Charles Spencer’s estranged wife, Karen Spencer, accused him of ending their 13-year marriage via text to be with his “long-term mistress.”
According to court documents obtained by People, Karen claimed Charles, 60, had been having an affair since 2022 — “and more likely since 2021” — with Dr. Cat Jarman, his new girlfriend.
The claims were part of Karen’s defense against Jarman’s explosive High Court privacy case, in which she accused Countess Spencer of misuse of private information.
In the October filing, Jarman, 42, alleged that Karen, 52, shared personal details about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis — which she had kept hidden.
However, Karen now argues that she was “justified” to discuss information about Jarman given the archeologist’s relationship with her now-estranged husband.
“Insofar as Lady Spencer shared the information in question with her immediate family, or close friends and associates, she did so in a way which was entirely justified and legitimate in the circumstances, as part of processing and coming to terms with her husband’s sudden and cruel request for a divorce,” Karen’s filing stated, per People.
“Alternatively, given these circumstances, [Jarman] had no reasonable expectation of Lady Spencer not discussing the information in question with the limited group of individuals with whom she shared it.”
Elsewhere in the docs, Karen alleged that Charles “informed her that their marriage was over” on March 19, 2024 — and “did this by text message.”
The Countess said Charles’ behavior “had been uncaring and deliberately provocative” leading up to their split but she still thought he would have the decency to discuss things in person.
“The fact that he finally brought their marriage to an end by text, completely refusing to have any conversation with her in person or even provide an explanation at all, despite her repeated requests over the weeks that followed, was both cruel and inexplicable,” the docs read.
Karen claimed she discovered Charles’ alleged affair with Cat after contacting her husband, Tom Jarman, per the outlet.
During an April Zoom call, the two spouses compared notes, with Karen asking if Tom was “suspicious of an affair” — which he allegedly was.
After “they compared the accounts,” Karen and Tom allegedly “discovered that their affair had been going on since at least November/December 2022 when the two of them were together in Norfolk (although more likely since 2021).”
Karen was left “shocked and devastated” by the news and confronted Cat, who was allegedly planning to “stay in a house just a few hundred meters away” from the Althorp estate and regularly come over for meals.
An email Karen sent to Cat was included in the court documents, with Lady Spencer telling the scholar she was not welcome at their home while she lived there with her and Charles’ 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte Diana.
“That is a boundary I intend to hold,” Karen wrote in the email, per the Daily Mail. “It’s not fair to me, our daughter, or to all the staff, who are already distraught at the news of our divorce though having to serve Charles’ long-term mistress. It’s just too much to ask.”
Karen also told Cat she was “disappointed” in her for allegedly breaking up their family.
“First of all as a woman, I just have to tell you that I am so disappointed in you,” she wrote. “Turning all of the children’s lives upside down like this is so unbelievably immoral.”
Karen said Cat and Charles were “bullying” her with their latest legal filing, insisting that it was “obviously understandable” for her to share information about the archeologist “with a limited circle of those close to her” given “its relevance to the affair.”
She said her actions reflected her “obvious need to process and come to terms with facing losing the life which she had built for herself, her husband and their daughter in one foul swoop.”
However, Charles and Cat denied allegations of infidelity, telling the Daily Mail that the narrative of any wrongdoing on their part “is simply not true.”
Charles — Princess Diana’s younger brother — called his estranged wife’s allegations an “absurd attempt to blacken [his] name” and slammed her claim that he ended their marriage over the phone.
Meanwhile, Cat accused the Countess of concocting a “hideous and defamatory attack” on them.
“I am shocked and utterly dismayed that my rightful attempt to stop the unlawful dissemination of my status as a person with Multiple Sclerosis — a protected disability — has been hijacked in such an appallingly untruthful way,” the archeologist said.
The 9th Earl Spencer announced his divorce from Karen in June and confirmed his romance with Cat four months later.
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