She was a former air hostess who married the world’s richest man.

But when the sultan of Brunei divorced Mariam Aziz after two decades — replacing her with a glamorous television reporter 32 years his junior — she was left wondering where life would take her.

Unfortunately, she looked for the answers from a fortune teller she met in a London casino. “Mrs. Zino,” an Iraqi woman in her late 60s, read her palms, became her “trusted friend” — then tricked her out of $4 million.

The fortune teller threatened to expose “embarrassing” details about Mrs. Aziz’s marriage to the 60-year-old sultan when she was sued. After a case full of theatrics, she was jailed for five months.

But there was one final card to be played. The sultan of Brunei stepped in, claiming that as a head of state he deserved his “dignity” to be preserved. He said that as an “act of respect” the story should be suppressed. In Wednesday’s final act, three judges at the English Court of Appeal ruled that to ban publicity would be against the principle of free speech. They lifted anonymity orders won by the sultan — allowing the story to be told.

Mrs. Aziz, who is half Bruneian, a quarter Japanese, and a quarter English, divorced the sultan in 2003. She was stripped of all her royal titles. Despite “immense personal wealth,” she was unhappy. Court papers showed she found the split “very upsetting” and said she struggled to adjust to life as an independent woman.

In an earlier judgment, Justice Underhill said: “A picture emerged. … of a woman who was generous and trusting but rather lonely and eager for friendship.”

During a trip to London in December 2003, she went to the Rendezvous casino. There she met “Mrs. Zino” — whom she came to know by her real name, Aziza Amir. She confided in Mrs. Amir the circumstances surrounding her divorce and her innermost secrets.

The next month, the fortune teller “introduced” her by telephone to “Mr. Aziz.” They developed a relationship — but only over the phone. The stranger declared his love and said he needed money for his businesses and to buy a house.

Over the following months, Mrs. Aziz made seven bank transfers totaling about $2 million. She sent cash payments of about $1.4 million and showered the man with gifts — including two diamond bangles, seven Louis Vuitton shirts, sweaters, and a Cartier diamond watch. Ten months later, however, when she still had not met him, she became suspicious.

It was then she made the most “remarkable” discovery. There was no Mr. Aziz; he had never existed.

“Mr. Aziz” was in fact Mrs. Amir putting on a man’s voice. Mrs. Amir had even employed a mini-cab driver to act as a go-between — delivering dinners and roses to her and picking up the cash payments in shoe boxes. She kept the cash under her bed and spent it on gambling sprees. When she realized she had been caught, the fortune-teller went on the offensive, threatening to release “embarrassing” details of Mrs. Aziz’s life with the sultan.

In the ensuing High Court case — held in private because of the sultan’s protest — Justice Underhill said Mrs. Amir “sometimes wholly lost control of herself.”

“Fortune tellers are likely to be good practical psychologists and to have a good understanding of human suggestibility, not to say gullibility,” he said. “Mrs. Amir is, in my judgment an extremely shrewd and manipulative woman. Her gambling habit gave her a pressing need for money. She is bold and not afraid to take her chances.”

She was jailed for five months for contempt of court and was ordered to return the money to Mrs. Aziz.