In a cream cocktail dress, paired with a navy netted hat and matching blazer, Lady Kitty Spencer cuts the figure of a quintessential Sloane blonde at a country gathering.
Yet the photograph dates from 2011, when Princess Diana’s niece was just 20. Shy and seemingly uncertain in front of the camera, she appeared far removed from the polished, globe-trotting figure she would later become.
Fifteen years on, the change is remarkable. Now married to 67-year-old South African billionaire Michael Lewis, who is 32 years her senior, the eldest daughter of Earl Spencer has built a lifestyle far removed from the traditional aristocratic world of her childhood.
Lady Kitty, now 35, is also mother to three-year-old Athena. Her packed social calendar includes international fashion shows, star-studded events and lavish breaks in the Hamptons, placing her firmly on the global luxury circuit.
Privilege was part of her story from birth. The Spencers are among Britain’s most distinguished aristocratic families, but Kitty and her siblings—twin sisters Eliza and Amelia, and brother Louis—spent much of their childhood in Cape Town’s affluent Constantia suburb after the family relocated to escape intense media attention.
After their parents separated, the children divided their time between their mother Victoria Aitken’s gated Cape Town home and the grandeur of their father’s ancestral estate, Althorp. The Northamptonshire house was also where their aunt, Princess Diana, grew up.
Moving between Britain’s aristocratic circles and a very different upbringing in South Africa appears to have helped foster the international perspective Lady Kitty has embraced in adulthood.
However, she has done more than exchange the English country-house set for the international jet set. Lady Kitty has transformed her aristocratic background into a successful fashion identity, moving with equal ease among wealthy social circles and on the catwalk.
Lady Kitty Spencer exudes Sloane style in a cream cocktail dress, navy netted hat and coordinating blazer
Lady Kitty attended the Schiaparelli Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020 show during Paris Fashion Week
Before beginning university in Cape Town in 2009, she received one of high society’s most coveted introductions when she was presented at Paris’s Le Bal des Débutantes. That same year, she appeared on the cover of Tatler, the influential magazine associated with Britain’s upper classes.
But an interview the following year presented a young woman seemingly at ease with rejecting the expectations of her privileged background. Lady Kitty said she disliked exercise and preferred indulgent favourites including macaroni cheese, chips and flapjacks.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, she also discussed her mother’s eating disorder and the highly publicised bulimia battle experienced by her aunt Diana. Lady Kitty explained that these experiences had made her particularly conscious of mindfulness and wellbeing.
For someone raised in such elevated surroundings, she came across as notably relatable: candid, self-aware and refreshingly relaxed in a world often shaped by appearances.
Those early comments may also have hinted at the direction her life would take. Beneath the polished image was someone determined to make her own choices rather than simply obey the expectations of the society into which she was born.
Her fashion evolution has been just as dramatic. The reserved country-house look of tailored blazers and sensible hats has given way to a far more high-impact form of glamour.
After joining Storm Model Management in 2017, Lady Kitty became a model for Dolce & Gabbana. She embraced sweeping gowns, bold jewellery and attention-commanding outfits that helped establish her presence in the fashion world.
As an ambassador for the Italian fashion house, known for its unapologetically glamorous European aesthetic, she has adopted a style reminiscent of the so-called mob-wife trend: opulent, extravagant and designed to make an entrance.
Lady Kitty appears entirely at home in the fashion world, regularly attending major industry events
The aristocrat turned heads in pink at the British Museum Ball in 2025
In recent years, she has also appeared looking increasingly toned and athletic at fashion events. In interviews, she has spoken about enjoying spin and barre classes, while her sculpted arms and defined physique have become part of her polished public image.
It is a look that sits comfortably within the world of international fashion, where immaculate grooming, carefully considered styling and a camera-ready appearance are a passport to entry.
Little is known about her marriage to Lewis, chairman of retail giant The Foschini Group, which owns fashion brands including Whistles and Jigsaw. The couple appear to enjoy a glittering lifestyle, with sun-drenched holidays on the Riviera and in New York’s Hamptons, offering occasional glimpses of their private world without revealing too much.
Their wedding in 2021 was an extravagant affair at Villa Aldobrandini, a 16th-century villa overlooking Rome. Lady Kitty looked spectacular in a custom-made lace gown by Dolce & Gabbana, complete with a high neckline and fitted, corseted bodice that showcased her figure.
Photographs of the newlyweds captured the occasion’s romance, but the wedding also seemed to mark another milestone in her transformation: from aristocratic blonde on the fringes of high society to a woman whose life now revolves around fashion, global travel and extraordinary wealth.
Her social circle has evolved, too. Rather than confining herself to the titled country set, Lady Kitty has cultivated an eclectic network of friends drawn from fashion, entertainment and high society.
She is close to Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, 40, Britain’s first Black marchioness, who is married to the Marquess of Bath, and the pair are regularly seen together at fashionable events. Her circle also includes pop star Pixie Lott, 35, and her husband Oliver Cheshire, actor Idris Elba, 54, and his wife Sabrina, and fashion designer Jade Holland Cooper, 39.
Lady Kitty looked stunning in a red caped dress at the The British Museum Ball in 2026
It is a decidedly modern mix of companions, many of whom have established their own careers and public profiles rather than relying on inherited titles. Their world offers a sharp contrast to the more traditional aristocratic circles in which Kitty grew up and suggests she has little interest in allowing her pedigree to dictate the company she keeps.
As Earl Spencer’s eldest child, Kitty might once have been expected to play a more conventional role in the family dynasty. But under current rules her younger brother Louis is in line to inherit Althorp and is now pursuing a career as an actor.
Kitty, meanwhile, appears to have built a life entirely on her own terms. With a home in Marylebone, a wealthy husband, a young daughter, a modelling career and a glittering international social network, she has little need to rely on the allure of an ancestral estate or the promise of a title.
The young woman in the cream dress and navy hat has since reinvented herself as a confident fashion fixture whose world extends far beyond the English country house.
Lady Kitty Spencer may have been born into one of Britain’s grandest aristocratic families, but her transformation suggests that the most valuable inheritance of all is the freedom to create a life of her own.
And if that life happens to involve designer gowns, billionaire wealth and holidays in the Hamptons, then so far, so good.
