If you, like much of the rest of the internet, are knee-deep in season 4 of The Crown right now, you might have some questions. Like, are the Balmoral tests actually real? Did all the Charles/Diana royal tour drama actually happen? Did that guy literally SNEAK INTO THE PALACE? We’ve got the answers to all those questions. But another one you might be curious about comes from before Charles and Diana even technically met, and it has to do with Diana’s older sister. Like, who is she? And what’s she up to these days? Here’s what we know about Sarah Spencer.
The basics
Sarah Spencer (married name Lady Sarah McCorquodale) is Diana’s older sister, and she was born in 1955. While there’s always been lots of chatter about Diana being a “commoner,” her family is still technically super fancy. Her dad was an earl, and she spent a good chunk of her life in a house located on Queen Elizabeth’s estate at Sandringham, so they were always pretty close to the royal family. Sarah has two younger siblings, Lady Jane Fellowes and Earl Charles Spencer. Apropos of nothing, I’m dying at this picture of her in front of this incredibly dope car:
So did she and Prince Charles really go out?
Yes! But it was pretty brief. She told Time magazine way back when, “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.” So…I guess that settles that! But that is how Diana and Charles met, through Sarah. “I introduced them, I’m Cupid,” Sarah reportedly said at the time, when Charles and Diana got engaged.
The year before Diana and Charles tied the knot, Lady Sarah had a wedding of her own, to Neil McCorquodale. They have three kids, Emily, George, and Celia, and they’re still together! Cute!
She was pretty involved in Diana’s post-marriage life.
Not only did Sarah’s children hang out with William and Harry, but Sarah and Diana would also go on vacation together and bring the kids, which is adorable. And sometimes Sarah would accompany Diana on her official royal trips. Here’s a picture of the whole crew on one of those vacations:
After Princess Diana’s tragic death, the Spencer siblings largely tried to stay out of the public eye. Lady Sarah was one of the people responsible for executing Princess Diana’s will after she passed, and she also ran the charity founded in Princess Diana’s name until it closed in 2012.
What’s Lady Sarah up to today?
Great question! From the looks of it on Wikipedia, she has two grandchildren. She also seems to be relatively close to her nephews Prince William and Prince Harry. She attended Will and Kate’s wedding as well as Harry and Meghan’s, and she was even featured in the official portrait from Archie’s christening.
