Charles Spencer is currently in a happy marriage with his wife Karen, and together they have an 11-year-old daughter named Charlotte Diana, who is the youngest among his seven children.
However, in a recent discussion with a close friend of his late sister, the Earl candidly reflected on his past romantic experiences, describing them as “promiscuous” and “unhappy.” During an episode of Julia Samuel’s podcast Therapy Works, where she serves as Prince George’s godmother, the Earl admitted to having had an “immature” perspective on marriage in the past.
When Julia asked him: “How do you feel about love and trust, having had such a misshapen start?” The author and podcaster responded: “When I was definitely looking for the wrong things, I was very promiscuous, very unhappy in my love life… I didn’t feel I deserved love.”
Charles continued: “I had a great love in my early twenties, and I ran from her because it was just too threatening, so I destroyed it and that’s the biggest regret of my life, and I’ve talked to her more recently about that and apologised, and she understands.
“I actually wrote to her mother at the time, when it ended, because she wrote me a very sweet letter, and I said ‘I’m just not worthy of her,’ I wrote that at the time.” “Heartbreaking, isn’t it, that young man,” Julia commented.
Charles later tied the knot with his first wife, model Victoria Aitken, formerly known as Victoria Lockwood, in 1989.
Their wedding ceremony included a young Prince Harry serving as a pageboy.
The former pair have daughters together, namely Lady Kitty Spencer, aged 33, and twins Lady Eliza Spencer and Lady Amelia Spencer, both aged 31, as well as a son, Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, who is set to inherit the Spencer estate.
Following their separation in 1997, Charles entered into marriage with Caroline Freud from 2001 to 2007. During their union, they welcomed two children: the Honourable Edmund Spencer, aged 20, and Lady Lara Spencer, who recently celebrated her 18th birthday.
Charles appeared on the podcast to discuss his latest book, a memoir titled “A Very Private School,” where he publicly reveals his experience of physical and sexual abuse during his time at boarding school from the ages of eight to 13.
During the conversation with Julia, they also delved into discussions about his family, including his feelings of anger when his headmaster informed him of his father’s remarriage.
He said: “One of my major memories from the time at prep school was being summoned in the summer of 1976, I’d just turned 12, for the headmaster to tell me that my father was marrying my stepmother, and I was furious. I remember I said to the headmaster, who I was terrified of, ‘I can’t believe he hasn’t got the courage to tell me himself,'” Charles confessed.
Sharing more insight into his dad’s state of mind, the Earl continued: “I have no doubt my father loved us enormously, he was actually a very sweet man but after my mother left, I think he limped along for the rest of his life as an undiagnosed depressive and it would have been against his culture, or his knowledge, actually, to have sought help.”
