Solicitors led by 'Diva of Divorce' who often represent multi-millionaire ... trends now

The solicitors headed up by the savvy 'Diva of Divorce' made a computer error that led to the wrong couple being divorced - with the senior judge refusing to overturn the mistake.

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'.

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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.

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Ayesha Vardag insists that her own tangled love life – including having four children with three men – has benefited her millionaire clients.

The 56-year-old once said that her experience means 'there's nothing that my clients tell me that I haven't been through myself', adding: 'I bond with them over that during meetings. But now I've come full circle and I'm the happiest that I've ever been in my personal life.'

That happiness is down to Stephen Bence, the chief executive of the Vardags law firm and father to their son Orfeo. The couple, who met in 2014, split their time between homes in Hampshire, London, Dubai and Italy.

Ms Vardag split from her first husband, Xavier Hunter, in 1999 after they both took lovers. She had always assumed that Mr Hunter - father of her two eldest sons, Jasper and Felix - was 'the love of my life' but over time they drifted apart.

Recalling the split in 2018, she said: 'Over time, things weren't right between us. I met someone else and I told him that I wanted out. Then he met someone else and suddenly I was devastated about losing him.'

Her divorce lawyer for the case, Roger Tooth, was so impressed with her preparation that he hired her as his assistant and she later set up her own law firm. After her first marriage, she had a romance with a younger colleague named Miles, with whom she had her daughter Helena.

She admits to be uncompromising. 'I have to be fierce, subtle and the cleverest person in the room,' she once said.

However, that no-nonsense approach brought controversy last year when an internal memo on the company's dress code was leaked in which Ms Vardag banned cardigans and called for staff to be 'discreetly sexy' but 'never tarty'.

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