Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Photo / Getty Images
Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Photo / Getty Images
Princess Diana’s brother denies a claim he ended his third marriage by text as an ‘absurd attempt to blacken my name’.
Earl Spencer has been accused of “bullying” his wife of 13 years after allegedly having an affair and then dumping her by text message.
Princess Diana’s brother is alleged to have threatened Countess Spencer just hours after the death of her father, demanding that she immediately respond to a legal claim filed by his “long-term mistress”, Dr Catrine Jarman.
Dr Jarman is suing the Countess for the misuse of private information, accusing her of sharing her private medical information with an array of friends and employees.
The Norwegian archaeologist has since revealed in a newspaper interview that she has multiple sclerosis but said she had “worked very hard indeed” to keep it hidden from many people she knew, including the Earl in the early days of their relationship.
Earl Charles Spencer and Countess Karen Spencer attend the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Photo / Getty Images
She states that the Earl informed her by text message in March 2024 that their marriage was over, “completely refusing” to discuss it in person or even to provide an explanation, behaviour that she says she found “both cruel and inexplicable”.
She says “the affair became clear” after she compared notes with Dr Jarman’s husband, Tom Jarman, who then told her that his wife had multiple sclerosis.
The Countess states that this information was “volunteered” by Mr Jarman because he “plainly believed” that it was relevant to his wife’s behaviour and the fact she had embarked on an affair. It was considered “a relevant and integral part of the picture”, the document states.
She says that at no point was it suggested to her that the diagnosis was a “secret” or that she should not mention it to anyone else.
At around the same time, Dr Jarman was due to spend five weeks at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire, to conduct a dig. While she would stay in a separate property on the estate, she was due to have dinner every evening in Althorp House itself.
In the circumstances, the Countess decided to email Dr Jarman to confront her about the affair and to insist that she did not enter the family home while she and her daughter still lived there.
She also “called into question the appropriateness of the claimant’s dig continuing in such circumstances”.
In response, Dr Jarman is accused of threatening to sue the Countess. She also “insisted” that she would still be having meals in the family home for the next month and that the Earl had told her she could stay on the estate.
Lady Spencer says she was “left feeling helpless and confused”. She says she only found out that Dr Jarman objected to her telling anyone about her medical condition when she received a letter from her solicitor in May 2024, two weeks after she had been told about it.
As a result, the Countess told no one else, she says.
Despite this, Dr Jarman “instructed her solicitors to hound Lady Spencer in correspondence”, even complaining that she had told people about her affair with her husband, it is alleged.
The Countess explained that she needed more time to respond to the claim because of a sudden deterioration in her father’s health which meant she needed to return to her family in Canada.
The Countess Spencer Karen Spencer. Photo / Getty Images
“In the hours after her father’s death, whilst Lady Spencer was heavily grieving on Vancouver Island, the claimant instructed her solicitors to demand responses from her under the threat of immediately forcing her into court in London (at the same time as a similar threat was made by Earl Spencer),” the document states.
“Lady Spencer will refer to the bullying and highly insensitive manner in which this correspondence was orchestrated by her husband and his girlfriend.”
The Countess argues that in the short period of time she shared Dr Jarman’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis with immediate family members or close friends and associates, it was “in a way which was entirely justified and legitimate in the circumstances” as she came to terms with her husband’s “sudden and cruel” request for a divorce, the affair and the implications for herself and her daughter.
In her claim form, Dr Jarman alleges that she was forced to turn down work owing to the distress caused by the leak of her private medical information.
She is suing for damages and seeking an injunction against Lady Spencer to prevent the further sharing of the information.
The Earl, who has been married three times, announced in June that he and the Countess were divorcing. He publicly confirmed his relationship with Dr Jarman in October last year.
Earl Spencer told the Daily Mail earlier this week that the Countess had ended their marriage, adding: “The notion that I would end my marriage by text is an absurd attempt to blacken my name.”
