Charles Spencer: The controversial reason behind the divorces of Princess Diana's brother

Princess Diana’s younger brother Earl Charles Spencer is currently married to his third wife - Canadian entrepreneur Karen Gordon. However, his first two marriages ended in pretty bad divorces that questioned the entire existence of the relationships in the first place.

Charles Spencer and Victoria Lockwood

According to MailOnline, Charles proposed to Victoria after just six weeks of meeting her. The two got married in 1989 at St Mary's Church in Great Brington and welcomed their first child together - Lady Kitty Spencer. In 1992, they had twins - Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza and then a son in 1994 - Louis Spencer.

Despite having four children, there were ‘evident’ cracks in their marriage - that only lasted eight years - all because of Charles’ alleged infidelities and excessive womanising. Reportedly, the Earl used to ‘bully’ his wife Victoria, who was struggling with anorexia and alcohol addiction.

Amidst all the rumours, Charles and Victoria fled to South Africa in 1995 to avoid the press. However, two years later they got divorced as Charles told the judge his wife was ‘thin and certainly thick,’ after remembering his pledge to stick by his wife through every thick and thin.

AP News confirmed that Victoria was looking for a settlement of $6.3 million but instead the divorce was settled at a little over $3 million. This decision came after Charles’ letter to one of his girlfriends revealed that he was ‘vicious, cruel and a bully’ to Victoria and she claimed that Charles cheated on her repeatedly when she was in rehab. By the end of their troubled marriage, no one made any attempts to save the relationship as Charles is believed to have ‘smiled’ after the Judge announced the divorce and Victoria’s lawyers offered no objections either.

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Charles Spencer and Caroline Freud

His second marriage to Caroline Freud - a former nursery teacher and the ex-wife of Matthew Freud ended in just five years. Victoria and her kids with Charles were ‘happy’ to see him settle into a stable relationship with Caroline, but that didn’t last long either due to his womanising way.

Caroline was understood to be ‘devastated’ by the divorce after she sought one for his ‘unreasonable behaviour.’ A source close to her said:

Caroline is heartbroken. She was shattered by his decision to up and leave. And let’s not forget they have two young children.

The marriage lasted for only five years as the ‘serial adulterer’ and his frequent foreign business trips ended it.

Charles was also beaten up by his former best friend Darius Guppy, reported Evening standard. Reportedly, when Guppy was serving a jail sentence in the 1990s, Charles tried to seduce his wife Patricia. Mrs Guppy rejected his attention and vowed to keep things to herself until the other two - who Charles also tried to seduce - came out in open about their encounters. To save her marriage with Guppy, Patricia told him everything and thus Charles was left with a black eye, cut nose and bruised cheek. The Earl denied accusations and claimed those were cricket injuries.

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Sources Used

Daily Mail: Why wasn't Earl Spencer at Lady Amelia's wedding?

AP News: Earl Spencer gets divorce, ex-wife gets $3 million

Evening Standard: Earl Spencer splits from second wife