BBC News | World | Spencers agree �2m divorce settlement
Wednesday, December 3, 1997 Published at 15:54 GMT
World
Spencers agree �2m divorce settlement
Earl Spencer told court there was no hope of any reconciliation in the marriage
The final chapter in the turbulent eight-year marriage of Earl and Countess Spencer has closed after the pair divorced in a South African courtroom.
The Countess will receive a lump sum settlement of �1,815,000 by February 1998, according to court documents, a house in Cape Town and joint custody of their four children, plus maintenance payments.
Charles Spencer will make up any shortfall between the price of the pair's house and �250,000, in the event of his wife emigrating from South Africa and selling the property.
The guarantee takes the total settlement past �2m. The Spencers also undertook not to give any details of their married life, private life or financial affairs to the media.
The final order was granted by Mr Justice Farlam at the end of a six-minute hearing in which Earl Spencer admitted his marriage had irretrievably broken down.
It follows an announcement on Monday by Earl Spencer, 33, and his 32-year-old estranged wife that they had reached an undisclosed financial settlement.
Both parties agreed to withdraw allegations made against each other during last week's acrimonious battle to decide whether the case ought to be heard in South Africa or Britain.
'It's so broken down'
During the short hearing, the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, was asked if there was any hope of a reconciliation. The Earl replied: "There is not, my lord."
And when he was asked if the marriage had irretrievably broken down, he said: "It's so broken down, my lord."
The judge then agreed to the ending of the marriage after Lady Spencer's legal team made no representations. She was not in court for the hearing.
He then left the court and the Earl and his legal team walked through the corridors of Cape Town's High Court into the bright sunshine, where they were followed by waiting photographers.
Countess Spencer was not in court to hear the divorce settlement
But he walked straight into his lawyer's chambers 100 yards up the road without commenting.
Attention is now likely to focus on whether either of them will re-marry as Cape Town pharmacist Guy Woods is reported to have already proposed to Lady Spencer.
On the eve of the final settlement, the Earl appeared with his latest girlfriend Josie Borain at a fashion dinner in Cape Town.
He had contested Lady Spencer's demands for a clean break settlement of �3.75m despite having a personal fortune of �6m and annual pre-tax income of �1m.
The Earl's legal team said his fortune was tied up in the Althorp Estate and family estates in Guernsey and London.
Marriage soon in trouble
The settlement was reached just before Lady Spencer, her father John, and the Earl's former mistress Chantal Collopy, 37, were due to give evidence against him.
The hearing ended the often bitter courtroom battle which revealed lurid details about the couple's private lives.
When the couple married in 1989, the prospects seemed rosy for Lord Spencer and Victoria Lockwood, an international model.
But the marriage was soon in trouble and the Earl resumed an affair with cartoonist Sally-Ann Lasson within months of his marriage.
Move was temporary
Despite the birth of their four children, the situation worsened and Lady Spencer, was finding it difficult to cope and went to a Surrey clinic for treatment for anorexia and alcoholism.
The couple split in May 1995 and moved to South Africa just before Christmas with the Earl saying a prime reason was to avoid media intrusion.
They both said they intended to return to Britain in the future, the Earl because the Althorp ancestral home needed his "permanent presence", and Lady Spencer because she said it was always intended as a temporary move.
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