Pop star Sting and his wife Trudie Styler have been ordered to pay nearly £25,000 to their former chef who was dismissed after becoming pregnant.

Jane Martin, who’s 41, worked for the couple for eight years during which time she was called upon to cook for celebrities such as Madonna and Sir Elton John. She brought a claim of sexual discrimination because she felt she had been unfairly dismissed after returning from maternity leave in April last year.

She told a tribunal that she feared she would have a miscarriage because she was suffering stress after losing her job.

Miss Martin was awarded £10,000 for her injured feelings and £16,000 for loss of earnings. The overall figure was reduced to £24,944 to take into account the redundancy payment she had already received.

The tribunal chairman, Mr James Simpson, said he was surprised by the level of the claim and would have expected it to have been much higher.

After the hearing, a spokesman for Sting and Ms Tyler said: "It remains Trudie’s position that she, as a woman and a mother, has never in her life sexually discriminated against anyone and never would do so.”

Ms Styler is appealing against the ruling.