Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, has found new love again with a woman 18 years his junior and he couldn’t be happier and contented, while his estranged wife, Karen Gordon, has found it difficult to leave the home they shared in Althorp and start anew.
The 60-year-old Earl Spencer admitted that he wasn’t looking for love and especially not into younger women but fate brought him and Norwegian archaeologist Professor Cat Jarman together. He shared he “was at the tail end of a marriage. It just wasn’t a possibility” to be with someone new but his relationship with Jarman is a breath of fresh air.
He told the Daily Mail: “I’m too old for hearts and flowers stuff, but the best way to describe it is that with Cat, I can be myself. She knows who I am. Who I really am. I don’t have to pretend to be something I am not. And she brings out the best in me.”
Spencer thinks that her Norwegian upbringing is a novelty in their relationship because the British class system is a foreign concept in Norway. Jarman herself admitted that she really didn’t know who Spencer was when they met in 2021, when she arrived at Althorp with a TV crew from Channel 4 armed with a pick axe and ready to dig up the long-rumored buried village in the estate. She had no idea that she was in the presence of one of Britain’s most famous aristocrats.
“I think Cat being Scandinavian is quite lovely for me, coming to me cold, as it were, just accepting me for the person. I’ve been to visit her parents in Norway, and they really don’t have a class system there. It seems a really happy place and everyone just gets on with it,” Spencer shared.
The couple started out as friends, then colleagues (they co-host the The Rabbit Hole Detectives podcast along with Rev. Richard Coles), until their relationship slowly blossomed into romance. Asked what specifically brought them closer, Spencer said: “Shared interests. We were fascinated by the same things. And she made me laugh. Laughter was key.”
He added: “It really is nice to be with someone who wants to do stuff…It really is nice to find someone who is dynamic and interested.” Spencer admitted that while it may sound so self-absorbed, he feels that he’s “in a more honest phase” of his life now with her. He also compared Jarman to his past relationships saying: “I don’t want to denigrate anyone but Cat is just completely different to anyone I’ve ever been with before.”
Apparently, that includes Gordon, who recently took to Instagram to share that she’s moved out of Althorp but had difficulty finding a temporary rental that can accommodate her animals: seven horses, two sheep, four cats, and a dog. She wrote that while she’s excited to embark on this new chapter in her life, it’s also “been a challenging time” but one that’s “filled with so much generosity and kindness.”
Gordon and Spencer announced their separation in June. It was his third marriage and when asked if he sees a potential fourth in Jarman he said: “It’s a bit early for that.” The archeologist is also separated from her husband with whom she shares two teenage boys while Spencer has seven children from his previous relationships. Here’s hoping this time love sticks around.