Diana brother's new love: Having MS was so private I hadn't even told Charles. I felt utterly sick when I discovered Countess Spencer had been telling people about it behind my back

You don’t embark on a romantic relationship with someone as high profile as Charles Spencer, thrice-married brother of Princess Diana, without being aware that your deepest secrets could end up in the public domain, the stuff of society gossip. Dr Cat Jarman, TV archaeologist and the new woman in Earl Spencer’s life, thought her ‘big secret’ was safe, though. And yet she then went to Charles and said: “You do know she has MS, don’t you?”.’ Lady Spencer then went on to tell ‘a string of people’, including – according to court documents, and confirmed by Cat today – staff at Althorp, and even the Countess’s personal trainer. Then, in October, Cat took further legal advice – and set about suing the Countess, claiming that the leaking of what has been reported as ‘intimate secrets’ caused her ‘distress, upset and embarrassment’. It’s also ‘utterly wrong’ that she should be blamed – by Lady Spencer, or anyone else – for the break-up of that marriage.