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Earl Charles Spencer was born Charles Edward Maurice Spencer on May 20, 1964 to the Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, John and Frances Spencer. He had three older sisters Sarah, Jane, and Diana, who became Princess Diana. He also had an older brother, John, who died within hours of his birth. His godmother is his sister Diana's former mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II.
Charles spent much of his childhood in the house his parents received at their marriage from his maternal grandparents. It is called "Park House" and is near one of the Queen's houses.
When he was still relatively young, his parents divorced very bitterly. His maternal grandmother actually gave testimony against her own daughter, so that Earl John Spencer' received custody of all four of his children.
Several years later, Charles followed in his sister's footprints, and attended boarding schools, eventually matriculating at Oxford University, all this time making an impression as a hell-raiser.
During this time, he also gained a title. After the late 1970s death of his paternal grandfather, he became Viscount Althorp and his father became the Eighth Earl Spencer. His father was remarried, to Raine Legge, the daughter of romance author Dame Barbara Cartland.
In the late 1980s, Charles met a model named Catherine Victoria Lockwood, known as Victoria. Charles and Victoria married on August 16, 1989. Their union was far from easy, though. Shortly after the marriage, Victoria discovered that Charles had an affair with a journalist. The two were able to reconcile, eventually having four children: Lady Kitty Spencer (born on December 28, 1990); Lady Eliza Victoria Spencer (born on July 10, 1992); Lady Katya Amelia Spencer (born on July 10, 1992), known as Amelia; and Louis Frederick John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (born on March 14, 1994), heir to the earldom. All of the children became entitled to be called Lady or Viscount in 1992, when Charles acceded as 9th Earl Spencer, after the death of his father, Earl John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer.
Shortly after the death of their father, Princess Diana separated from King Charles III, and requested the use of a cottage on the Althorp estate. Charles denied Diana's request, precipitating a split between the two siblings. Shortly thereafter, Charles moved his family to South Africa. In South Africa, the marriage continued to deteriorate, until Charles and Victoria finally divorced in December 1997.
Shortly before his first divorce, came a terrible blow for the extended Spencer family and the nation, the August 1997 death of Princess Diana. After Diana's death, Charles returned to England to care for Althorp, and to spend some time with his nephews, Prince William of Wales and Prince Harry. During this time, he met Caroline Hutton Freud, ex-wife of the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. They married on December 15, 2001 and along with his four children and her two children, the family welcomed the birth of The Honourable Edmund Charles Spencer, born on October 6, 2003.
