Prince Harry attended one of the most important ceremonies of his career in the public eye on Wednesday, marking the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games project in London.
Amid ongoing tensions with the royal family, no senior members attended the service at St. Paul's Cathedral. However, Harry was not without familial support.
Two of Princess Diana's three siblings, Charles, Earl Spencer and Lady Jane Fellowes, were present for the milestone celebration during which Harry gave a special reading. Since his split with the monarchy in 2020, the prince has highlighted the bond he shares with his Spencer relations, notably thanking them in his memoir, Spare, and not the royals.
Harry's aunts and uncle have been present at various important moments in his life, as they have for his older brother, Prince William.
Here, Newsweek takes a look into Princess Diana's family tree and the lives of her three siblings.
The Spencers
When Princess Diana married King Charles III in 1981, she was known to the world as Lady Diana Spencer. She was a daughter of one of Britain's senior peers and a member of one of the country's oldest families.
The Spencers can trace their lineage back to the 15th century and have held a number of titles of nobility. In addition to Diana, the family's most-famous members include Sir Winston Churchill. The Spencer family's current seat is Althorp House in West Northamptonshire in England.
Diana was born in 1961 as the third daughter of John, the eighth Earl Spencer (at the time Viscount Althorp) and his wife, Frances.
John Spencer served as a captain in the British Army during World War II and went on to become an equerry to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II in the 1950s.
John and Frances divorced in 1969. She married Peter Shand Kydd shortly afterward and the earl was remarried in 1976 to Raine McCorquodale, the daughter of the English romantic novelist, Dame Barbara Cartland.
Diana did not remember her childhood fondly when interviewed for a bombshell biography, which was published in 1992. She had been deeply affected by her parents' separation and divorce, and its impact on her siblings.
Lady Sarah McCorquodale
Princess Diana's eldest sister, Sarah, was born in 1955. She grew up alongside her two younger siblings at Park House, the home on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, which belonged to Queen Elizabeth II.
For a brief period in the 1970s, Sarah made headlines as one of the girlfriends of the then-Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). Their relationship ended, and in 1980 she married business owner Neil McCorquodale. The couple have three children.
Sarah remained close to Diana after her marriage into the royal family in 1981 and was often spotted wearing the princess' hand-me-down dresses. Sarah accompanied Diana on a number of overseas visits, acting as an unofficial lady-in-waiting.
When the princess died in 1997 at the age of 36 after a high-speed Paris car crash, her two sisters traveled to Paris with Charles to escort her body back to Britain.
Lady Jane Fellowes
Lady Jane Fellowes was born in 1957 and, like her elder sister, Sarah, spent a brief period in her adolescence working in London for the fashion magazine, British Vogue.
In 1978, Jane married Queen Elizabeth II's assistant private secretary, Robert Fellowes, now Baron Fellowes. He soon rose through the ranks to become the monarch's private secretary, and the couple lived for a period of time with their three children at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace, London.
At the cottage, Fellowes was neighbors with her sister, Diana, who lived at a large apartment in the main palace complex.
Charles, Earl Spencer
Charles, Earl Spencer was Princess Diana's only younger sibling, and the pair are reported to have been very close during their childhood.
Spencer inherited the earldom and Althorp estate in 1992, following the death of his father.
He has had a career as a broadcaster and author, writing several successful history books in recent years.
Spencer has been married three times, most recently to Karen, Countess Spencer, in 2011, and he has seven children.
The earl is perhaps best known for the moving eulogy he gave to his sister, Diana, at her 1997 funeral at Westminster Abbey, London, which was broadcast around the world.
In his eulogy, Spencer described his sister as "the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty."
"All over the world, she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality," he said.
"Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic."
This reference to her royal title was interpreted by some as a dig in the direction of the royal family who had removed Diana's "Her Royal Highness" title after her divorce in 1996.
The Spencers, William and Harry
Perhaps one of the most powerful lines in Earl Spencer's eulogy to Diana concerned her two sons and the commitment made by the family to watch over them.
"On behalf of your mother and sisters," he said. "I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned."
At important milestone events throughout their lives, the Spencers have attended to support their nephews William and Harry. This includes their weddings to Princess Kate and Meghan Markle.
The last time the Spencers, William and Harry were photographed together was in 2021, where they all attended the unveiling of the statue of Princess Diana erected in the gardens of Kensington Palace.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan Markle and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
