It All Started in My Spare Room: 25 Years of Divorce-Online

Mark Keenan on 25 Years of Divorce-Online: The Story Behind the Startup

In 1999, I launched Divorce-Online from my living room in Swindon with a £100 website and a dial-up AOL connection.

I was working as a family law executive at the time, and I’d been through my own short-lived marriage. What struck me most was how expensive and unnecessarily complicated even a straightforward divorce could be. I remember thinking: why are people paying thousands in legal fees when there’s barely anything to sort out?

The firm I worked for didn’t even use PCs — just word processors. Meanwhile, I was discovering the internet for the first time and stumbled across a U.S. site called Divorce Direct. They let people complete a questionnaire online and sent them divorce papers to file themselves. That lit a fire.

So I did what any slightly mad, very determined person might do — I found a 17-year-old college lecturer, paid him £100, and got my first website built. It was called Form Complete Services and hosted on Geocities.

The process was simple: people downloaded a Word doc, filled it in, and posted it to me with a cheque for £55. I’d hand-draft their divorce petition and email it back. My first client? Paul Wilmott — now a world-renowned expert in financial derivatives.

Most people said it would never work. The law firm I worked for certainly didn’t take it seriously. But in 2000, I secured early investment from Duncan Spence (who’d also backed Moonpig and Freeserve), left the firm, and launched Divorce-Online as a full company.

The Legal Industry Wasn’t Ready

At the time, the idea of delivering legal services online was almost unthinkable to most traditional firms. Many lawyers dismissed what we were doing. Even now, 25 years on, some still struggle to adopt the digital-first, fixed-fee model that clients clearly want. Many still charge by the hour for work that could be systemised, automated, or delivered more efficiently.

Clients are smarter and more value-conscious than ever. They expect transparency, speed, and affordability — things the legal profession hasn’t always been keen to provide. But that’s what we’ve done from the beginning, and it’s what we’ll continue to do.

Where We Are Now

Fast forward 25 years…

• We’ve helped over 200,000 people separate without spending thousands on legal fees.
• We’ve grown to a £2+ million annual turnover without any debt
• We built our own client management system, DivorceTrack, now in version 15
• We pioneered offering fixed fee financial orders and agreements
• In 2017, we acquired OLS Solicitors to offer reserved legal services too.
• And we’ve done it all without outside funding or debt.

We’ve also supported some well-known clients — Gary Lineker, Kieran Hayler (who divorced Katie Price using our service), and Michelle Bux, to name a few. But more importantly, we’ve helped ordinary people move on with their lives — quickly, affordably and without unnecessary conflict.

AI Is the Next Chapter

We’re now using artificial intelligence to change the way we work — again. From automating parts of our document drafting, to supporting our customer service with intelligent chat, AI is allowing us to deliver faster, more accurate support to our clients. It’s not about replacing humans — it’s about making the experience better for them.

The legal industry is just starting to wake up to the potential of AI. But we’ve always embraced technology early — because our clients expect it, and deserve it.

What’s Changed — and What Hasn’t

Divorce is now digital. The government’s portal lets people apply online, and more clients are confident managing things themselves. But the biggest need remains the same: people want help dealing with the emotional and financial impact of divorce, not just the paperwork.

We’re still based in Swindon. We’re still independent. And we still believe that legal services should work for people — not the other way around.

Will Stone, MP for North Swindon said “it’s fantastic to see a home-grown Swindon business not only survive but lead the way in a competitive sector. Mark and his team should be incredibly proud of that they built here.”

Thank You

To everyone who supported this business — whether you were one of our first clients, an early believer like Duncan Spence, a team member who saw the vision, or a friend who encouraged me when most people laughed — thank you.

Here’s to 25 years of doing law differently — and to whatever comes next.

– Mark Keenan
Founder & Managing Director, Divorce-Online