First marriage On 16 September 1989, after a six-week courtship, she married
Charles Spencer, then Viscount Althorp, at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin,
Great Brington. The ceremony as conducted by the local
vicar, Rev. Norman Knibbs, and the then Archbishop of Canterbury,
Robert Runcie, met the bride in the doorway of the church. Her
engagement ring was made up of ruby and diamond topped with a crown, similar to one ring that belonged to
Queen Victoria, while her wedding dress of champagne French antique lace with Russian
sable trim was designed by
Tomasz Starzewski. She wore the Spencer Tiara. Althorp's nephews
Prince Harry and Alexander Fellowes were the pageboys at their wedding and his nieces Eleanor Fellowes and Emily McCorquodale were bridesmaids. During their marriage, she was known as Viscountess Althorp and later, with the death of
her father-in-law in March 1992, as Countess Spencer. They had four children: •
Lady Kitty Eleanor Spencer (born 28 December 1990); married
Michael Lewis in 2021. They have one daughter, Athena. •
Lady Eliza Victoria Spencer (born 10 July 1992), a model •
Lady Katya Amelia Spencer (born 10 July 1992); a model; married Greg Mallett, nephew of former South African national rugby coach
Nick Mallett, in 2023. •
Louis Frederick John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (born 14 March 1994);
heir apparent to the earldom. The family lived at
The Falconry, a historic building built in 1613 on the Althorp Estate, until Charles Spencer inherited the earldom and the estate from his father. From early in the marriage, her husband was involved in
extramarital relationships, while Victoria experienced ongoing struggles with anorexia and substance addiction. Just sixteen months after the wedding, her husband admitted to the press that he had had an affair with a journalist early on, when the viscountess was
pregnant for the first time. In the spring of 1994, after the birth of their last child, her husband met a married
South African socialite with whom he began an affair that lasted two years and five months, ending in December 1996. In April 1995, Countess Spencer was photographed by
tabloid newspapers while walking in the grounds of a private clinic in
Surrey, where she spent five months receiving treatment for addiction issues, reportedly including
alcoholism, as well as eating disorders. Later that month, a spokesman for the Earl confirmed that the couple would be
living separately, although there were no plans for
divorce at that time. In September 1995, the Earl and Countess Spencer filed a
lawsuit against the United Kingdom at the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), claiming that there was no
privacy law in the UK to prevent newspapers from reporting on her health issues and intruding into their private lives. In January 1998, the court eventually dismissed their claims, noting that they had not exhausted all available legal avenues under
British law before bringing the case to Europe. Just before Christmas in 1995, the already estranged Spencers moved with their four children to
Cape Town, South Africa, to avoid media attention. They both settled in the suburb of
Constantia, where Lady Spencer lived with the children at
Silverhurst Estate, a gated community, and Lord Spencer resided in the nearby
Tarrystone House, which he purchased in 1996. After the family relocation, Earl Spencer filed for
divorce in South Africa, as both parties were living there, while the Countess wanted the case to be heard in Britain. This led to a legal battle over the proper
jurisdiction, which was eventually resolved when Lady Spencer, represented by
Jeremy Gauntlett, agreed to have the divorce finalized in South Africa to spare her children public scrutiny and avoid a prolonged process. During the divorce proceedings, the Countess did not attend her former sister-in-law
Diana's funeral in September 1997, as she continued her
recovery treatment and stayed with her children in Cape Town, where she began a four-year relationship with a local pharmacist. At the burial, Earl Spencer was accompanied with his then-new girlfriend, a South African model, whom Victoria herself had introduced to him; their relationship lasted nine months. On 3 December 1997, after a highly publicized case, the
Cape Town High Court granted the Spencers’ divorce through a
settlement that awarded her a lump sum of £1.815 million, as well as her car and her house in Cape Town with its contents. The couple had joint
custody of the children. Later in October 1998, she sued her former lawyers for delaying the filing of the divorce petition in England before her departure from the country, resulting in a smaller settlement in South Africa. After their divorce, Lord Spencer moved back to the United Kingdom, and subsequently remarried. About the birth of her fifth child, she told
Hello! Magazine that there was no pressure that time, as she was not providing a much awaited son and heir. They married in a
civil ceremony in January 2005, in the garden of her house in Cape Town. Her four children by Spencer served as bridesmaids and pageboy. She changed her name to Victoria Aitken. They divorced in 2009. ==Counselling work==