Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer reportedly hired the same divorce lawyer used by King Charles III in the former couple’s royal split in 1996.
The Times reported on Sunday, June 9, that Spencer, 60, has recruited attorney Fiona Shackleton’s representation amid his divorce from third wife Karen Spencer. While he didn’t speak about his choice of attorney directly, Spencer did address his split in a statement this past weekend.
“It is immensely sad. I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future,” he said in a statement to the Daily Mail on Saturday, June 8.
Spencer and Karen, 62, were married for 13 years. The Times reported on Sunday that news of their split was revealed in April to staff at the Spencer’s Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire.
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The pair married in June 2011, and share daughter Charlotte Diana Spencer, who was born in July 2012. (Spencer also four adult children with first wife Victoria Lockwood and two kids with second wife Caroline Freud.)
Shackleton has deep-rooted ties to the royal family — especially when it comes to controversial figures. Affair rumors between Charles and his now-wife, Queen Camilla, started in 1986. Nearly a decade later, Charles admitted in a 1994 interview that he had been unfaithful to Diana.
Despite the drama in their relationship, Diana and Charles stayed married until they announced their separation in 1992, with Charles hiring Shackleton to represent him. Their divorce was finalized in 1996. (Diana died at age 36 nearly one year after their divorce.)
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That same year, Prince Andrew recruited Shackleton for representation amid his split from Sarah Ferguson. Andrew, 64, and Ferguson, 64, were married for a decade before their divorce. The exes share daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
Aside from her career as a lawyer, Shackleton was awarded the title Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2010. She’s been widely referred to as the “steel magnolia” of lawyers — but revealed 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 when discussing her relationship with husband Ian Shackleton. “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.”
