The diverse judging panel includes TV presenters Ruby Wax and Dermot O'Leary, comedian and actress Nina Wadia, advertising boss MatthewFreud and former Channel 4 chief executive Michael Grade.
The gossip columns were full of speculation that he had egged her on to go it alone after all, the two share the same publicist, MatthewFreud, a direct descendant of the less famous Sigmund.
They included Mark Getty, the grandson of John Paul Getty and the new chairman of London's National Gallery, MatthewFreud, a PR magnate, Peter Simon, a British retailer and founder of Monsoon and Accessorize, all three members of the Mugrabi family who own already nearly 100 Hirsts, and Sir Norman Rosenthal, a former secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts and one of Mr Hirst's earliest supporters.