Rift splits real-life Downton: Heir to Carnarvon estate has yet to meet his maternal grandmother

As events in ITV’s Downton Abbey unfold at almost breakneck speed, there is an even more dramatic storyline being played out by the real-life occupiers of Lord Grantham’s fictional stately pile.
It concerns the eldest children of the Earl of Carnarvon, whose 400-year-old family seat Highclere Castle is where the drama starring Michelle Dockery is filmed, who to this day have never met their maternal grandmother.
The children - George, 19, who will one day inherit the Carnarvon title, and Saoirse, 20 - are from the Earl’s first marriage to Jayne Wilby. They married in 1989 in a lavish ceremony at Highclere attended by the Queen and Princess Margaret.
The marriage ended in divorce in 1998, and Carnarvon married his second wife, Fiona, with whom he has a son, Edward, 11, in 1999.
But because of a family rift, Jayne’s mother, Princess Frances Colonna di Stigliano, has never set eyes on her grandchildren.
Speaking from Clonmannon, her Georgian estate in County Wicklow, Ireland, Frances, 71, tells me: ‘I have been watching Downton Abbey and remember Highclere very well. I was only there for Jayne’s wedding which I paid for. I haven’t spoken to Jayne for more than 22 years.
‘It is all tremendously sad. She was the most lovely daughter. I adored her. But now I don’t have anything to do with her. I’d rather not say the reason.’
The rift stems from the estate belonging to her father, racehorse owner Ken Wilby, which he left to Frances and his children. Friends say Jayne and her brothers, David and Charles, accused their mother of selling off chunks of the estate.
Frances had also divorced their father and when she formalised her civil marriage to Italian aristocrat Prince Prospero in 1991, Jayne refused to go.
Asked about the matter, Jayne has said: ‘I don’t want to talk about it. I made a pact with my brothers we all agreed it was better if there was no mudslinging.’
Meanwhile, Frances has not given up hope of a rapprochement: ‘I would love to meet George and Saoirse. I am in touch with Lord Carnarvon but there is little sign of any change of mind from Jayne.’