THE WAR OF THE SPENCERS

Charles Spencer should have been a Tudor. The members of that English royal dynasty, now extinct, excelled at passionate rhetoric, just like that provided by the earl in his unforgettable eulogy at the funeral of his sister Diana. The Tudors too were embroiled in endless marital controversies, though Spencer cannot end his with the finality available to Henry VIII–the thud of the headsman’s ax. Still, one may wonder if Spencer was trying to display a similarly majestic, if less fatal, gesture–whether his righteous bombast against the media, delivered ostensibly to deify his sister, was not a self-interested attempt to raise himself above the prying eyes of the press. If so, he has not elevated himself high enough, as was proved last week in Cape Town, South Africa, where Spencer found himself exposed in a scandal born long before his sister’s untimely death.

Spencer’s marriage to the former model Victoria Lockwood fell apart three years ago. But only last week did the two parties engage in bitter court battle to decide whether their divorce should proceed in Britain or in South Africa, where both now reside. Lockwood, who wants the case moved back to Britain, claimed that the couple did not expect to live permanently in South Africa and that Spencer had lied about his reasons for moving the family there in the first place. He said, she said, that the move was to allow their children to escape the glare of celebrity and to grow up with a sense of normality. She contends it was really designed to cover his pursuit of Chantal Collopy, a South African whose husband eventually sued Spencer for “enticement and alienation” of his wife’s affection. Lockwood’s brief describes Spencer as a serial adulterer whose unfaithfulness began less than six months into their 1989 marriage (the British journalist with whom he had that initial liaison sold the story of their affair to the tabloid News of the World in 1991). Lockwood’s lawyer said Spencer had strung together as many as 12 love affairs. He was most recently linked to the fashion editor and former Calvin Klein model Josie Borain.

Spencer denies the allegations of rampant adultery, with one of his lawyers sneering that Lockwood’s team could dig up the names of just three of the earl’s alleged dozen mistresses. Meanwhile, the earl, who has always been public about his wife’s anorexia and neuroses, has briefed the court on Lockwood’s alcohol and drug dependency, stating bluntly, in response to her demands for a sizable settlement, that “I am most fearful that should Victoria receive significantly more money from me than she does at present, she will be unable to resist the lure of the substances to which she is/was addicted and/or unprincipled individuals who may seek to take advantage of her.” He cited his fears for their four children in such a scenario, even though Lockwood says she has recovered from substance abuse.

Spencer argues that it would be best for the children to keep the trial in South Africa, far from the London tabloids he has so loudly despised. A British trial, moreover, may give Lockwood a larger settlement than the one she has rejected: a house, $500,000 in cash, an educational stipend for the children and $4,200 a month. Spencer claims he cannot afford more because most of his clan’s assets (estimated at about $165 million) are historic legacies that he cannot sell, like the estate in Althorp where Diana is buried. Spencer suggests that his wife should return to modeling. One of his friends told the press she is a gold digger.

With such lures and in spite of geography, the British tabs have rushed to the spectacle. And Lockwood has provided other juicy bits: stormy fights “taking place after we had both consumed large quantities of alcohol” and how Spencer called her to his side while soaking in his tub to inform her that their marriage was over. She has a sensational ally: Collopy, whom Spencer dumped with a phone call. Her presence at Lockwood’s side last week (and her expected testimony this week in her ex-rival’s favor) stunned the earl, who has reportedly threatened to take back a $104,000 house he gave her when they were lovers. Collopy, who claims to have strengthened Lockwood’s resolve, told one newspaper, “He thought Victoria would collapse before it came to court.”

She has not. For his part, Spencer approaches everything with an energetic hauteur. A local paparazzo with whom Spencer has had several run-ins fell while trying to take his picture. When he asked Spencer to help him up, the earl walked on, saying, “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer chap.” Or as Henry VIII might have said, “Be gone, varlet.”

–Reported by Peter Hawthorne/Cape Town