Charles Spencer and Karen Spencer. Kevork Djansezian/BAFTA LA/Getty Images for BAFTA LA
Princess Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer allegedly broke up with his wife Karen Spencer in a text message after 13 years of marriage.
Charles’ new girlfriend, Dr. Cat Jarman, filed a lawsuit against Karen in October, alleging a misuse of private information. The Daily Mail obtained High Court papers detailing Karen’s defense on Monday, December 30 — which include a barrage of allegations against 60-year-old Charles.
The documents accuse Charles of having an affair with Jarman since 2022 or “more likely since 2021.” Karen claimed she was left “helpless and confused” by Charles’ text message breaking off their marriage and alleged that he “completely refused” to give any further details about the split.
Karen also apparently sent an email to Jarman, as revealed in the Daily Mail documents.
“First of all as a woman, I just have to tell you that I am so disappointed in you. Turning all of the children’s lives upside down like this is so unbelievably immoral,” the message allegedly read, with Karen wishing Jarman “luck” and noting she’s “in for a hell of a ride.”
Chris Jackson/Getty Images Princess Diana’s brother Lord Charles Spencer got real about his relationship with Dr. Cat Jarman, who is 18 years his junior. “I’m 60, so if I said Cat was my girlfriend, it makes me sound 20, doesn’t it?” Charles, told Mail on Sunday in an interview published on Sunday, November 24. “I’m […]
Charles and Karen married in 2011 and share 12-year-old daughter Charlotte Diana. (Charles also shares Kitty, 33, twins Eliza and Amelia, both 31, and son Louis, 30, with ex-wife Victoria Lockwood.)
Charles moved on with Jarman in March and denied all of Karen’s allegations in a statement to the Daily Mail.
“The notion that I would end my marriage by text is an absurd attempt to blacken my name. Karen ended the marriage, after endless threats to do so over the years, in early March,” his rebuttal read, alleging that Karen asked him “to confirm the end of the marriage in a text.”
Jarman responded in a separate statement, noting she was “shocked and utterly dismayed” by Karen’s claims.
Princess Diana’s youngest brother, Charles Spencer, is the father of seven children. Spencer married Victoria Lockwood in September 1989, and the twosome welcomed daughter Kitty in 1990 followed by twin daughters Eliza and Amelia in 1992 and son Louis in 1994. Following their divorce in December 1997, Spencer moved on with Caroline Freud, and the […]
“I can understand that she finds it difficult because he moved on before she did, but the narrative that Charles, or I, did something wrong here is simply not true,” the statement read. “I do have sympathy for her. I understand what she has lost, because it is more than her marriage and her home. But this still doesn’t justify what she did.”
Earlier this month, Jarman claimed that “someone close” to her had informed Karen about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Karen had allegedly told “a string of people” after the fact.
“In the course of a conversation about whether I had been having an affair with her husband — which I can categorically say I had not been, we were very much just friends and colleagues until after the marriage had ended — Karen learned that I have MS,” Jarman told the Daily Mail in an interview published on December 4. “It was also confirmed to her that this was not something that was widely known.”
