Princess Charlotte's godparents include Diana's niece
Princess Diana's niece was named one of Princess Charlotte's five godparents Sunday morning, ahead of her christening in the same church where Diana herself was baptized in 1961.
It was another indication that the royal ceremony to welcome baby Charlotte Elizabeth Diana into the Church of England features touching signs that the baby's lost grandmother, killed in a 1997 Paris car crash, is still present in the lives of her descendants.
Two-month-old Charlotte will be christened in the Church of St Mary Magdalene on great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, in a private ceremony before a small party of 11 relatives, including her parents, Prince William and Duchess Kate and older brother Prince George, plus the five godparents and their spouses.
Besides the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, the guests will include the baby's grandparents on both sides, Prince Charles and second wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, and Michael and Carole Middleton, plus Duchess Kate's siblings, Pippa and James Middleton.
Once again, neither Pippa nor Prince Harry were tapped as godparents, despite speculation to the contrary. Harry will not be at the ceremony; he's in Africa on a conservation mission.
Charlotte will have two fewer godparents than brother George (and way fewer than her grandfather Charles, who had eight). George's godparents also included old friends and close relatives, including one royal relation, Zara Phillips Tindall, Will's cousin and eldest granddaughter to the queen.
The five godparents named Sunday are:
Laura Fellowes, Will's cousin, daughter of Diana's sister Lady Jane Fellowes and her husband Baron Robert Fellowes, who was one of the queen's private secretaries during the time Diana was married to Prince Charles, including during the stormy period preceding their divorce.
Laura, who will be 35 later this month and lives in Norfolk with her husband and two children, is a novelist who writes under the name Mave Fellowes. She grew up with slightly younger Will, and the two famously served as bridesmaid and naughty page boy at his uncle Prince Andrew's marriage to Sarah Ferguson in 1986.
Adam Middleton: Duchess Kate's cousin, son of her uncle Richard Middleton. Last year, Kate attended his wedding to interior designer Rebecca Poynton at London's posh Dorchester Hotel. The Daily Mail reported he works advising senior business executives.
Sophie Carter:
Possibly the least well known of the godparents, she is an old friend of Kate's, described by
as trustworthy and discrete, meaning she never blabs to the media.
James Meade: He went to Eton with Will and is also a longtime friend to Kate. He's the son of an Olympic equestrian gold medal winner. When he married an earl's daughter in 2013, Kate couldn't attend because Prince George was still an infant, but Will was an usher and both Harry and Pippa were there.
Thomas van Straubenzee: He and his family have been close friends to Will and Harry since prep school. His brother, Henry was killed in car crash in 2002, and the princes are patrons of his memorial fund. Thomas, who is in international real estate, married a duke's daughter in 2013, when Kate was still pregnant, and Will and Harry were ushers. In 2011, Thomas made headlines when he was mugged at knife point in London while talking to Harry on the phone, prompting Harry to rush off to find him.