Who are the aunts of Prince Harry who reportedly attended Lilibet's christening?

It may have been an intimate ceremony conducted at the home of Harry and Meghan in California, but Lilibet's christening was full of the people who remain closest to the younger son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Those included, according to reports, the two sisters of Diana: Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.

There was no Papa, as Harry's father King Charles III, was unable and, perhaps it's fair to say, unwilling, to attend. There was no brotherly support in the form of Prince William and his wife, Kate. All received an invite, according to sources, but after the last few months of Harry's memoir 'Spare' it's hardly surprising that his father, stepmother, brother and sister-in-law were absent.

The presence of his aunts from his late mother's side would have been a source of comfort and joy to Harry on the christening of his younger child Lilibet, who also has the middle name Diana, named after the grandmother she will sadly never meet.

We look at the lives of the two aunts who reportedly attended the christening at the Montecito mansion in the US.

Lady Sarah McCorquodale

The oldest sibling of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Sarah was apparently one of Diana's most trusted people and even accompanied the late Princess on official visits as one of her ladies-in-waiting. This trust was borne out of a previous and short-lived romance with King Charles III, who went on to become Diana's husband in 1981.

Sarah met Charles at a polo match in 1977 and they dated for a brief time. She told Time magazine in 1978, "There is no chance of my marrying him. I'm not in love with him." A few years later, it was Sarah who introduced Diana to Charles and she later commented on her sister's marriage, saying, "I introduced them. I'm Cupid."

These are not words of a sister who wished she had married a future king, these are words of someone who sounds very glad it wasn't them and is delighting in the connection.

Sarah went on to marry Neil McCorquodale, and the well-connected pair have three children and six grandchildren.

When Sarah and Diana both separated from their husbands in 1992, it made the Spencer sisters as close as ever. They would often meet for lunch and bring their children along, ensuring a bond between cousins for William and Harry.

She has attended the weddings of both her nephews, William and Harry, and she is reportedly close to William and Kate, having spent a weekend with them on the 16th anniversary of Diana's death.

Lady Jane Fellowes

The second oldest of the Spencer children, Lady Jane Fellowes has less than two years between her and her older sister, Sarah. There was pressure on their mother, Frances Ruth Shand Kydd, to produce a male heir to the Spencer estate, which would have been further exacerbated with the arrival of their third daughter, Diana, in 1961.

Diana and Jane were not as close as children, apparently, but became closer as adults. There was four years between them and they attended the same boarding school, Riddlesworth Hall. Jane has never publicly spoken of her sister's death, but she did a reading of a short poem at Diana's funeral. She also gave a reading at the wedding of Harry and Meghan.

Lady Jane has also ensured she remains close to both her nephews, William and Harry. She used to attend Harry's Ludgrove football games and visited William at Eton when they were at school, alongside her sister, Sarah.

Jane married a distant relation, Robert Fellowes, in 1978 and they have three children and four grandchildren.