Lady Caroline Jane Wellesley (born 6 July 1951) is a British television producer and writer. She is the daughter of Valerian, 8th Duke of Wellington.
Wellesley was born on 6 July 1951, she is the third child and only daughter of Valerian, Marquess of Douro, later 8th Duke of Wellington, and Diana McConnel. Through her father, she is a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Wellington.[1] She was raised in London and at Stratfield Saye House, the family's seat in Hampshire.[2]
In her youth, she dated the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III) in the early 1970s.[3] [4]
Wellesley began her career working for Apollo magazine and P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. In 1975, her television production career began with a position at Radio Times and subsequently the BBC and Granada Studios. She became in independent producer in the 1980s, running Antelope Films and Warner Sisters Film and TV.[5] In 1987, she produced the documentary The Riddle of Midnight with novelist Salman Rushdie.[6] Her other production credits include A Village Affair (1995) and Lady Audley's Secret (2000).[5]
Wellesley was a close friend of American journalist Marie Colvin who was killed in an attack by Syrian government forces while she was covering the siege of Homs for The Sunday Times.[7] In Colvin's honour, she was a co-founder of the Marie Colvin Journalists’ Network.[8] [5]
In 2008, Wellesley published her first work on her family history, Wellington: A Journey Through My Family.[9] She updated and released the book in 2015 for the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo.[1] In 2023, she published Blue Eyes and a Wild Spirit: A Life of Dorothy Wellesley, a biography of her paternal grandmother, Dorothy, Duchess of Wellington.[10]