Duke of Marlborough, Related to Churchill, Charged with Strangulation

Charles James Spencer-Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, is facing charges of nonfatal intentional strangulation, according to police reports released Wednesday. The 70-year-old duke, a distant relative of both Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, is scheduled to appear in Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

The charges involve three counts of alleged incidents occurring between November 2022 and May 2024, Thames Valley Police stated.

Before inheriting the dukedom in 2014, Spencer-Churchill was known as the Marquess of Blandford, or Jamie Blandford. The Duke's past includes a battle with drug addiction, which led to his disinheritance by his father, the 11th Duke of Marlborough. In 1994, the 11th Duke even went to court to try and prevent his son from gaining control of the Blenheim Palace estate, a 300-year-old property and UNESCO World Heritage Site where Winston Churchill was born, now a popular tourist destination.

At the time, the 11th Duke commented outside of court, stating that there have always been problematic individuals in every family. The family motto is "faithful though unfortunate," and the current Duke has attributed his personal struggles to his privileged background. He is a first cousin three times removed from Winston Churchill and is also distantly related to the late Princess Diana through the Spencer family line.