Everything We Know About Charles Spencer's Girlfriend Cat Jarman

Charles Spencer has had quite the love life. The younger brother of Princess Diana, who bears the official title of 9th Earl Spencer, has been married three times and has fathered seven children. But if Spencer's rave reviews of his most recent girlfriend are to be believed, he may headed to his happily ever after ending. After sharing how uncomplicated his relationship with her is, he also confessed to Daily Mail that "a lot of my close friends have said how happy they are that I am with someone like Cat."

The Cat in question is Catrine Jarman, an archeologist who met Spencer in 2021 while looking for ancient ruins on his family's estate (Spencer and Princess Diana's childhood home). There's an 18-year age gap between the two, which Spencer admits has factored into how their relationship has played out. "I'm too old for hearts and flowers stuff," he told Daily Mail. "But the best way to describe it is that with Cat, I can be myself."

Aside from her expertise in finding traces of past lives in between layers of dirt, Jarman has a whole lot more going for her. She grew up in Norway and was actually unfamiliar with Spencer or his earldom before meeting him. She's traveled the globe, given a TEDx talk, and has received numerous accolades for her work as an archeologist. As opposed to some of the earl's previous women, you're more likely to find Jarman wearing braids in her hair than a stylish fascinator on top — and that seems to be a bonus for Spencer. "Cat is just completely different to anyone I've ever been with before," he shared with Daily Mail. 

There's no record of Cat Jarman ever running from a giant boulder, but she is an official archeologist with a degree to prove it. She graduated from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom in 2017, earning a Ph.D. in archeology. By trade, she is known as a bioarcheologist, and specifically studies human remains in an effort to piece together their past.

Her experience has led her to be known as an expert in her field, and with invitations to share her opinions with big media networks and outlets like Discovery, New York Times, and BBC, among others. Jarman also has tons of practical experience; through the years, she's been on several digs in various countries. In the summer of 2019, she spent two weeks at a site in the Ukraine, helping to excavate Viking-age remnants. She's also completed other digs throughout the United Kingdom, including one at Althorp, home of Charles Spencer.

Jarman and a team gathered in a park on the estate to resurrect a villa believed to be lost somewhere on the grounds. The task was filmed for a special on British television, "Ancient Secrets of Althorp with Charles Spencer." Jarman shared a post about the adventure on her Instagram account, revealing, "It was an absolute privilege to work with Charles as the first archaeologist in the grounds of this 500 year old park." Besides getting to dig around in the dirt, it was also the reason she struck up a friendship with Spencer.

When Cat Jarman set out to uncover ancient ruins hidden on Charles Spencer's Althorp estate, she didn't expect to walk away with a new friend, a podcast partner, and eventually, a romantic relationship — but that's exactly what happened. When the shovels were stored away, Jarman, Spencer, and Spencer's good pal Richard Coles struck up a friendship that eventually turned into "The Rabbit Hole Detectives" podcast, which launched in February 2023. As Jarman noted on Instagram, "Each week we fall into weird and wonderful rabbit holes as we discuss the history of objects and concepts, real and imaginary."

As the podcast grew in popularity, spawning "The Rabbit Hole Book" and live events, Spencer and Jarman were apparently falling in love. Spencer admitted to Daily Mail that a love connection wasn't even on his radar. "The thing is, I am 18 years older than Cat and so there wasn't even the possibility," he revealed. "I wasn't even thinking romance. I was at the tail end of a marriage. It just wasn't a possibility." Nevertheless, they entered couple status in March 2024, with Spencer confirming it for the first time in October 2024.

Spencer has met Jarman's parents in Norway, and Jarman's two sons have visited Althorp, further cementing their relationship status. "I feel that I've got to know Charles very gradually, as a friend, and I know how his life has developed," Jarman explained to Daily Mail. 

On the heels of the success of "The Rabbit Hole Detectives" podcast, Cat Jarman, Charles Spencer, and their partner, Richard Coles, wrote a companion book, "The Rabbit Hole Book," published in October 2024. It wasn't the first book Jarman has penned, though. As it turns out, she had already had huge success as an author. 

One of Jarman's areas of expertise as an archeologist is the Vikings, and she's been involved with several digs associated with their history. She's also done extensive research on the culture and turned her expertise into a book. "River Kings: The Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads" was published in March 2023, and went all the way up to number six on The Sunday Times bestseller list. Gushed Jarman on Instagram about the book's success and the British newspaper's rankings, "I'm so, so happy but also totally and utterly shell shocked. This is my absolute dream: I've wanted to write books for as long as I can remember."

Jarman followed up her first book with a second one called "The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons," which hit bookshelves in September 2023. "The Times" named it one of the top 25 history books of 2023.

In May 2024, Cat Jarman had the distinction of being named the Nordic Person of the Year, receiving her award from the ambassador in a ceremony at the Norwegian Embassy. Not only did Charles Spencer offer up his congratulations via a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but he made it known that he was there to support her and cheer for her achievement. If her previous list of accomplishments is anything to go by, it won't be the last time the earl will have to pop a bottle of champagne for his girlfriend. That same year, she was a recipient of the Dan David Prize, a $300,000 award in recognition of her achievements. 

With her knowledge of Viking culture, she earned a short-term position as senior advisor of academic content development for the Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo, sharing on Instagram, "This is literally my dream job and I can't believe I get to work with these collections over the next year." 

In academia, she was a research fellow at the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Royal Agricultural University in England, as well as an honorary professor. On a more pop-culture level, she also answered the internet's questions about Vikings in a "Wired" video that garnered over one million views in three months.

When Cat Jarman and Charles Spencer first met, they were both married — she to Tom Jarman and he to Karen Gordon Spencer. Before the podcast partners' relationship turned romantic, both had already separated from their respective partners, with the Spencers publicly announcing their split in June 2024. Before official divorce documents could be filed, but after all the red flags in Charles and Karen's relationship had been flown, another legal battle began.

In October 2024, Jarman filed a claim with the British courts against Karen, citing she was guilty of misuse of private information. Two months later, Jarman revealed she had been privately living with multiple sclerosis for six years, and that Karen found out and told multiple people, including Charles. "When you have a new partner, you have to gauge when and how to tell them something this huge, and I hadn't yet done so," she detailed to Daily Mail.

Karen filed her own papers in December 2024, countering that Jarman and her husband were having an affair while the Spencers were still together, causing the archeologist to respond via another interview with Daily Mail. "I can understand that she finds it difficult because he moved on before she did," she explained. "But the narrative that Charles, or I, did something wrong here is simply not true." The legal drama between Spencer's girlfriend and his almost ex-wife has continued to play out in 2025.