Earl Spencer has hired the same high-profile divorce lawyer who lost his sister Diana’s HRH title when she separated from the then Prince Charles.
The Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed yesterday the Earl’s relationship with his third wife the Countess of Spencer had broken down.
He has now moved to hire £550 per hour ‘demon negotiator’ Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia to represent him, reported The Sunday Times.
Known as the ‘Steel Magnolia’ for her charm and determination, Fiona Shackleton, 67, advised Charles during his bitter divorce battle in 1996, which saw Princess Diana lose her HRH title.
Such was her devastation at the loss of the title, Prince William, then 14 years old, reportedly told her: ‘Don’t worry Mummy, I will give it back to you one day when I am King.’
She has previously represented A-list stars such as Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher and Madonna during their expensive and heavily spotlighted splits.
The Mail on Sunday exclusively revealed Earl Spencer’s relationship with his third wife the Countess of Spencer had broken down
He has now moved to hire £550 per hour ‘demon negotiator’ Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia to represent him
Earl Spencer’s 13-year marriage to Karen Gordon, a Canadian philanthropist, broke down amid the strain of writing his harrowing memoir detailing the physical and sexual abuse he suffered at boarding school, it is understood.
The couple announced their pending divorce to staff at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire, in March.
‘It is immensely sad,’ Earl Spencer, 60, told the MoS last week.
‘I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future.’
The couple married in June 2011 within the grounds of Althorp, where Diana is buried. The couple had met the previous year on a blind date at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
Speaking to The Sunday Times in 2020, the Earl said: ‘Karen and I both appreciate what the other does and look after what we have. Neither of us has found happiness like this before.’
His wife was notable by her absence at events held at Althorp and Spencer House in London in mid-March to launch the Earl’s book, A Very Private School.
Charles Spencer told the MoS that the five years of work on his memoir has deeply affected him and led to him undergoing residential treatment for trauma late last year.
He is understood to have been particularly traumatised by his discovery of his 1976 schoolboy diary, in which the assistant matron, who he alleges sexually abused him, had written a long-forgotten message.
Fiona Shackleton advised the then Prince Charles during his divorce to Diana in 1996 (Charles and Diana pictured on the Balmoral Estate before their wedding in 1981)
Charles married his second wife Caroline Freud in 2001 but the pair got a divorce in 2009
Charles and his first wife Victoria Lockwood got married in 1989 and then divorced in 1997
The diary was discovered on the high shelf of a room at Althorp that was being refurbished after he completed the main body of his book.
Earl Spencer wrote he was ‘rocked’ by the discovery and described how the woman, who The Mail on Sunday identified as 67-year-old grandmother Sally Jane Carr, has simply written ‘Me’ along with her address and telephone number.
A lawyer for Carr said she ‘vehemently denies all allegations of any abuse being carried out by her to the Earl and any other individual whatsoever’.
‘There is something about the word, ‘Me’, that strikes me now as not only wildly inappropriate, but intensely intimate – and, of course, slyly anonymous.’
Baroness Shackleton negotiated a £17 million settlement for Diana and the Princess agreed to cover the legal costs of her divorce.
It was also agreed that Diana would see William and Harry every five weekends.
Her successful handling of the case earned Shackleton praise and Charles continued to utilise her services until 2005.
‘The terms of the divorce were severe,’ says Seward, whose new book, My Mother and I, based on the relationship between King Charles and his late mother, is published by Simon and Schuster.
‘If Diana wanted to leave the country on anything that could be described as official business, she had to get special permission.
‘Her movements were restricted and she wasn’t allowed to take an ordinary job to earn money.’
Baroness Fiona Shackleton is a divorce specialist. Her most notable clients were King Charles in 1996 and Prince Andrew in 1996
Charles and Fiona Shackleton appear in high spirits while attending an exhibition in London, 2000
Prince William and Prince Harry both continue to use Shackleton as their Personal Solicitor
Baroness Shackleton also represented Prince Andrew during his divorce from Sarah, Duchess of York that same year.
Andrew paid out £3 million in a divorce settlement in May 1996.
Baroness Shackleton attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 with her husband, fellow Exeter alumnus, Ian Shackleton.
In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II made Shackleton a life peer, giving her the title, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia.
She sits as a Conservative member in the House of Lords.