Insult on top of injury for heartbroken Damien Hirst as his partner's affair is dismissed as 'all good PR' by the other man’s EX-WIFE

 
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Damien Hirst’s partner leaving him for another man is “good publicity” for the artist, it was claimed today.

Hirst was said to be “devastated” after discovering that Maia Norman, the mother of his three children, had started a relationship with Colonel Tim Spicer, a former soldier and mercenary now running a security firm.

However Mr Spicer’s ex-wife, Caroline, today said she was not sympathetic towards the artist as she thinks he stands to gain from the break-up.

Mrs Spicer, 58, who runs a flower arranging business and lives in Wandsworth, said: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

She also told how she “gets along perfectly” with her ex-husband and is “incredibly happy” for his new-found love with Californian-born fashion designer Ms Norman, 49.

The soldier of fortune, who was paid £22.5 million to suppress a rebellion in Papua New Guinea in 1997, is believed to have started a relationship with Ms Norman eight months ago after they met in Washington DC.

Mrs Spicer, who divorced Mr Spicer in 1998 and has an 18-year-old son with him, said: “We’ve been divorced for a long time, it’s not a problem for us and we get along perfectly. We last spoke yesterday, just about normal stuff. Tim is an even better friend now and we’ve been to parties together.”

Hirst, the world’s richest artist, put on a brave face this weekend, inviting his staff and their families to a party in the grounds of his £3.5 million farmhouse in Combe Martin, North Devon.

The 47-year-old hired a funfair ride named “Freak Out” for the party, along with a full-size helter-skelter and another white-knuckle ride named The Rotor.

It emerged a day earlier that Miss Norman was leaving him after 19 years for Falklands veteran Spicer, who is 12 years older than Hirst.

Eleven days ago the designer was photographed in Hollywood kissing Spicer in front of 150 journalists attending the Gumball Rally. She embraced her lover for a second time before the pair walked arm-in-arm into a hotel lobby.

When approached and asked whether she was leaving Hirst for him, Miss Norman said “yes” before declining to speak further.

Spicer is a former lieutenant-colonel in the Scots Guards. He founded Aegis Defence Services, which has won multi-million-pound contracts with the US government in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was claimed today that Miss Norman may be entitled to very little of Hirst’s £215 million fortune because the couple never married. A spokeswoman for Hirst declined to comment as did a spokesman for Aegis Defence Services. Miss Norman’s publicist could not be reached.

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