair should be pinned up', so that staff look professional, and not simply like a 'pretty young thing'.
Miss Vardag advised her female staff that they could appear 'formal' but also 'discreetly sexy and colourful and flamboyant at the same time' by adopting 'a Chanel/Dior/Armani look'.
It led to a backlash from others within the legal community, with fellow top divorce lawyer Diane Benussi, slamming the Vardag chief for being 'out of touch'.
'I hire my staff for their brains, generally,' the managing director of Benussi & Co in Birmingham told the Mail previously. 'I hire my staff for their brains, generally. I want decent lawyers – not clothes horses. If you want models you go to Vogue, don't you?'
Miss Vardag rose to fame in 2010 when she won a landmark Supreme Court case that paved the way to making prenuptial agreements legally enforceable in England and Wales.
Back in September 2020, as people started making a steady return to office life, Miss Vardag emailed a 955-word directive to her staff informing them of the new dress code which banned 'woolies'
Miss Vardag runs law firm Vardags in London's Old Bailey and sent the email advising staff to look 'fabulous at all times'
Miss Vardag rose to fame in 2010 when she won a landmark Supreme Court case that paved the way to making prenuptial agreements legally enforceable in England and Wales
The Radmacher v Granti paved her way to become one of Britain's most successful divorce lawyers, specialising in high net worth separations.
The mother-of-four, who over the years previously said her own tangled love life, including having four children with three men, inspired her to become 'fierce, subtle and clever' for her millionaire clients.
But Miss Vardag's dealings with divorce and separation go back to her childhood.
When her mother Barbara was five months pregnant, she decided to leave Miss Vardag's father, who had been based in Pakistan, moving back to Northumberland to live with family.
Then, when the now fearless divorce lawyer was just two-years-old, her mother and grandmother decided to flee with her to 'start life afresh'.
Her grandmother had been in an unhappy marriage and decided to leave her husband whilst he was away at sea.
She told The Sun last year: 'My mother decided it wasn't a place that she wanted to bring up a child and told my grandmother, 'If you want to get out, this is the time.'
'There was me, the dog, and anything they could stuff into a Ford car. They left together and moved to Oxford, went ex-directory and my grandfather never found them again.'
The Radmacher v Granti paved Miss Vardag's way to become one of Britain's most successful divorce lawyers, specialising in high-net worth separations
The lawyer set up her own law firm in 2005 and now describes herself as 'London's most expensive divorce lawyer'
The mother-of-four, who over the years previously said her own tangled love life, including having four children with three men
The years they spent in Oxfordshire were happy ones, however, were slightly blighted by financial woes, the lawyer revealed last year.
She said her family were as 'poor as church mice' and 'didn't have any extra money for anything'.
Despite this, the family were determine to provide her with a brilliant education, setting her up for a successful career.
They 'scrambled enough money' together to send her to the prestigious Oxford High School - the city's oldest private school for girls - after she was awarded its highest bursary.
During her time there, she dealt with bullying for not fitting in, explaining she felt out of place with the 'South Asian kids' for not having the same clothes or accent, and excluded by local pupils for looking 'different'.
Later down the line she was accepted at Queen College at Cambridge University, where she began studying English Literature before making the decision to study law.
She said while she found it 'incredibly dull' she later landed another scholarship this time to study European Law as a masters in Brussels.
After a short stint between courses working as a TV researcher at the BBC Miss Vardag returned to Britain with the intention of becoming a journalist.
In 2018, Miss Vardag gave birth to her son age 50. Pictured: Miss Vardag and her husband Mr Bence at their family home in Dubai
But due to the 90s recession, and having not come from a 'big financial backup', she decided that career was too risky so decided to pursue her law career.
Her success in the field grew significantly over the years, reaching a turning point in 2001 when she got divorced herself.
During this time - in a bid to save money for her children - she helped lawyers draft her own correspondences and affidavits.
She told the Sun: 'I really got really into it and after the dust settled on my divorce, my divorce lawyer hired me.'
Later on, she went on to work as a lecturer in Cambridge with plans to eventually set up her own company. And in 2005 she launched Vardag from her home.
The turning point came after her landmark 2010 case which saw German heiress Katrin Radmacher able to protect her £106million prenup from her ex.
The success led to a string of other successful clients from celebrities to footballers and aristocrats calling on Miss Vardag to help with their bitter separations.
While she generally does not reveal her client list, she was involved in the high profile case helping former Malaysian beauty queen Pauline Chai.
The successful lawyers owns a £2.2 million farmhouse in Hampshire - one of her four homes with others in London, Italy and Dubai
She helped the model secure a £64million settlement - one of the largest on record - for in her 2017 divorce from businessman Khoo Kay Peng, who has a multi-million-pound business that includes Laura Ashley.
Such cases have led to her success, leading her to become the 'most expensive divorce lawyer in London'.
But her own personal life has played a large role in her success, Miss Vardag has said.
She previously described how her turbulent personal life began in 1999 when she split up from her first husband Xavier Hunter with whom she had her two eldest sons Jasper, 23, and Felix, 21.
After her first marriage Ayesha embarked on a romance with a much younger man named Miles, a colleague, who was ten years her junior and with whom she had her daughter Helena, 14.
Miss Vardag, who oversees around 500 divorces a year, is now married to astrophysicist entrepreneur husband Stephen Bence whom she welcomed a child with age 50 in 2018.
'I've had lots of relationships and I've been a single mother so there's nothing that my clients tell me that I haven't been through myself,' she previously told MailOnline.
'I have to be fierce, subtle and the cleverest person in the room. l have to use the best tactics to win cases, not just to get the best deal for my clients, but also so that their families aren't completely destroyed in the process and they can be still be a family in the future.'
The successful lawyers owns a £2.2 million farmhouse in Hampshire - one of her four homes with others in London, Italy and Dubai.
