Inside Princess Diana's niece's troubled relationship with her father - from 'bullying' his first wife to 'growing distant' following his third marriage. Photo / Instagram

Princess Diana’s niece, Lady Amelia Spencer, married her boyfriend of 13 years, Greg Mallett, in a beautiful wedding ceremony in South Africa yesterday.

However, while the lovebirds were joined by their closest friends and extended family at the stunning La Cotte Farm, the wedding party was missing a very notable guest - the bride’s father, Earl Spencer.

Princess Diana’s younger brother didn’t appear at the wedding amid rumours he and his four eldest children have grown apart in the past few years. He shares his eldest kids with his first wife Victoria Lockwood, to whom he was married 1989 to 1997.

After the pair’s divorce, which made front page news in the 90s, the father-of-seven moved back to England while his ex-wife and his family stayed in Cape Town. The family moved to South Africa to stay out of the papers, keep a low profile and escape the limelight.

The bride has, in recent years, spoken fondly of her time spent with her father and her childhood memories visiting his Althorp estate in Gloucestershire.

Earl Charles Spencer additionally seems to have been present as a father figure, especially financially, buying Lady Amelia and her twin sister Lady Eliza sports cars for their birthdays when they turned 18 and paying for their luxurious Cape Town waterfront apartments.

The Earl spoke highly of his new son-in-law after the couple’s engagement announcement in 2020, revealing that the real estate agent asked for his blessing before getting down on one knee.

However, after Charles Spencer’s notable absence from his eldest daughter’s opulent Italian wedding in 2021, it has been rumoured that tensions were heightened within the family because of his controversial third marriage to Countess Karen Spencer.

‘Bullying’ her mother Victoria

Charles Spencer and model Victoria Lockwood were engaged only six weeks after they first met. In 1989, the pair married at St Mary’s Church in Great Brington and had their first daughter Lady Kitty a year later.

In June 1992, the parents announced the birth of twins Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza, and had their son Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, in March 1994.

However, five years into their marriage the couple started having marital problems, with rumours running rife of Earl Spencer having various affairs.

During this time, Victoria was said to be struggling with eating disorders and an addiction to alcohol.

In a final effort to save their marriage and escape the pressures of the spotlight, the couple moved overseas to South Africa in 1995.

However, only two years later, Victoria and Charles announced they were separating. In their divorce hearing, Victoria accused Charles of sleeping around while she was in rehabilitation.

When the Earl was reminded of his promise to stick with his wife through thick and thin, Charles stated to the judge that his wife was “thin and certainly thick”.

Later on in the hearing, one of Charles’ letters to a girlfriend was read out to the courtroom. In the letter, the Earl described himself as “vicious, cruel and a bully” towards Victoria.

Womanising ways

Charles married his second wife Caroline Freud, the ex-wife of Matthew Freud and a former nursery teacher, when Amelia was 9 years old.

A source within the family told the Daily Mail that Amelia and her siblings were fond of their new step-mother - and Charles’ ex-wife Victoria also spoke highly of his new marriage.

In 2001, she told the Mail: “I’m happy that he is happy and settled because it will bring an element of stability to the children to know that their father is in a committed relationship”.

However, Charles’ children were allegedly horrified by how fast the aristocrat ended his five-year marriage with Freud and moved on to American television presenter Coleen Sullivan.

The children continued to be less-than-pleased with his new beau until a trip to Mallorca in 2007 that allegedly broke the ice. However, Spencer ended the relationship soon after that.

“One morning,” revealed a family friend, “he simply woke up and decided he no longer found her attractive. And that was it. But isn’t that so very Charles?”

‘Frictions’ over Charles’ marriage

Charles married his third wife Canadian Karen Gordon in 2011. The pair met on a blind date set up by one of his former colleagues. Charles and Karen welcomed their first child Charlotte in 2010.

Rumours of a rift between Earl Spencer and his three eldest daughters emerged in 2021 after his absence from Kitty’s wedding to millionaire Michael Lewis - who is three years older than Charles.

As a result, Lady Kitty - whose husband is 32 years her senior - was walked down the aisle by her brother Louis Spencer and half-brother Samuel Aitken.

In 2021, a close source told the Mail: “Kitty and Charles were very close when she was growing up, but their relationship has cooled and been more distant since his marriage to his third wife Karen in 2011.

“Charles recently suffered an injury and perhaps that will be the reason for him not travelling, but it is just easier for everyone that he is not there.

“The four children are all close to their mother Victoria and get on well with their step-siblings, and their Spencer aunts and have forged their own relationships with one another without needing Charles to bind them together.”

In an interview with the Sunday Times in 2020, Countess Karen Spencer reflected on the challenges of being a stepmother to Earl Charles’ six kids.

Implying that there was trouble in paradise, Karen revealed: “I’m a fixer. I’m hugely overconfident and I probably underestimated the complexities of being a step-parent.

“Charles gave me the best advice, which is to say nothing and do nothing about anything, ever. I don’t get to have an opinion about his children. I can have an opinion and give it to him, in our bedroom, but not to them.

“I just wish I could say I’d adhered to it the whole time. Step-parenting plays to Charles’s strengths and my weaknesses.”