Meet Princess Diana's sister who once dated King Charles

Before the world witnessed the "wedding of the century" between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981, the future king had already been romantically involved with someone very close to his future bride—Diana’s elder sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale.

As Lady Sarah celebrates her 70th birthday, many royal fans may not realize just how significant her role was in the royal love story that followed.

Back in 1977, Lady Sarah and Charles were becoming close, even taking a trip together to the Swiss ski resort Klosters. That same year, Diana was said to have been formally introduced to the prince.

However, their romance ended rather abruptly after Lady Sarah gave a candid interview to a journalist while on the ski trip.

Journalist James Whittaker, who worked for The Mirror, later revealed: "Sarah was disarmingly frank about her boyfriend and declared she would not marry Charles 'if he were the dustman or the King of England.' That was good news from where I was sitting, and Sarah seemed delighted I was so keen to share it with the nation."

But Charles was not amused. After learning about Sarah’s comments, he reportedly told her: "You have just done something incredibly stupid."

Shortly after their split, Charles began dating Sarah’s younger sister, Diana.

Despite how things ended between them, Lady Sarah reportedly played cupid for Charles and Diana, later telling The Guardian: "I introduced them, I'm Cupid."

The rest, as they say, is history—Diana and Charles married in 1981 in a grand royal ceremony, while Sarah moved on to marry Neil McCorquodale.

Is Lady Sarah still in touch with the royal family?

Even after Diana’s tragic passing in 1997, Lady Sarah has remained close to her nephews, Prince William and Prince Harry. Alongside her sister, Baroness Jane Fellowes, and brother, Charles, Earl Spencer, Sarah continues to support her late sister’s children at major royal events.

She was among the select few from Diana’s family who attended both Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011 and Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.

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