Marilyn Stowe Blog

Aristocrat reaches divorce settlement on the eve of court battle

One of Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats has reached a divorce settlement with his fifth wife shortly before a court hearing was due to begin.

Spencer ‘Spenny’ Compton, the 7^th Marquess of Northampton, and Pamela Haworth married in 1990 but the marriage ended two decades later when the aristocrat reportedly discovered  that his wife  had become involved with a Romanian pharmaceutical tycoon.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Lady Northampton’s stepmother recorded her discussing the relationship with her father and passed the recordings to Lord Northampton. He asked her to leave their country home, Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, sparking the beginning of “acrimonious” two year divorce proceedings.

Lord Northamption originally met Dr Dan Stoicescu at a freemasonry meeting in 2006. An unnamed source told the Telegraph: “Spenny feels betrayed by Dan Stoicescu, whom he once regarded as one of his closest friends.”

Dr Stoicescu at one point paid for Lord and Lady Northampton to have their genomes mapped.

The couple have now reached a financial settlement which will reportedly see Lady Northampton receiving ownership of a flat in Pimlico worth £4 million as well as additional assets totalling £13 million.

However, the agreement will, according to the Telegraph, leave 66 year-old Lord Northampton’s substantial fortune – estimated at least £120 million – largely unaffected. The fortune includes two stately homes.

The agreement includes clauses that prevent either party from discussing details of the divorce.

The agreement means that a two-week financial settlement hearing which had been due to begin in the High Court today (January 21) will no longer go ahead, sparing the former couple around £2 million in legal costs.

Photo of Compton Wynyates by Rupert Parsons via Flickr under a Creative Commons licence