High-profile divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag faced possibly her greatest challenge yet last week – taking part in Channel 4’s Couples Come Dine with Me, where strangers compete to be the ultimate dinner party hosts and win £1,000.

Vardag is a daunting competitor: she represented heiress Katrin Radmacher, who won a landmark case in 2010 where the Supreme Court ruled that judges could take pre-nups into account providing certain conditions were met.

But away from court, what do we now know about the lawyer nicknamed the ‘Diva of Divorce’?

Well, she met husband Stephen Bence (director of strategy at Vardags) in a pub where he charmed her with talk about astrophysics. She is the recipient of the ‘soppiest, loveliest’ Valentine’s Day cards. The couple like to entertain friends with musical soirees.

The land at their home in the mountains in Molise, Italy, is suitable for cultivating truffles. And if you ever have Vardag over for dinner and she asks for fizzy water, serve it in a champagne glass, as it ‘makes it feel a lot more fun’.

Was Vardag crowned ‘Diva of the Dinner Table’? We won’t spoil it as you can still catch the episode on Channel 4’s on-demand service. If not for that, then just to see what she did next after her tray of pre-baked English apple and custard tart fell on the floor.

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