Interesting story, for reasons of etiquette breached.
At that time, a divorced woman was supposed to change her name to indicate that status, as follows: She kept her former husband's last name, but was supposed to use her maiden name as the first one. Under the etiquette of the day, the first Mrs. Astor should have been styled "Mrs. Willing Astor," not "Mrs. Ava Willing Astor." In fact, it was never socially correct in that era for a married woman to sign herself "Mrs." when using her first name - the correct form was "Mrs. John Smith," not (under any circumstances) "Mrs. Mary Smith." The only time a married woman signed with her first name was in social correspondence with friends or social equals - the correct form there was "Mary Smith." A married woman never used her first name when writing to tradespeople, bankers or social inferiors of any sort.
There is a very famous example of this usage many people today don't recognize - the etiquette expert Emily Post was a divorcee (for good and sufficient reason, I might add), and the title page of her well-known Etiquette gives both her professional nom de plume, Emily Post, and below that, in parentheses, "Mrs. Price Post."
It seems clear to me that the Sun reporter and his editor were not of the social class upon which they reported!
