Which close relative of William and Harry has risen above the recent family dramas? She's celebrating her birthday today…

As family tensions sometimes threaten to tear the House of Windsor apart, fortunately there is one figure who enjoys the trust of all the disparate royal factions and quietly keeps the crucial lines of communication open when emotions run high.

Princess Diana's older sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, who celebrates her 67th birthday today, has always shunned the spotlight – especially since Diana's tragic death in August 1997 – and it is this discretion that explains why she has been so successful in close King Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and especially Prince Harry.

Lady Jane gave a reading from the Song of Solomon at the 2018 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in a deliberate echo of her moving speech at Diana's funeral two decades earlier. She was also one of the first to be invited to meet the couple's first child, Archie, before Prince William.

Lady Jane (right) pictured in happier times with sisters Sarah McCorquodale (left) and Diana

The late Earl Spencer with his four children: Sarah McCorquodale, ninth Earl Spencer, Lady Jane Fellowes and the late Princess Diana of Wales

In another nod to his close relationship with his mother's family, Harry expressed 'striking gratitude' to Lady Jane, her older sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale,68. and their brother Earl Spencer, 59, at the end of his tell-all memoir Spare, while not mentioning his grandmother, the late Queen, King Charles or his brother, the Prince of Wales.

Lady Jane is said to be one of the most academically gifted members of the Spencer family, having passed a creditable selection of O and A levels at West Heath boarding school near Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was prefect.

She was the first of the three Spencer sisters to marry, marrying Robert Fellowes, then Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, at the age of 21, in a ceremony at the Guards' Chapel overlooking London's St James's Park. This started a family tradition that Spencer brides would wear. the family tiara on their wedding day. Lady Diana Spencer, then only 16, was her maid of honor.

The fact that her husband – later Sir Robert and then Lord Fellowes – became the Queen's most trusted right-hand man meant that Lady Jane soon had to walk a tightrope of sorts after Diana and Charles' marriage began to fall apart.

Lord Fellowes' close relationship with the Queen sparked rumors of a rift between Lady Jane and Princess Diana, after Diana's former butler Paul Burrell claimed the sisters had not spoken to each other 'for a number of years' before Diana died.

However, other Palace insiders have denied any difficulty, pointing out that they and Princess Diana were neighbors at Kensington Palace. Diana lived with William and Harry in numbers eight and nine, while Lady Jane lived nearby in a house called the Old Barracks.

The couple's three children, Laura, Princess Charlotte's godmother, Alexander and Eleanor, are known to be close to both William and Harry. And as Diana's closest sibling, Lady Jane made sure to maintain her bond with her grieving cousins ​​after her sister's death.

Indeed, she would play a crucial but typically understated role in the heartbreaking aftermath of her sister's tragic death in a car crash in the Post d'Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.

Her brother Earl Spencer and older sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale revealed in the 2017 BBC documentary 'Diana 7 Days' that Lady Jane had been tasked with calling them to tell them the terrible news.

Sir Robert (now Baron) Fellowes married Lady Jane Spencer in April 1978 at the Guard's Chapel, Wellington Barracks. Her younger sister, Lady Diana Spencer (center right) was a bridesmaid

The Spencer siblings and King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, at Charles Spencer's 21st birthday

Mrs Frances Shand Kydd leaves hospital after visiting her daughter, Princess Diana, shortly after the birth of Prince William, in the company of her daughter, Lady Jane in 1982

Lady Jane and her sister, Lady Sarah, accompanied Prince Charles to Paris to return her body to Britain.

Heartbreaking photos showed her, visibly distressed, leaving Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, where Diana had been pronounced dead.

Ahead of his wedding, the prince made sure to introduce his fiancée Meghan to both of his mother's sisters and then said how important both Lady Jane and Sarah were to him during an interview to mark his engagement.

It's understood he made his feelings clear to Meghan, who said before their wedding: “I think somehow by meeting his aunts I can get to know a part of her (Diana) through them and love of course through him. And it's incredibly special.'

Another sign of Harry's appreciation for his aunts was the official announcement of Archie's birth, which noted how, in addition to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Earl Spencer were 'delighted' by the news.

The three Spencer sisters with their former headmistress on a visit to their old school, West Heath, in Kent

It was left to Lady Jane to break the news of Diana's death to her siblings. She then traveled to Paris with sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale (left) and Prince Charles. Pictured here leaving the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris, September 1997

Diana, Princess of Wales, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Frances Shand Kydd and Jane Fellowes, Neil McCorquodale, Charles, Earl Spencer and Robert Fellowes pictured in 1995

The Spencer family tree, starting with the grandparents of Lady Sarah, the seventh Earl Spencer

Lady Jane maintains a close bond with cousin Harry and was one of the first to meet his son Archie. Pictured here with Earl Spencer (right) at the unveiling of Diana's statue in 2021

Now that King Charles' cancer diagnosis has given the embattled Windsors an urgent impetus to put aside their differences, perhaps Lady Jane – Baroness Fellowes, as she now is – will quietly step in again to pour oil on troubled waters.

Her first chance to begin the patient work of helping the royal family come together again could come as soon as today.

After all, the Duke of Sussex has flown in for what is now a rare visit to Britain to comfort his father following his diagnosis. What better opportunity could he have to visit his beloved aunt and wish her a happy birthday in person?