[1] Hildyard was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

They divorced and he later married Lucy Gibson and had another daughter,[2] living at their country house Flintham Hall, Nottinghamshire.

Hildyard was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1977 and joined Lincoln's Inn in 1994.

He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1994,[4] deputy judge of the High Court from 2002 to 2011, bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 2005 and was attorney-general to the Duchy of Lancaster from 2008 to 2011.

[6] He received his customary knighthood in 2012 from Queen Elizabeth II in St James's Palace.