Royal marriage is over in five minutes

It was an inauspicious end to a decade of royal marriage, brought to a close in five minutes in a cramped courtroom with scaffolding outside. The Duke and Duchess of York began their divorce proceedings yesterday alongside 28 other couples , insisting they remained "the bestest of friends".

The hearing involved the couples' names being read out by a cheery clerk to Judge Gerald Angel, who also presided over the divorces of Camilla Parker-Bowles and the Princess Royal. Bottom of the list were their Royal Highnesses, the Yorks, case number 2662/96, whose wedding 10 years ago brought London to a standstill.

At 10.34 the judge arrived to grant the decree nisis for uncontested divorces, including an accountant, a secretary and a company director in the list.

The proceedings were interrupted only momentarily by an anxious unemployed car mechanic who wanted to appeal against his costs. By 10.39 it was all over.

In stark contrast to Court No1 at Somerset House in London, more reminiscent of a dentist's waiting room, the Duchess was emerging from a chalet in Verbier, the exclusive Swiss ski resort.

She told a throng of reporters it was an "understatement" to describe it as the saddest day of her life.

The Duchess, 36, who is expected to receive a pounds 2m settlement when the divorce is made absolute after six weeks and one day, was accompanied by the couple's two daughters. Eugenie, seven, and Beatrice, six, did not return to school this week to protect them from the media attention.

But the Duchess said the girls were "happy and secure", and she remained the "bestest of friends" with the Duke, who petitioned for the divorce.

She said: "I speak to him every day. The children are well, I'm well, the Duke is well, everyone's well. I'll take each day as it comes. Every day is a new day."

As the Duke reported back for naval duties yesterday in Dorset, the Duchess also denied that the Queen had prompted them to bring their marriage to an end, following their four year separation, and she insisted it was a personal decision.

In London, after the proceedings had finished the sun finally came out, but it was miserable echo of the royal wedding in 1986 when the hoods were taken off the royal carriages and the world's leaders joined the royal family for a breakfast of lobsters and strawberries at Buckingham Palace, while the public cheered outside.

The only people in front of the High Court's Family Division at Somerset House yesterday were some lost tourists.

But for the couples who had the misfortune to apply for decree nisis on the same day, it may have come as an unexpected surprise.

When the judge asked: "Does any party or person wish to show cause against the decrees being pronounced?", the young man in a green anorak, alone on the front row of the small courtroom, was forced to make his plea not to pay the costs of his divorce before a throng of journalists.

Carlo Giambrone, 28, who is divorcing his wife of eight years said afterwards: "It was a big surprise to me, and although I knew they were getting a divorce today, I didn't expect to be in the same courtroom. I only knew five minutes before."

But Mr Giambrone, who cannot find work as a car mechanic, said that despite their different backgrounds he could draw parallels to his own divorce and that of the Yorks. Like them he has two young children, and he said that he and his wife, like the Yorks, had managed to remain friends.

He said: "Children are children, whether they're royal or not, and you have to think of them and support them.

"It must be especially hard because they are in the limelight. But it's really important for parents to be amicable about splitting up, for the sake of the children."