Karen Spencer Accuses Ex-Husband Charles Spencer and His New Partner of 'Bullying' in Explosive New Legal Documents

• Karen Spencer and Charles Spencer were married for 13 years before he announced their divorce in June

• Karen Spencer is suing Charles’ new partner, archaeologist dr. Cat Jarman, who claims Karen shared private information about Jarman’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis

• In her defense, Karen filed new court documents that say she was justified in sharing the information with a close circle given her shock over her husband’s alleged affair with Jarman

• In the new filing, Karen also accuses Jarman and Charles Spencer of “abuse”

• Jarman and Charles Spencer strongly condemned the new charges Daily Mail

Karen Spencer accuses her ex-husband Charles Spencer of telling her he wanted a divorce via text message earlier this year – and then launching a campaign of abuse against her, according to new court documents filed in the UK by Countess Spencer.

The High Court documents are part of Karen’s defense after dr. Cat Jarman, Charles’ current partner, sued Karen in October for alleged misuse of private information related to Jarman’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In the new documents, Karen outlines the reasons she says she feels justified in discussing the information with her circle, given that she just found out her husband was having an affair with Jarman, 42.

“To the extent that Lady Spencer shared the information in question with her immediate family, or close friends and associates, she did so in a way that was entirely justified and legitimate in the circumstances, as part of processing and dealing with a sudden and cruel request for divorce,” says Karen Spencer’s filing. “Alternatively, given these circumstances, [Jarman] she did not reasonably expect that Lady Spencer would not discuss the information in question with the limited group of individuals with whom she had shared it.”

According to the documents, Karen, 52, claims that on March 19, 2024, her husband of 13 years, Charles, 60, the younger brother of the late Princess Diana, “informed her that their marriage was over” and “did this via text message.”

While “his conduct leading up to this was light-hearted and deliberately provocative,” the documents continue, “the fact that he finally ended their marriage by text, completely refusing to speak to her in person or even provide an explanation at all, despite her repeated requests over the weeks that followed, it was both cruel and inexplicable.”

Charles Spencer et al. Cat Jarman.

Charles Spencer/Instagram

Charles Spencer’s girlfriend Cat Jarman claims his estranged wife disclosed her MS diagnosis: High Court action

Cat claimed in the High Court that Karen disclosed Jarman’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis without her permission, and is now suing the countess for unauthorized disclosure of private information. In her defense of that claim, Karen stated that Charles and Cat were having an affair as far back as 2022, and possibly 2021 — which Karen claims she learned about after contacting Cat’s husband, Tom Jarman, this spring.

High Court documents obtained by PEOPLE state that in an April 26, 2024 Zoom call between the Countess and Tom, she asked him “if he suspected an affair between the two of them” and “once they compared the accounts of ‘Charles and Cat’ the affair became clear.”

“Lady Spencer was understandably shocked and devastated,” the documents state, adding that “this news was devastating for Lady Spencer.”

Earl Charles Spencer and Countess Karen Spencer attend the third day, Ladies’ Day, of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 18, 2015 in Ascot, England.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

After learning of the alleged affair, Karen confronted Cat, because “at the time she had planned to stay in a house just a few hundred yards from Lady Spencer’s home for a period of five weeks and dine at Althorp House itself while she and her daughter [with Spencer, 12-year-old Charlotte Diana] still lived there.” (After a few years of marriage to Charles, Karen left her home in California to join him full-time at Althorp, the Spencer family home, where Princess Diana and her siblings grew up.)

“Lady Spencer decided to face it [Cat] about the affair with her husband and explain to her that it would be inappropriate to come to her home for dinner,” the documents continue, adding that Cat “did not deny the affair; instead she claimed that she was not the reason for the breakdown of her marriage.”

An email Karen allegedly sent to Cat was included in court documents, which read in part: “First of all[,] as a woman, I just have to tell you that I am very disappointed in you. Turning all the children’s lives upside down [like] this is so unbelievably immoral,” adding, “You obviously haven’t thought this through.”

Calling her Charles’ “long-term lover”, Karen said she wouldn’t have had Cat at Althorp when she was still living there, adding of Cat’s relationship with Charles: “Good luck Cat, you’re in for a hell of a ride.”

9. Earl Spencer Charles Spencer (L) and Countess Karen Spencer at the inaugural Whole Child International Los Angeles Gala hosted by Earl and Countess Spencer at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel on October 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California.

Rich Polk/Getty

In her court filing, Karen says the “procedures and manner” in which Charles and Jarman sought to resolve the legal situation “were oppressive and harassing, completely ignoring the clearly understandable and legitimate nature of her sharing such information with a limited circle of people close to her (for as distinct from publicly disseminating it in any way) given its importance to the affair [Jarman] had with her husband, the way he demanded a divorce while refusing to give any explanation after 13 years together, and her apparent need to process and come to terms with dealing with the loss of the life she had built for herself, her husband and their daughter in one nasty move.”

