All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
The consent of the husband to separate from his wife believing that divorce had taken place –while divorce did not take place –does not render divorce effective. Divorce is a very serious matter and it should not be taken carelessly. Besides, it takes place only in cases that are determined by the Sharee’ah.
In our view, according to the cases that you mentioned in the question your wife is only divorced once. Your statement in the first case “we needed time away…”, is one of the metaphors of divorce in which divorce does not take place except with intention. Since, you did not intend divorce, then divorce did not take place.
In the second case, your mere intention to divorce your wife without uttering the word divorce, does not lead to divorce according to the view of the majority of the scholars and the jurists stated that divorce does not take place except with the wording of divorce. Therefore, if one intends divorce in his heart without uttering it, this does not lead to divorce [divorce does not take place]. Hence, the Fatwa of the man whom you mentioned in the question is contrary to the statement of the majority of the scholars . Even if we presume that your wife is divorced with the intention of divorce, in this case you can still take her back as long as she is in her waiting period even without her consent. Taking her back does not need a contract because as long as she is in her waiting period, she is still considered your wife.
As regards the third case, claiming that you were very angry does not invalidate the divorce that you uttered unless your anger made you reach a state in which you have no will or knowledge of what you do or say, or that your actions or words became irrational contrarily to your normal nature, so in this case divorce does not take place because you became like a mad person or a coerced person. In which case the Prophetic narration that is narrated by ‘Aa’ishah who heard the Prophet saying: “There is no divorce in case of Ighlaaq”. [Ahmad]; applies to you. [The word “Ighlaaq” means everything that prevents perception, will and consciousness.]
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 121374 and 83467. In these Fataawa there are details about divorce in case of anger in its three cases.
To conclude, it is permissible for you to take back your wife based on what you mentioned as divorce absolutely did not take place in two cases from the three cases you mentioned in the question, and there is a probability (that it took place) in the third case and you should have known the details about it from the Fataawa to which we referred you above.
Allaah Knows best.