Tony Blair's sister-in-law tells of heartbreak at 'divorcing' her husband on Facebook

Miss Booth, whose half-sister is Cherie Blair, made the "rash" decision of venting her hurt and anger at the argument on the social networking website.

She turned on her computer "soothed by the practicalities of mundane work enquiries" and spotted the 'married' status on her personal page.

In the click of a button Miss Booth, 41, changed it to read "single", and an email alert was sent to all of her 16 online friends.

"Without thinking about it really, I flicked my mouse towards the options and in a millisecond it was done.

"The alert announced: 'Lauren Booth has gone from married to single.'

"I'd got the online version of a divorce," she said.

"I promptly forgot about my cyber hissy fit and carried on with life. My husband and I went to a friend's birthday party and laughed together."

Her husband, Craig Darby, 41, an actor and producer, was completely unaware of what she had done until two days later when he was approached by a neighbour in their local pub, who offered to take him on a night out to get over the split.

Hurt by the "cyber-divorce", he confronted Miss Booth and she changed her status back to "married".

The day after her apologies, Mr Darby was in a motorbike accident and suffered a serious head injury. He is still in a coma in hospital more than a week later.

"I've told Craig a hundred times that I'm sorry for being so silly. I've told him that I didn't know who would see the stupid 'status change'.

"I've told him that I've changed it back so everyone who reads that kind of tripe has been alerted to my mistake. But he doesn't respond to me at all.

"He doesn't even turn to look at me when I speak his name. He won't even acknowledge I'm in the same room as him. He can't," she said.

Despite what happened, Miss Booth has been prompted to turn to the internet again in her hour of distress.

She has used it to reach out to her friends and colleagues to ask for their support while Mr Darby is ill.

"I sent out an email. I alerted family and friends to Craig's condition, with a simple request: 'Please pray for him.'

"I sent that email to no more than 15 people. The next morning it happened: the flood. Dozens and dozens and dozens of emails filled page after page of my inbox.

"Hundreds of people, some we barely knew, were all sending Craig energy, love and support.

"I hope that we can all learn to use this tool to send out love to one another, to send kindness anywhere in the world in an instant, rather than wasting this incredible opportunity by spending our cyber-time exchanging petty grievances and gossip."

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