- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: THE ESTRANGED WIFE OF BRITAIN'S EARL SPENCER AGREES TO A DIVORCE
- Date: 1st December 1997
- Summary: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (DECEMBER 1, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/SLV EXTERIORS HIGH COURT/ JOURNALISTS (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SV EARL SPENCER ARRIVING AT COURT (2 SHOTS) 0.37 3. LAS TOWER BLOCK WHERE NEGOTIATIONS GOING ON 0.42 4. SV EXTERIORS HUGUENOT CHAMBERS 0.46 6. SV WINDOW IN TOWER BLOCK WHERE NEGOTIATIONS GOING ON 0.52 7. SV LADY SPENCER'S ATTORNEY HANDING OUT STATEMENT TO PRESS, SAYING: "I THINK THAT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS CONTAINED IN THIS STATEMENT" (ENGLISH) 0.59 8. MCU JOURNALIST DICTATING STATEMENT 1.05 9. CU STATEMENT 1.11 10.SV LADY SPENCER LEAVES BUILDING WITH ATTORNEY JEREMY GAUNTLET (2 SHOTS) 1.43 11.SV CAR DRIVES OFF 1.50 Initials P3 S3/2 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 16th December 1997 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Reuters ID: LVA3OU7QD2GMHD625M3GY9IEKL23
- Story Text: The estranged wife of Britain's Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, has agreed to a divorce and the couple have reached a financial settlement.
The agreement on Monday (December 1) between Lady and Earl Spencer effectively ended an acrimonious court battle in which the 33-year-old earl has been accused by Lady Spencer's lawyers of "serial adultery" in their five-year marriage.
The accusations were published in detail in British tabloid newspapers, much to the anger of the earl.
"We are glad to be able to say that we have reached a financial settlement in the high court in Cape Town. This will involve us being divorced in South Africa shortly," a statement handed out by the lawyer of his wife, Victoria, outside the court on Monday said.
"The settlement agreement includes private provision concerning our financial affairs. A fundamental term of the agreement is that we undertake to the courts of South Africa and England not to breach our marital confidences or to give further details of the settlement," the statement said.
Earl Spencer and the countess, 32, live in separate homes in Constantia, one of Cape Town's most affluent suburbs. They moved there in 1995, ostensibly to escape press harassment.
Lady Spencer had been seeking a lump sum of 3.75 million pounds (6.3 million United States dollars) and 5,000 pounds (7,500 U.S.
dollars) a year for each of their children, according to court papers.
A spokesman for the earl said on Thursday that he had offered his wife a divorce settlement of more than four million rand (825,000 U.S. dollars) in addition to monthly maintenance payments.
Spencer, who has said publication of divorce details could harm his four young children, had been fighting his estranged wife Victoria over where their divorce settlement should be adjudicated.
He wanted it to be settled in South Africa but Lady Spencer had preferred Britain.
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