A lot of comparisons have been made between Lady Kitty Spencer and her late aunt, Princess Diana, given their similar looks.

The two women indeed share some features such as blonde hair, wide blue eyes and an impeccable fashion sense. 

However, the resemblance between the late princess and her niece goes beyond appearance, a makeup artist who has worked with both women has revealed.

Mary Greenwell, who did Spencer’s make-up for a recent photoshoot with Harper’s Bazaar, said the experience reminded her of the times when she worked with Princess Diana in the 1980s and '90s.

“To have Kitty with me in the makeup chair ... it just took me back in time,” Greenwell said.

The makeup artist said Spencer – the daughter of Diana’s younger brother Charles Spencer and model Victoria Aitken – has a laissez faire attitude to life, just like her aunt Princess Diana and mother Victoria.

“Diana was so willing and open – as is Victoria, and as is Kitty,” said Greenwell. “Just sort of free – there’s a sense of freedom with all of them. I think the sense of freedom is actually very important, that then they didn’t feel stifled by their upbringing and their circumstances.”

Harper’s Bazaar also highlighted Spencer’s commitment to philanthropy work as another quality she shares with Diana. The 28-year-old is currently acting as a patron for military-family charity Give Us Time and an ambassador for youth homelessness charity Centrepoint, for which Diana was a patron.

“You’ve got to really choose carefully and put your weight behind a few things that really matter to you, rather than spread yourself so thinly, because it’s easy to do that,” said Spencer.

While the model and aristocrat has always been in the public’s eye, her popularity surged after she attended the wedding of her cousin Prince Harry in 2018. 

“[My Instagram followers] went from 17,000 to half a million in one night,” she said. “I thought I had someone else’s phone when I woke up the next morning.”