Lady Di's brother causes the closure of the boarding school where he was abused

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl of Spencer, has continued to make headlines in recent weeks due to his scandalous divorce announcement, as well as ongoing investigations by the British police regarding the sexual abuse case exposed by Lady Di's brother in his latest book, A Very Private School.

According to British authorities, they are investigating a second victim for alleged sexual abuse at Maidwell Hall boarding school, a private school located in Northamptonshire, north of London. This comes after Charles Spencer, 60, disclosed that he was abused during his childhood at the school.

The sexual abuses suffered gain importance in light of the investigation of new testimonies

This week, the center also announced that it will finally close its doors at the end of the school year with “deep regret,” months after revealing its financial struggles. “The school has been negatively affected by external factors that have made it impossible for the school to continue,” they state on their website after years of controversy-free management.

Spencer, a historian and author of several books, caused shock in the UK last March when he shared that he had been a victim of mistreatment and abuse during his years at boarding school. According to his account, he was “beaten” by the headmaster, Jack Porch, and sexually abused by a twenty-year-old assistant, who allegedly continued this criminal behavior with more students over the years. The police recently disclosed that a 67-year-old woman was arrested and released on bail in June as investigations continue.

One of the questions raised by Count Spencer's book, in which he also uses the testimonies of other boarding school students, is: What were the parents thinking when they sent their seven- and eight-year-old children to such cruel institutions? And one of the answers is that they accepted this outdated British notion that young children, especially privileged children, needed to get used to pain and suffering. However, Lady Di's brother recounts that he considered shooting himself in the foot at the end of vacations to avoid returning to that school.

The Earl of Spencer kept that pain buried for a long time, but those five deeply traumatic years at Maidwell Hall, just a few kilometers from Althorp House, the ancestral home of the Spencer family, left a lasting mark that led Prince William's uncle to start therapy at the age of 40, a healing process that culminated years later with the publication of his book.

In relation to his also traumatic third divorce still ongoing, Spencer, who has just become a grandfather for the first time, remains silent as the magazine People revealed a few days ago some details about his separation from his still wife, Karen Gordon. According to court documents, she accused him of ending their 13-year marriage via a text message to be with his “long-time lover,” the archaeologist Cat Jarman, at least since 2022, “and most likely since 2021.”

Jarman, 42, met the Earl Spencer in 2021 when he arrived at Althorp House to conduct archaeological research on the remains of the Roman villa that was discovered on the property grounds a century ago. After meeting, it seems that everything went smoothly when Lady Di's brother “wasn't even thinking about a romance.” They co-hosted the history podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives (which inspired a book of the same name) with Reverend Richard Coles in 2023. “It's really nice to be with someone who wants to do things,” he told the Daily Mail in late November.

Last June, Charles and his wife, Karen, announced that they were getting divorced after almost 13 years of marriage. He hired the same lawyer that King Charles used when he divorced Princess Diana in 1996.

The archaeologist had to file another lawsuit against Gordon in October for improper use of private information. Apparently, he somehow distributed medical information about Jarman.