I’ll miss out on title but times ARE changing, says Earl Spencer’s daughter
HER modelling career ensures she gets to show off her feminine beauty in the latest Town & Country magazine.
But for Lady Kitty Spencer, who poses in a black ruffled gown and an embroidered dress and hat, there is one downside to not having been born a man.
Although the 30-year-old is Earl Spencer’s eldest child, she is not the heir to his title – or the family’s Althorp stately pile. That is because under the current UK law, males are first in line to inherit.
So Lady Kitty’s brother Louis, Viscount Althorp, 27, will succeed to the earldom and the family seat in Northamptonshire ahead of her and their twin sisters Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia, 28.
And while she is content that the law of male primogeniture means he will inherit, she now says the world is moving on.
Lady Kitty, niece of the late Princess Diana, told Town & Country: ‘Primogeniture can be a tricky topic, because as times are changing, attitudes are as well. We’ve grown up understanding that it’s Louis to inherit, and Louis will do an incredible job.’
She has previously insisted she is ‘quite happy’ the responsibility will fall to her brother, even though all her siblings have ‘such an emotional attachment’ to Althorp.
Lady Kitty has many reasons to be happy. Her career is going well, she has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram – and she is engaged to fashion tycoon Michael Lewis, 62.
She says she prefers to keep her romantic life out of the spotlight, possibly because her family has often found itself in the glare of publicity – her father was divorced from her mother Victoria Aitken in 1997.
‘For me, love is the most important thing in the world and I will protect it with all my heart by not making it a topic of conversation,’ she said.
■ The summer issue of Town & Country is on sale now.
‘Emotional attachment’