Earl Spencer splits from second wife

13 April 2012

Earl Spencer has split up with his second wife after five years of marriage, it was reported yesterday.

Charles, the younger brother of Princess Diana, allegedly walked out on wife Caroline, 39, a former nursery school teacher.

Last night, Countess Spencer was said to be devastated’ by the split, as she returned to the couple’s £4.5million London townhouse with their two children.

She did not speak as she rushed into the property with Edmund, two, and four-month-old Lara.

An employee refused to confirm if Earl Spencer was in residence at his Althorp estate in Northamptonshire, and the aristocrat failed to return calls about the break-up.

But one close friend of the Countess said: Caroline is heartbroken. She was shattered by his decision to up and leave. And let’s not forget they have two young children.’
Earl Spencer’s first marriage, to former model Victoria Lockwood, lasted just six years, and the couple divorced in 1996.

Yesterday, another source claimed tensions between the Spencers grew following an extraordinary incident in May, when the Earl, 42, was savagely beaten by his former best friend Darius Guppy.

The incident, at Guppy’s South African home, was triggered by allegations that Earl Spencer had tried to seduce his wife Patricia in the 1990s.
Guppy, a fellow Old Etonian, was serving a jail sentence for gems fraud at the time.

Earl Spencer vehemently denies the allegation.
At a dinner party at Althorp in mid-1995, attended by Mrs Guppy and two woman friends of his then wife, Victoria, Earl Spencer is said to have made advances towards all three woman.

They rejected his attentions and Mrs Guppy vowed to keep the incident to herself.

But last April she heard the other two women had mentioned their alleged encounter to a third party and decided to tell her husband, before he found out from somebody else.

Guppy then lured Spencer to his home for the confrontation, which left the Earl with a black eye, cut nose and bruised cheek. He later claimed these were cricket injuries’.

The Guppys refused to comment yesterday.
A source told the News of the World: Caroline was devastated that Charles was drawn into this saga.

She is very good friends with Patricia and Darius and didn’t think their friendship would be tarred by accusations about her husband’s behaviour. The last few months have blown her world apart.

Not only has she had to deal with the rumour and intrigue from friends asking about Charles and Patricia – but also the marriage split.
She has vowed to fight on and get on with the rest of her life for the sake of her children.’
The source said the Earl’s frequent business trips abroad also contributed to the break-up.

During his first marriage, Earl Spencer had an affair with South African Chantal Collopy.
She returned to her husband, but later appeared in court to support Victoria during the divorce hearing.

Earl Spencer was accused of being a serial adulterer during the proceedings.

He first met Caroline, whose nickname is Pidge’, at Oxford University when the pair were undergraduates.

Their romance blossomed after she helped him over his divorce and they came out’ as a couple at the premiere of the film Notting Hill.
Countess Spencer was formerly married to the PR guru Matthew Freud, and the couple had two children before they parted in 1999.

News of the Spencers’ split comes just days after the ninth anniversary of Diana’s death.
Earl Spencer famously launched a withering attack on the Royal Family during his sister’s funeral.

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