Victoria Spencer: From anorexic junkie to yummy mummy
By NEIL SEARS
Last updated at 08:51 14 March 2008
She has battled with drink, drugs and eating disorders - and seen her marriage to Princess Diana's brother end in acrimonious divorce.
But at the age of 43, Victoria Spencer has never looked better.
She is pictured here with her teenage daughter Lady Kitty at their home in Cape Town.
And she looks more like an older sister than a mother of five who has had more than her share of turmoil.
Victoria married Earl Spencer in 1989, with Prince Harry as a pageboy. Kitty was born the next year, followed by twins Eliza and Amelia in 1992, and Louis in 1994.
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Victoria Spencer and daughter Kitty feature in the latest Hello!
It was only after Louis's arrival that she confronted her addictions to heroin and alcohol, and her anorexia and bulimia - having a heart tattooed on her arm to symbolise her rebirth.
But the couple's marriage collapsed after their move to South Africa and when Kitty was seven they divorced acrimoniously.
Earl Spencer has since remarried and divorced, gaining two more children in the process.
Victoria, meanwhile, has been married for three years to Jonathan Aitken - unrelated to the disgraced former Conservative cabinet minister - and has a five-year-old son, Samuel, by him.
She says that her late sister-in-law was a great support during her marital problems.
"I suppose Diana and I had quite a bit in common with our eating disorders and broken marriages, and she was compassionate."
Victoria adds that discovering six months after Kitty's birth that Earl Spencer had conducted a post-marital affair with journalist Sally Ann Lasson was "a hard and painful betrayal".
"It turned me overnight from a deeply contented, first-time mother to a hurt, scared and devastated woman."
Daughter Kitty, 17, tells Hello! magazine how her parents informed her of their divorce.
"They told me that they didn't love one another any more, but that they still loved me.
"The positives of the situation were highlighted, such as two Christmases, two birthdays and two bedrooms!"
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Daddy's girl: Earl and Kitty, aged 10
Addict: Victoria at her lowest ebb
Lady Kitty expects to return to Britain this year and live with her father at his Althorp estate in Northamptonshire before starting university in 2009.
She jokes that her background is so troubled it should feature on daytime TV.
"Sometimes I feel like my family should be on the Jerry Springer Show.
"From the outside, the structure looks so dysfunctional. However, every single member of my family is part of my happiness."
Kitty adds that the frequent criticism heaped on her father has done nothing to dent her love for him. She speaks to him daily.
"It's hurtful for any daughter to read negative things about her father, but he's someone who remains true to himself.
"I am definitely a daddy's girl. I'm more like him than my mother. We share the same sense of humour and have similar interests."
Victoria and Earl Spencer at their wedding in 1989
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