Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expected to return to the UK within days, and their homecoming could put a renewed focus on the family relationships surrounding the Duke of Sussex.

Harry, 41, remains estranged from his older brother, Prince William, the Prince of Wales. He is also said to have lost touch with one of his closest royal allies, Princess Eugenie. By contrast, the Spencer family has maintained a notably warmer relationship with Harry and Meghan.

When the Sussexes visited Britain last month, Harry’s uncle Charles Spencer welcomed them to Althorp House, the family’s ancestral home and the childhood home of Princess Diana.

Charles Spencer, 62, may be one of the most prominent members of Diana’s family in Harry’s life, but he is far from the only one. After six years living in the United States, Harry is believed to have relatively few close connections remaining from his former life in Britain.

His return could therefore give him an opportunity to spend more time with the Spencer side of his family, including Charles and his new wife, Norwegian archaeologist Cat Jarman. It could also bring him closer to the families of Diana’s two sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, whom Harry has long regarded as important figures in his life.

Both women have remained close to Harry and William despite the brothers’ bitter feud.

Sarah, 71, and Jane, 69, joined Charles Spencer in travelling to Montecito for the christening of Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Princess Lilibet, three years ago. No other members of the Royal Family attended the ceremony.

There has also been speculation that the Sussexes could make the Cotswolds their UK base. If that happens, living closer to the Spencer family could give Harry more opportunities to see his six maternal cousins, while Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, could grow more familiar with another branch of their extended family.

Lady Sarah McCorquodale

Lady Sarah McCorquodale is the eldest of the Spencer siblings and has remained a significant figure in Harry’s life.

She famously dated the future King Charles when they were teenagers. Charles first met Diana at Althorp during a shooting weekend in November 1977, while his relationship with Sarah continued until February 1978. The couple broke up during a skiing trip to Klosters in Switzerland after Sarah told a journalist that she would not marry him if he were “the dustman or the King of England”.

Sarah married farmer and former Coldstream Guard Neil McCorquodale in 1980 and settled in Grantham, Lincolnshire. They have three children, Emily, George and Celia, and six grandchildren.

She was particularly close to Diana and sometimes accompanied her younger sister on official engagements as a lady-in-waiting. Following Diana’s death in 1997, Sarah travelled with the then-Prince Charles to Paris to bring her sister’s body home.

Sarah and Jane have continued to maintain close relationships with both of Diana’s sons, who appear to share a strong affection for their aunts.

Sarah attended the christenings of both of Harry’s children, Prince Archie in 2019 and Princess Lilibet in 2023. Both Harry and William also invited her to the unveiling of Diana’s statue in 2021.

She was photographed with Harry at St Paul’s during the Invictus Games anniversary in May 2024, another public indication of their continuing relationship.

Harry also singled out Sarah, Jane and Charles Spencer for particular thanks in his memoir, Spare. His acknowledgements notably did not include the late Queen, King Charles or Prince William.

Emily McCorquodale

Sarah and Neil’s eldest daughter, Emily McCorquodale, is now 43 and has remained part of the wider royal family circle.

Emily attended West Heath School in Kent, the same school her late aunt Diana attended. Known to her family as “Emils”, she was studying at Leeds Metropolitan University when, at the age of 19, she was diagnosed with plasmacytoma, a rare form of spinal cancer. She later recovered and was given the all-clear.

Emily met James Hutt on a blind date and eventually married him. Harry, William and Kate all attended their wedding in Lincolnshire in 2012.

She left her position at Savills estate agents after having her two children, Isabella, 12, and Henry, 10. She now works as office manager at her husband’s engineering company in Cambridge.

Emily and James were also guests at Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel in 2018.

George McCorquodale

George McCorquodale, 41, is Sarah and Neil’s second child and was born just two months after Harry. He is believed to have a close relationship with his royal cousin.

Harry attended George’s stag party, where he was reportedly involved in a prank that left one of George’s friends naked after the group had consumed beer, cider, gin and tonics and Jägerbombs.

Harry later served as guest of honour at George’s wedding to Bianca Moore at Netherwood in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

George has previously spoken about his close relationship with his cousins, including family holidays on Sir Richard Branson’s private island, Necker.

Once described as a “naughty boy from England”, George is now a father of three: Sybil, eight, Molly, six, and Joseph, four.

