In the aftermath of Charles Spencer—the younger brother of Princess Diana—announcing his divorce from his third wife, the former Karen Gordon, an intriguing detail has emerged: multiple outlets report that Earl Spencer has hired the same divorce lawyer to represent him in this matter that also represented his former brother-in-law, King Charles (then Prince Charles), in his divorce from Diana, which was finalized in 1996.
Fiona Shackleton, Tatler reports, is the one “who is responsible for Princess Diana losing her HRH [Her Royal Highness] title.” In addition to Charles squared, Shackleton has also represented Paul McCartney, Madonna, Liam Gallagher, and, the same year as Charles and Diana’s 1996 divorce, she also represented Prince Andrew during his own divorce proceedings from Sarah Ferguson.
Spencer announced his split from Gordon in The Mail on Sunday, calling their split “immensely sad,” and adding “I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren. I wish Karen every happiness in the future.”
The couple married at the Spencer family ancestral home, Althorp, in 2011, and share one daughter, Lady Charlotte Diana, who is 12 years old. Speaking to The Sunday Times back in 2020, Spencer said of himself and Gordon that “Neither of us has found happiness like this before.”
But, as Spencer wrote his devastatingly personal and harrowing memoir, A Very Private School (which came out this past March and details abuse perpetrated on him and others while he was in boarding school), Tatler reports that it “is understood that their relationship broke down due to the psychological strain the Earl felt while writing his memoir.” In the acknowledgements section of the book, Spencer thanked his wife and his family for supporting him when he became “tetchy and wrung out” during the writing process, and elsewhere in the book, he reflected on how his childhood experiences at boarding school had contributed to the “wreckage” of his first and second marriages. “I learned early in therapy that being sent away to boarding school at eight years of age meant that I had no understanding of intimacy,” he wrote.
Spencer was married to Victoria Lockwood from 1989 to 1997; they share three daughters, Lady Kitty and twins Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza, and a son, Louis, Viscount Althorp. In 2001, Spencer married Caroline Freud, and they have two children, Edmund and Lady Lara; they divorced in 2007.
Of Gordon specifically, Spencer said of her help during his writing process that she “has been supportive,” he told People. “I think it was very challenging for her to have a husband going through what was essentially four-and-a-half years of the most profound therapy with very difficult undertones to it. And she supported the idea of me doing it.”
He added “I think she always hoped I would come out happier and healthier. And that seems to be the case, very much. So I’m grateful to have her standing by me while I went through this—what I now realize was an essential process.”
Per The Independent, Gordon is the founder of Whole Child International, a U.S.-based organization “that works to improve the quality of care for vulnerable children.”
In speaking of Charles and Diana’s divorce, royal biographer Ingrid Seward described the terms negotiated by Shackleton as “severe” when it came to Diana: “If Diana wanted to leave the country on anything that could be described as official business, she had to get special permission,” Seward said, per Tatler. “Her movements were restricted, and she wasn’t allowed to take an ordinary job to earn money.”
Shackleton was awarded the title Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia by the late Queen Elizabeth in 2010; Us Weekly called her the “steel magnolia” of lawyers—but Shackleton said in 2020 that she still believes in marriage. “It works because we do enough apart and together, and he is a very good and decent person,” she told the Financial Times while discussing her husband, Ian. “I had the benefit of having done divorce law for quite a long time before I got married, so I could see who turns up in filing cabinets. Bottom line is, kind means everything.”
According to The Daily Mail, to be represented by Shackleton, it’s not an inexpensive undertaking: she charges roughly $700 per hour.
