Princess Diana's brother is to become a father for the fifth time.
Earl Charles Spencer and his charity worker wife Karen Gordon - now Countess Spencer - are "delighted" with their impending arrival, due in July.
A spokesman for the earl said: "Earl and Countess Spencer are delighted to be expecting their first child in July."
A friend of the couple told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "The earl and Countess Spencer are so excited and can't wait for the birth of their first child.
"The earl is particularly happy at being a father again. Despite it being a while since a newborn was around he is really relishing impending fatherhood."
Earl Spencer was last a father 18 years ago when he welcomed son John with ex-wife Victoria Lockwood. The former couple also have Eleanor, 21 and 19-year-old twins Victoria and Amelia.
Charles, 47, and Canadian-born Karen, 39, married in June last year at the Spencer family home in Althorp, Northamptonshire.
Countess Spencer has two daughters of her own from her marriage to Hollywood film producer Mark Gordon.
The former fashion model set up the charity Whole Child after her divorce and it is thought she met the Earl at a fundraising function.
The charity works to improve care for orphaned, abandoned, abused and neglected children.
by Wymanda 24th May 2012 04:53
Get it right; he has two children with his second wife Caroline Freud.
What anyone sees in this loathesome little toad is beyond me!
by Linda 25th May 2012 01:20
Yes you are wrong Earl Spencer has two more children by his second wife Caroline Freud making
this his seventh child.