The effect of a husband jokingly telling his children: “Your mother has been divorced”

Question:
The Shaykh, I am married and I have two children, and praise be to Allah, the older one is two years old. One night I said to them in jest that this woman is not your mother; rather, your mother has been divorced. How is this, since the reference to her is to a real mother? By Allah, the Exalted, I know that I did not give any weight to this trivial matter and did not intend it.

Answer:
There is a distinction here. If he divorced her with the intention of making it happen, meaning he divorced her now, then she is divorced with one revocable divorce, and he may take her back as long as she is in the waiting period. However, if this was in the category of reporting, in the category of informing, and you had not previously divorced her, then this is a lie. This is a lie and there is nothing in it, because it is a false report. The outcome is that if your intention was lying and reporting, then there is nothing in it. But if your intention was making it happen, then she is divorced with one revocable divorce, and you may take her back. Yes.