Cynthia Jane Spencer (February 11, 1957) is one of the two older sisters of Princess Diana, and the aunt to William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
Jane is the second child and daughter of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and the Hon. Frances Ruth Burke Roche. She has always used her middle name of Jane (just as her elder sister Sarah also uses one of her middle names). Jane acquired the courtesy title "Lady" in 1975, when her grandfather died and her father became the 8th Earl Spencer. One of Jane's godparents is Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.
Like her sisters, Jane 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, she acquired a "hatful" of O-level and A-level exams.
Jane married her distant relation Robert Fellowes in April 1978, then assistant private secretary to the Queen. The have three children: Laura Jane, Alexander Robert, and Eleanor Ruth. Laura is godmother to Prince William's daughter, Princess Charlotte.
July 12, 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, making Jane Baroness Fellowes.
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. On the other hand, Diana's childhood nanny, Mary Clarke, author of memoirs about her experience raising Diana, stated that the relations between Jane and Diana were not as bitter as Burrell and others have said or assumed. It is not clear when their relationship deteriorated (if it did), but the sisters were neighbours on the Kensington Palace estate.
Jane and her sister 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 Jane was very upset and needed to be assisted into a chair after seeing Diana's body at the hospital in Paris.
Since Diana's death, Jane and her husband Robert has led a largely private life, along with their three children. She attended the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. She also attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, at which she delivered a reading.
20 июн 2023
