Three of 12 women with whom Earl Spencer, younger brother of the late Princess Diana, was alleged by his wife Victoria to have committed adultery were named in a divorce hearing in the Cape Town High Court yesterday.
Earl Spencer's lawyer, Mr Leslie Weinkove, named them as Ms Sally-Ann Lasson, fashion designer Ms Chantal Collopy, and former model and magazine fashion editor Ms Josie Boraine, the earl's current girlfriend.
Mr Weinkove asked why they had been named when Lady Spencer's legal team had claimed the earl had slept with between 10 and 12 other women. "He is asked as to whether he had adultery with them," Mr Weinkove said, "whether he had sexual union with them, and on what dates they occurred."
The lawyer for Lady Spencer, Mr Jeremy Gauntlett, on Monday told the court that the countess had been told by her friends that her husband had committed adultery with "10 or 12" women while she was in a rehabilitation clinic being treated for an eating disorder.
Earl Spencer (33) is seeking to divorce his 32-year-old wife in South Africa. She wants the case to be heard in Britain, where most of his estimated £100 million fortune is concentrated, so she can make greater claims on his estate.
The earl's legal team claimed yesterday that six-year-old Lady Kitty Spencer was being harmed by court revelations of her father's alleged "serial adultery".
Kitty, the eldest of the earl's four children, goes to school in Cape Town. Earl Spencer's lawyers have sent a legal notice to the Cape Times newspaper to try to prevent it from printing further revelations.
In a legal notice sent to the paper, Earl Spencer said Kitty's friends were talking about the case and she had seen newspaper posters on her way to school that carried details about his alleged affairs.
"Kitty is able to read the posters referring to `Spencer's other women' which were displayed on many lamp-posts in the city," the document said.
As the divorce battle becomes increasingly acrimonious, a letter from the earl to one alleged former lover, Ms Chantal Collopy (38), yesterday revealed he thought his marriage was a "terrible error".
Earl Spencer and the former Victoria Lockwood married in September 1989 and now live in separate houses a few streets from each other in Cape Town.