Celia McCorquodale

Celia McCorquodale, 37, is the youngest of Sarah and Neil’s three children. Like her brother George and cousin Harry, she has been known for a more adventurous streak.

While studying at Leeds University in 2012, photographs emerged of Celia partying with friends. The images included her holding bottles of wine and displaying her tongue piercing. One showed her dressed as the Queen in a grey wig while sitting on the lap of a male friend wearing a Prince Philip mask. Another showed a student drinking from her cleavage.

Celia later became a private tutor and married George Woodhouse, a sales negotiator at Savills, in 2018.

The couple married at St Andrew and St Mary’s Church in Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire. Celia wore the Spencer tiara, the family heirloom famously worn by Diana at her wedding to the then-Prince Charles.

Harry and Meghan, who had married only weeks earlier, attended the ceremony.

Celia and George have two children, Walter, five, and Winifred, three.

Lady Jane Fellowes

Lady Jane Fellowes is the middle of the three Spencer sisters. She is younger than Sarah but older than Diana.

Jane attended West Heath boarding school, where she achieved what was described as a “hatful” of O and A Levels. She chose not to pursue a professional career and married Robert Fellowes at the age of 21.

Robert was then an assistant private secretary to the Queen and was a first cousin of Ronald Ferguson, the father of Sarah, Duchess of York.

Jane and Robert had three children, Laura, Alexander and Eleanor, and she is now a grandmother of four.

She attended the wedding of Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, and later gave a reading at Diana’s funeral. Like Sarah, she was invited to the unveiling of Diana’s statue in 2021.

Jane has remained especially close to Harry. She was asked to give a reading from the Song of Solomon at Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding.

Before their marriage, Harry made sure Meghan met both of Diana’s sisters. During an engagement interview, he spoke about the importance of Sarah and Jane in his life.

Meghan also acknowledged their significance, saying that meeting Harry’s aunts allowed her to know part of Diana through them and through Harry.

Jane’s godparents include the Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Kent.

Robert Fellowes was knighted as Sir Robert Fellowes before being granted a life peerage in June 1999, becoming Baron Fellowes of Shotesham in the County of Norfolk.

When Lord Fellowes died in 2024 at the age of 82, Harry made a private trip to the UK to attend his uncle’s funeral. The visit brought him face-to-face with William.

On that occasion, Harry stayed at Althorp House rather than with the Royal Family.

The Honourable Laura Fellowes

Laura Fellowes, 46, is Jane and Robert Fellowes’s eldest daughter and is believed to have a close relationship with William and Kate.

Her connection with William dates back to 1986, when the pair were a bridesmaid and pageboy at the wedding of former Prince Andrew. Laura is also godmother to Princess Charlotte.

A former economist, Laura now writes fiction under the name Mave Fellowes.

She married equity analyst Nicholas Pettman in 2009 in Snettisham, west Norfolk, where her parents live in an old rectory. William and Kate both attended the wedding.

Laura and Nicholas have three children, two sons and a daughter.

The Honourable Alexander Fellowes

Alexander Fellowes, 43, is Jane’s only son. Friends affectionately know him as “Beetle”.

He works as an investment banker and married designer, illustrator and calligrapher Alexandra Finlay in 2009 at the Palace of Westminster. Harry attended the wedding, while the reception was held at Claridge’s.

Alexandra is a great-great-great-granddaughter of whisky distiller Johnnie Walker.

The couple have two children, Robert, 11, and Rose, 10.

The Honourable Eleanor Fellowes

Eleanor Fellowes, 41, is the youngest of Jane and Robert’s children. She followed her brother to Oxford University before training as a probation officer.

She has also written for the London Review of Books and lectures for the Howard League for Penal Reform. In addition, she works as a domestic violence advocate for Al-Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Centre.

Eleanor attended Diana’s funeral in 1997 and Harry’s wedding to Meghan in 2018.

For Harry, the Spencer family represents one of the strongest remaining links to his mother’s side of the family. While his relationship with William remains deeply strained, his bonds with Sarah, Jane, Charles Spencer and their children have endured. A return to Britain, particularly if the Sussexes spend more time in the Cotswolds, could give those relationships a greater role in Harry’s life and introduce Archie and Lilibet to a wider circle of their Spencer relatives.