Behind The Scenes Of Princess Diana’s Introduction To Prince Charles By Her Sister Sarah

Aug 24, 2022 by apost team

The life of Princess Diana has been a topic of conversation since she first came on the scene and began dating Prince Charles all those years ago. Since her passing, details about Princess Diana’s personal life have been scrutinized to the minutest detail, but one thing that is consistently overlooked is her relationship with her family, specifically her siblings.

The princess was born Diana Frances Spencer on July 1, 1961, at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. Her parents, John and Frances Spencer, were the Viscount and Viscountess of the family estate Althorp. Diana has two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Jane Fellowes, and a younger brother named Charles. A year before Diana was born, her infant brother John passed away. 

John and Frances divorced when Princess Diana was seven years old. In 1975, John Spencer inherited the title Earl Spencer, and from then on, Diana was known as Lady Diana until she married Prince Charles in 1981 and became a princess.

Diana was homeschooled until age 9 when she left for boarding school. She said her childhood was very unhappy and unstable, which is also the way her brother Charles described it in an interview with the Times in 2020. Being close in age, Diana had a great relationship with her younger brother and became closer with her sisters as she got older, although there were rough patches along the way. Sarah was six years older than her, and Jane was four years older. Charles is the youngest of the siblings and was three years younger than Diana. Keep reading to find out more about Princess Diana’s relationship with her siblings.

In both Andrew Morton and Sarah Bradford’s biographies of Princess Diana, it is stated the princess grew up in awe of her older, livelier sister Sarah. In fact, Sarah could be nailed down as the reason Diana first met her future husband, Prince Charles. Sarah reportedly dated Prince Charles in her early 20s, and the royal attended a shooting party at the Spencer home in 1977. It was here that he first met Diana when she was 16, and he was 29.

It would not work out romantically for the prince and Sarah. “Charles makes me laugh a lot. I really enjoy being with him,” Sarah shared in an interview in 1978, adding, “there is no chance of my marrying him. I’m not in love with him.”

“And I wouldn’t marry anyone I didn’t love whether he were the dustman or the King of England,” she said, adding Charles was a “romantic who falls in love easily.” 

Because Sarah dated Prince Charles first, there was some tension between the sisters after Princess Diana started up a romance with the royal after they had reconnected when she was 19. But after Charles and Diana’s engagement was announced in 1981, it appeared that resentment had dissipated. Sarah told The Guardian in February of the same year:

“I introduced them. I’m Cupid.”

By then, Sarah had already married Neil Edmund McCorquodale the year before, and the pair now have three children.

Once Diana had joined the royal family, Sarah was also sometimes seen traveling with her sister, serving as her lady-in-waiting. She was there by her sister’s side throughout her troubled marriage to Charles and, according to royals author Judy Wade, “Sarah knew about Diana’s affairs. In a way, she even encouraged Diana to be wild and to have lovers.”

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After Diana’s tragic death in Paris, Sarah and her sister Jane traveled to France to collect her remains. Sarah recited a poem at her sister’s funeral and was co-executor of her will. She also served as president of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, but after being plagued by criticism and scandal, it was closed in 2012.

Sarah also gave testimony at the inquest into her sister’s death in 2007. The jury ruled that Diana and Dodi Al Fayed, who was in the car with her, were unlawfully killed by a combination of an inebriated driver and an onslaught of paparazzi following their car in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

After Diana’s passing, Sarah mourned her sister alongside the entire world. She recounted in the BBC documentary “Diana: 7 Days:” 

“I think I felt shock, but I don’t think I felt anything else. Just love and shock,” she recalled. 

In the same documentary, Sarah also shared one thought that had plagued her since her sister’s death.

“She was religious in putting on her seatbelt. Why didn’t she put it on that night? I’ll never know.”

Since the tragic incident, Sarah has remained close to Diana’s sons Prince William and Prince Harry. She attended both William’s marriage to Kate Middleton in 2011 and Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018. She was also present for the christening of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie in July 2019. She and her sister Jane were also invited to stand in the official family portrait taken that day, showing how Harry is paying tribute to his mother’s memory. By including his aunts in the portrait, it shows the lasting impact Diana has on his life and the lives of his children. 

What do you think of Princess Diana’s relationship with her sister Sarah? Had Sarah not dated Prince Charles first, do you think Diana would have joined the royal family and met her tragic fate? Let us know, and don’t forget to pass this on to family and friends.