Duke of Marlborough denies strangling estranged wife

The Duke of Marlborough has denied strangling his estranged wife.

Charles James Spencer-Churchill, formerly known as Jamie Blandford, pleaded not guilty to attacking Edla Marlborough in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, three times in an 18-month period.

The 70-year-old appeared at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court earlier.

The attacks are alleged to have taken place between November 2022 and May 2024.

The twice-married aristocrat, formerly known as the Marquess of Blandford, married his second wife, Welsh ceramicist Edla Griffiths, in 2002.

They are said to have met while she was living in Chelsea and working on her art, and they wed after dating for seven years.

The pair are thought to have separated in 2024 and the Duke was arrested on 13 May 2024.

He inherited his dukedom in 2014, following the death of his father, the 11th Duke of Marlborough.

He is a first cousin, three times removed, of Sir Winston Churchill and a distant relative of the late Princess Diana through the Spencer family.