The girlfriend of Princess Diana‘s brother Earl Spencer is set to embark on a £2million legal battle over privacy with his estranged wife.
Dr Cat Jarman, 43, who has been dating the Earl for almost a year, issued a claim in the High Court against his third wife, Countess Karen Spencer, in October.
The Norwegian archaeologist is accusing her of sharing private medical information, forcing her to reveal her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in an interview.
She previously claimed she had ‘worked very hard indeed’ to keep her condition a secret, including from Charles Spencer, 61, when they first started their relationship.
When Ms Jarman initially brought legal action against Countess Spencer, details of her MS were still under wraps.
But an interview with MailOnline last year saw her tell the world of a diagnosis which had left her ‘utterly devastated’.
On Monday, Master Mark Gidden heard that both parties in the dispute had agreed future estimated legal costs of more than £2m, The Telegraph reports.
These amounted to £1,217,880 for the claimant, as confirmed by her barrister Kirsten Sjovoll.
The girlfriend of Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer, Dr Cat Jarman, pictured right, is set to embark on a £2million legal battle over privacy with his estranged wife
She issued a claim in the High Court against his third wife, Countess Karen Spencer, pictured in 2018, in October
Meanwhile, the defendant’s legal costs were £1,000,087 although the court did not hear how much Ms Jarman is suing the Earl’s ex-wife for.
Ms Sjovoll said the Countess’s costs were ‘excessively high’ but Master Giddon disagreed, adding: ‘To my mind, they are costs falling within a range that is to be expected.’
Clara Hamer, representing Countess Spencer, said: ‘Just on the big picture point … when you’re dealing with a case of this magnitude and the issues involved, that’s not such a great gulf.’
Ms Jarman’s barrister suggested the defendant’s costs were already more than half a million pounds and her opposite number admitted her client’s tally stood at £511,404, while Jarman’s were £329,365.
But Ms Hamer added: ‘The court is not a slave to comparison. Similar work in the hands of different legal teams may result in different costs.’
In December, Ms Jarman told MailOnline: ‘I’d worked very hard at making sure it stayed a secret. For six years, I had gone to great lengths to keep it hidden. None of my TV colleagues knew. Even Charles did not know.
‘When you have a new partner, you have to gauge when and how to tell them something this huge, and I hadn’t yet done so.’
She added: ‘I have Multiple Sclerosis. I was diagnosed eight years ago, when I was in the final stages of doing my PhD.
Princess Diana kissing her brother, Viscount Althorp (later to become Earl Spencer) at the Birthright Red Ball in London in 1985
The Earl previously gushed about his ‘respected’ new partner Ms Jarman on Good Morning Britain
‘I woke one morning with crippling pins and needles, shooting pains in my spine, as if I was being Tasered. I completely lost the power of my right hand – I couldn’t even hold a pen. My body simply stopped working.
‘It took nine months to be able to use my hand again. I’m now on strong medication, and everything is kept at bay, but the problem with MS is that you live not knowing if you are going to have a relapse.
‘My body could just stop working again tomorrow. It could be my eyesight, or my legs, or anything, or I could be fine for the rest of my life. There is no way of knowing.’
Earl Spencer originally confirmed his relationship to Good Morning Britain two months earlier.
He said: ‘Cat Jarman, who is my partner now actually, she’s a brilliant archaeologist.
‘She is Nordic Person of the Year 2024 which is usually handed out to someone like Sven-Goran Eriksson or a composer or something. You have to be respected throughout all Scandinavian and Nordic countries.’
Ms Jarman, who is separated from her husband, has been helping the Earl unearth a Roman villa in Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire.
Since 2023, the pair have co-hosted The Rabbit Hole Detective, which is a historical podcast, alongside Reverend Richard Coles.
Since 2023, the pair have co-hosted The Rabbit Hole Detective, which is a historical podcast, alongside Reverend Richard Coles
The Countess has accused the Earl and Ms Jarman of trying to ‘garner publicity for their relationship’ using the press.
She added that the MailOnline interview had been ‘hopelessly inconsistent’ with her claim.
The defence reads: ‘Deliberately disclosing the fact that she has MS to the world in a manner calculated to give it maximum publicity is not only entirely inconsistent with any claim to privacy, but it also nullifies the ostensible purpose of these proceedings.’
The Countess has defended herself against Ms Jarman’s accusations throughout.
In June, the Earl revealed the ‘immensely sad’ news that he and his third wife Karen Gordon, 52, a Canadian philanthropist, were divorcing.
The pair married in 2011 and Karen gave birth to his seventh child, Lady Charlotte, the following year.
They married within the grounds of Althorp, where the Earl’s older sister Princess Diana is buried. The couple had met the previous year on a blind date at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
But their relationship is understood to have broken down amid the strain of him writing his harrowing memoir, A Very Private School, which details the abuse he suffered at boarding school.
