Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, said he is “immensely sad” as he announced his divorce from his third wife Karen Gordon.
The Earl told the Mail that the relationship deteriorated amid the emotional strain of writing about the abuse he suffered as a child in his memoir.
The couple, who announced their impending separation to staff at their Althorp estate in Northamptonshire in March, will end their 13-year marriage.
Earl Spencer said: “I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future.
“It is immensely sad.”
The couple had met on a blind date in Los Angeles in 2010 and married a year later.
Ms Gordon, nee Villeneuve, is a Canadian philanthropist and had previously been married to Hollywood producer Mark Gordon.
The 52-year-old has three children while Earl Spencer, 60, has seven and has previously been married to Victoria Lockwood and Caroline Freud.
He told the Times: “Karen and I both appreciate what the other does and look after what we have. Neither of us has found happiness like this before.”
Earl Spencer has already written several books and confessed difficulty in penning an account of his upbringing. The book, A Very Private School, contains details of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his matron.
He has previously said of the experience: “I’ve bored a lot of therapists for decades and I realised that this school was the root of a lot of the problems I’ve tried to process.
“Then I started to meet people who had had terrible things happen as a result of going to that school. Truly awful.
“One bloke said he had been raped three times at the school. He told me how it had destroyed his life and how he had a breakdown when his son reached the age he was when he got raped. He was nine.”
After his divorce, he will reportedly continue living at the Althorp estate, where Princess Diana was buried after her death in 1997.
