Jane Fellowes, Lady Fellowes

Lady Fellowes is the second daughter of Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924–1992), and the Hon. Frances Ruth Burke Roche (1936–2004). Her parents married in 1954 but divorced in 1969. She has always used her middle name of Jane (just as her elder sister also uses one of her middle names). One of Jane's godparents is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. She was a bridesmaid at his 1961 wedding to Katharine Worsley.[1]

Like her sisters, Lady Fellowes was educated at West Heath boarding school near Sevenoaks in Kent. Sources say she was an excellent student, achieving the status of school Prefect and passing a good number of A-level exams. To paraphrase Andrew Morton, Lady Fellowes acquired a "hatful" of O-level and A-level exams.[2]

On 20 April 1978, Jane married her distant relation Robert Fellowes (b. 1941), then assistant private secretary to the Queen. During the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, Jane's sister Diana was a bridesmaid.

On 12 July 1999, Robert Fellowes was granted a life peerage as Baron Fellowes, of Shotesham in the County of Norfolk, after first being knighted as Sir Robert Fellowes.[3]

Lord and Lady Fellowes have three children and four grandchildren:

• The Honourable Laura Jane Fellowes (19 July 1980); married Nicholas Peter Pettman on 30 May 2009. The couple have two sons.
• The Honourable Alexander Robert Fellowes (23 March 1983); married Alexandra Finlay on 20 September 2013. They have two children:
  • Robert George Fellowes (10 April 2015)
  • Rose Jane Fellowes (10 August 2016)
• The Honourable Eleanor Ruth Fellowes (20 August 1985)

These children are maternal first cousins of Prince William and Prince Harry and also paternal second cousins of Sarah, Duchess of York. Laura is godmother to Prince William's daughter, Princess Charlotte.[4]

After Diana's death, conflicting views about the two sisters' relationship were voiced. Diana's butler Paul Burrell stated that the relationship was strained because of Lord Fellowes's position as secretary to the Queen, and that by the time of Diana's death they had not spoken in a number of years.[5] On the other hand, Diana's childhood nanny, Mary Clarke, author of memoirs about her experience raising Diana, stated that the relations between Lady Fellowes and Diana were not as bitter as Burrell and others have said or assumed.[6] It is not clear when their relationship deteriorated (if it did), but the sisters were neighbours on the Kensington Palace estate, with Diana living at numbers 8 and 9, and Lady Fellowes living at a house called the Old Barracks.[7]

Lady Fellowes and her sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale flew to Paris with their former brother-in-law Prince Charles to escort the Princess's body back for the public funeral. Witnesses reported that Lady Fellowes was very upset and needed to be assisted into a chair after seeing Diana's body at the hospital in Paris. Lady Sarah[8] and Lady Fellowes played a part in the public funeral ceremony.

Since Diana's death, Lord and Lady Fellowes have led a largely private life, along with their three children. Lady Fellowes attended the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011.[9] She also attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018, at which she delivered a reading.[10]

• Williamson, D. (1981a). "The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer". Genealogist's Magazine. 20 (6): 192–199.
• Williamson, D. (1981b). "The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer". Genealogist's Magazine. 20 (8): 281–282.