Earl Spencer’s estranged wife wrote that it was ‘hilarious’ his new girlfriend was suffering from a serious medical condition, which she cruelly labelled a ‘degenerating brain’, explosive court documents claim.
The Mail on Sunday last week revealed how legal papers accuse Lady Spencer of taking vindictive delight in sharing the fact that her husband’s new girlfriend, Norwegian archaeologist Professor Cat Jarman, has multiple sclerosis.
Her alleged comments were written in a diary that it is claimed was deliberately left open at Althorp, the Earl’s ancestral home in Northamptonshire, but they could not be disclosed until now for legal reasons.
After the document became publicly available this weekend, the MoS can detail the shocking comments contained in Lady Spencer’s journal, which it is claimed was left open in the marital bedroom that Princess Diana’s brother and the Countess had shared.
According to the legal papers, Lady Spencer, 52, allegedly wrote: ‘Love the idea that her [Professor Jarman’s] MS is starting to kick in. Love the idea of him being with someone with a degenerating brain that makes her not adhere to normal societal norms. Hilarious.’
The disclosure is the latest twist in an extraordinary High Court battle. Professor Jarman is suing Countess Spencer for the misuse of private medical information, alleging she revealed her MS diagnosis to friends and employees – and even to the Earl himself.
Professor Jarman has previously described feeling ‘utterly sick’ when her confidential details were allegedly disclosed last year.
Last night, she told the MoS: ‘Karen’s words and actions have had a devastating effect on me and my children and are seriously impacting my health.
Earl Spencer’s (left) estranged wife wrote that it was ‘hilarious’ his new girlfriend, Norwegian archaeologist Professor Cat Jarman (right), was suffering from a ‘degenerating brain’, explosive court documents claim
![According to the legal papers, Lady Spencer, 52, allegedly wrote: ¿Love the idea that her [Professor Jarman¿s] MS is starting to kick in. Love the idea of him being with someone with a degenerating brain that makes her not adhere to normal societal norms. Hilarious¿](https://www.americanpolibeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1743900809_105_Love-the-idea-of-him-being-with-someone-with-a.jpg)
According to the legal papers, Lady Spencer, 52, allegedly wrote: ‘Love the idea that her [Professor Jarman’s] MS is starting to kick in. Love the idea of him being with someone with a degenerating brain that makes her not adhere to normal societal norms. Hilarious’
Her alleged comments were written in a diary that it is claimed was deliberately left open at Althorp, the Earl’s ancestral home in Northamptonshire, but they could not be disclosed until now for legal reasons
‘Coping with a life-altering, incurable illness is difficult enough but to have lies about it spread gleefully without consent is utterly appalling.’
In defence papers lodged at the court, Lady Spencer said the disclosure was ‘entirely justified and legitimate’ and that Professor Jarman ‘had no reasonable expectation’ that she would not discuss the MS diagnosis ‘with the limited group of individuals with whom she shared it’.
Court papers claim the diary was found by the Earl on the morning of May 15 last year when ‘he went into the bedroom to get a pair of shoes’. The extract appeared to have been written eight days earlier.
The documents suggest the Countess intended that the Earl or his staff would see the extract because she ‘knew Earl Spencer kept his shoes in their bedroom’ and would therefore have to go there, and because the room would be cleaned by housekeepers.
Despite the couple telling staff last April that they were to divorce after 13 years of marriage, Lady Spencer only moved out of Althorp in January this year.
