Over 20 years ago, my life was painfully turned upside down as I began to navigate the ruthless and costly world of high-stakes divorce as depicted in Sky Atlantic/HBO’s new legal A-list divorce drama, War about the expensive split between a caddish tech billionaire, Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) and his high-maintenance and scheming actress-model wife, Carla Duval (Sienna Miller). After entrapping her husband with ‘selfie’ evidence (that would not, in fact, be admissible in court), her instructions to her lawyers are: ‘You take this photo, you take this case, and you take him for every f**ing penny he has – and he’s got quite a few’.
But having watched the first episode – the next airs today – I found the divorce-of the-century drama enjoyable but unrealistic. For a dash of realism, try finding yourself in the middle of a divorce storm when two rival family law firms go head-to-head, with all the ‘filthy’ tactics imaginable. I would regularly get what’s known as the ‘Friday email’ from my wife’s lawyers, sent around 5.30pm so that you had to stew and stress all weekend. Being served divorce papers at home during Sunday lunch is another favourite ploy.
The case puts an old-establishment law firm (not unlike Farrer & Co) up against an upstart boutique outfit (run by a husband and wife). The blue-chip firm with panelled walls is called ‘Cathcarts’, which feels odd as they are a distinguished Scottish military aristocratic family. In truth, few top firms today go for the mahogany club library look. Rather, they have reception areas that resemble a BA First-Class executive lounge, with fine wines, the FT,Tatler and shiny Italian coffee machines. But beyond aesthetics, there are flaws with the plot and the credibility of the legal procedure, not least that much of the first episode is taken up with the couple’s ‘prenup’, signed ten years previously when movie star Carla was richer than her social media tech start-up husband.
I, too, had a prenup. What the scriptwriters don’t mention is that prenups remain non-legally binding in the UK (although they are taken in to consideration). But that may have spoiled the drama. It is also a myth that dividing assets under UK divorce law is complicated. It’s not. Assets are divided 50/50, especially when there’s not a messy custody battle with multiple children (a teenage stepson of Henderson, we later learn, is involved).
What of the divorce lawyers themselves? At the time of my proceedings, which made for some titillating tabloid society fodder, London was the new divorce capital of the world. I soon found myself at the Holborn offices of Mischon de Reya seated opposite the formidable Sandra Davis, head of family law at the firm that had represented the Princess of Wales in her £17 million acrimonious divorce. When it came to high-profile UK divorces, few firms had a tougher reputation.
At the time of my proceedings, which made for some titillating tabloid society fodder, London was the new divorce capital of the world
But where War deviates badly from reality is that almost the first thing that Sandra (and her savvy junior, Melissa Lesson) said to me – after I found myself being followed 24 hours a day by a two-man team of private detectives – was that I needn’t worry since UK judges were moving towards a ‘no-fault’ divorce system (following California in 1969). This finally came into force in England and Wales in April 2022 under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020.
This landmark law removed the requirement to prove fault (such as unreasonable behaviour or adultery) or apportion any blame. Hence, the efforts of both sides in the TV drama to fling mud or prove cheating is irrelevant. That the UK has had a ‘no-blame’ divorce system for four years is not mentioned. This means that tech billionaire Henderson could have been a regular at Max Mosley’s orgies and behaved in a way that made Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor look like a candidate for Holy beatification, and it would have had zero impact on the divorce outcome.
But the strangest thing is that War, which some critics may argue sets out to glamourise divorce, has been released at a time when The Office of National Statistics (ONS) recently released figures showing that the average marriage ending in divorce in 2025 lasted for 13 years. This is the longest since records began in 1963 and up from a record low of 8.9 years in 1985. This improbable trend has led some legal commentators to claim that couples are not getting divorced as they can’t afford the legal fees.
But as somebody who has been a double divorcee client of Mischon (and now happily married for over 12 years) I’d refute this theory. The high-end private client legal world is going through an existential crisis as so much legal work can now be done by AI, at a fraction of the cost. The old £750 an hour ‘metre ticking’ model (my first divorce cost around £90,000) is on the way out. Fees have been coming down thanks to AI which is also driving the rise of high street quickie divorce firms like Amicable.
In the 1970s, when a divorce movie like Kramer V Kramer won a shelf of Oscars, divorce became almost fashionable – a symbol of feminism and female freedom. Today, divorce seems much less a ‘lifestyle’ choice. Maybe, it’s gone out of fashion.Indeed, there have been so many divorces in the last 30 years – the ONS estimates 7 to 8 million individuals – that many have probably learnt, the hard way, from the mistakes of their romantic vicissitudes. In short, this happy band may have simply got better at marriage and relationships the second time round – ok, third time in my case.
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