Charles Spencer, 60, breaks silence on romance with woman 18 years his junior amid divorce drama: ‘I don’t have to pretend’

Karen also alleges in the new filing that Jarman pressured her to respond to her lawsuit even as Karen mourned her father’s death in Canada. Jarman instructed her [lawyers] and pressed Lady Spencer further, stating, ‘we are aware that your client is in Canada and with her family there, but this should not take more than five minutes of her time and there is absolutely no reason why she should not.’ In the hours after her father’s death, while Lady Spencer was grieving heavily on Vancouver Island, [Jarman] he directed her [lawyers] to demand answers from her under threat of immediately forcing her into court in London (at the same time as a similar threat was made by Earl Spencer).”

Karen has not spoken publicly about the divorce or Jarman’s subsequent lawsuit.

In statements for Daily Mail about Karen’s new application, Charles and Cat retorted.

“The stress of this matter, which Karen Spencer could have handled in minutes many months ago, is taking a serious toll on my health,” Jarman said. “My full response to this outrage will be before the court as soon as possible, while at the same time we are urgently pursuing all available legal remedies, including those relating to breach of legally binding oaths.’

Meanwhile, Charles said Daily Mail, “The idea that I would end my marriage by text is an absurd attempt to smear my name. Karen ended her marriage, after endless threats to do so over the years, in early March. She asked me to confirm the end of the marriage in a text message dated 18. March and my response that day was to simply accept her decision. I still have those texts and will share them in court when I clear my name.”

Charles and Cat, along with Reverend Richard Coles, host the podcast Rabbit Hole Detectivesand Cat, an archaeologist, led an archaeological dig at Althorp.

In a December 4 interview with The Daily MailCat has spoken out for the first time about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis, which she received in 2016 – calling the news “absolutely devastating”.

“I thought I would be discriminated against because it’s a disability,” she said of why she initially decided to keep her diagnosis a secret. “I thought it would affect my career, destroy my existence, affect the way people perceive me. I didn’t want it to define me or limit my career.”

“Since then I have worked very hard to hide my MS, which should be my privilege. So only a few people knew – and Charles wasn’t one of them. I’ve only been seeing him, romantically, for two or three months and I haven’t told him yet,” she continued.

Ph.D. Cat Jarman.

Marta Perez/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Cat claimed that Karen learned she had MS “from someone close to me” during a conversation about whether Cat and Charles had an affair (which Jarman insists did not happen). Karen then told Charles, according to Cat.

“But during a conversation about whether I had an affair with her husband – which I can categorically say I didn’t, we were just friends and colleagues until the divorce – Karen found out I had MS. It was also confirmed to her that it is not something that is widely known. And yet she then went to Charles and said, ‘You know she has MS, right?’ ” The cat supposedly The Daily Mail.

Cat went on to claim that Karen shared the news of her MS diagnosis with “numerous people”: “I’m still not entirely sure who else she shared this private and sensitive information with, which is the point of this legal action,” Cat shared The Daily Mail.

After Charles allegedly found out about her diagnosis in May, Cat claimed she then spent the next five months trying to find out who Karen told, leading to her lawyers sending letters (which she claims were ignored) before than she initiated a lawsuit. October 10 The Telegraph reported that Cat has filed a lawsuit against Karen, alleging misuse of private information.

Ph.D. Cat Jarman and Charles Spencer.

Charles Spencer/Instagram

In June, Charles announced that he and Karen were divorcing after 13 years of marriage. The former couple married in Althorp in 2011 and share a 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte Diana. Both Charles and Karen were previously married – Charles, 60, has four children with his first wife, Victoria Lockwood, and two with his second wife, Caroline Freud, and Karen, 52, has two daughters from her first marriage to Hollywood producer Mark Gordon.

“It’s incredibly sad,” Charles said Mail on Sunday in a statement announcing that he and Karen were divorcing. “I just want to devote myself to all my children and grandchildren, and I wish Karen the best of luck in the future.”

In another twist, Charles reportedly retained the same divorce attorney as King Charles when the future king and Princess Diana divorced in 1996.

Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales, pose outside the Chateau de Chambord during an official visit to France on November 9, 1988 in Chambord, France. Georges De Keerle/Getty Charles Spencer, 60, breaks silence on romance with woman 18 years his junior amid divorce drama: ‘I don’t have to pretend’

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Speaking on the 24th st Mail on Sundaysaid Charles of his relationship with Cat, “I’m too old for the hearts and flowers thing, but the best way to describe it is that with Cat I can be myself.” He continued, “She knows who I am. Who I really am. I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not.”

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Source: HIS Education