Earl of Devon divorces star of Baywatch after 18 years
THE Earl of Devon is divorcing his former Baywatch star wife 18 years after their wedding at his ancestral castle.
Charles Courtenay, 48, has split from AJ Langer, 49, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’. They said their focus would now be on the wellbeing of their two ‘wonderful children’.
The countess played Caroline Larkin in Baywatch as a teenager and was also in 1990s teen drama hit My So-Called Life and The Wonder Years.
She later starred in Hollywood movies including Escape From LA, starring Kurt Russell, and Meet The Deedles.
The Earl of Devon, an Old Etonian, met his Ohio-born future wife at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
At the time she had no idea that the British lawyer, who was on tour with an English rugby union club and wearing a kilt, was the heir to a 4,000-acre estate in the West Country.
They married in 2005 at the family’s seat – 600-year- old Powderham Castle near Exeter – and went on to have two children.
As part of the divorce, the earl has applied for joint custody of Joscelyn, 16,
‘Children’s wellbeing is highest priority’
and Jack, 14, according to the Blast showbusiness website.
A statement on behalf of the earl said: ‘After much care and consideration, Charles Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, and Countess of Devon, Allison Joy Courtenay, have made the decision to separate and to divorce.
‘Charlie would like to express his gratitude for his partnership with AJ and all that they have created together as parents, friends and partners both in Los Angeles and at Powderham.
‘ The wellbeing of their wonderful children is the highest priority, as he and AJ focus upon co-parenting in the years ahead. Charlie is grateful for their supportive communities in Devon and in California, and he politely requests that his and his family’s privacy is respected at this time.’
Information in the application said the couple had separated on September 30.
After marrying, they lived in California so that the countess could continue her acting career. But they later moved to the UK, a change which she hinted had been a challenging one when interviewed on a podcast.
Speaking to the Celebrity CatchUp show, the countess said: ‘I was a completely independent person from the age of 15. I lived alone for many years and travelled alone a lot and always went to the beat of my own drum.
‘Then here I was in the middle of really intense and very, very deeprooted patriarchy.’
Her husband’s father, Hugh Courtenay, the 18th Earl of Devon, died aged 73 in 2015. Charles became the 19th earl and his wife the countess.
She previously told the Breezy
Mama website: ‘ The whole title thing . . . I am no expert. It means more to some people and less to others. It definitely makes for interesting conversation, and an interesting story.’
The countess, a keen surfer, and her husband, a barrister, had no idea of each other’s backgrounds when they first set eyes on each other across the dance floor at a bar in the Hard Rock Hotel.
She revealed that her future husband was not aware she was an actress who had gained international fame playing Rayanne Graff on the critically acclaimed but short-lived television show My So-Called Life. The series, which also starred Claire Danes and Oscar-winner Jared Leto in their first major screen roles, was cancelled after only one season.
She said that it was not until they were ‘months’ into their relationship that she found out about her husband’s aristocratic status when he drove her to his family’s estate, which sits on the west bank of the Exe estuary.
The couple subsequently started dating in Los Angeles, where he had been temporarily posted with a London-based law firm. On April 30, 2005, the couple tied the knot.
From that year until 2014, the earl worked as a barrister for the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins.