Princess Diana’s Sister Used To Date Prince Charles But Refused To Marry Him
Princess Diana wasn’t the only Spencer sister to date Prince Charles according to a new article from the British newspaper, The Mirror. The article reports that the heir to the British throne also dated Lady Sarah Spencer in a bid to find the wife who would give birth to his children. The relationship was shortlived, however. The Mirror reports that Charles and Lady Sarah may have stayed together longer if it wasn’t for an interview she gave to a reporter named James Whitaker.
Whitaker met Lady Sarah and Charles at a ski resort in Switzerland in the ’70s.
“My mission improbable as a young journalist was to discover who Charles would marry and be first with the news.” the reporter said when he recalled the incident in 2011. Lady Spencer gave him the scoop he wanted but it eventually cost her the “romance” with Prince Charles.
“Sarah was disarmingly frank about her boyfriend and declared she would not marry Charles “if he were the dustman or the King of England,” he said.
The Mirror doesn’t say if Whitaker disclosed whether he knew why she had no intention of marrying the first in line to the throne. But the prospect of that became null and void after her opinions of the match went public.
Prince Charles broke the relationship off after Whittaker shared the information. He allegedly called Princess Diana’s older sister and told her, “You have just done something incredibly stupid.”
Charles would later set his sights on Diana and propose to her. But their marriage was famously fraught with tension because the Prince of Wales was in love with his current wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. According to The Mirror, Charles and Camilla broke up after a year of dating before he started seeing Sarah Spencer.
Princess Diana's sister dated Prince Charles before she did – it didn't end well https://t.co/6yL8HPgNRO pic.twitter.com/T0AcGp5QO8
— Mirror Royal (@MirrorRoyal) August 11, 2018
The Express reports that the prince and Camilla, then Camilla Shand, met at a party in 1971. They were reportedly introduced by one of Charles’ exes, Lucia Santa Cruz. After their initial romance fizzled, Charles entered The Royal Navy and she got engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles. But their attraction to each other never died and the reality of that plagued Princess Diana for years.
“Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” the Princess of Wales said in an interview with BBC’s Panorama program in 1995.
Diana and Charles separated shortly after the interview aired.
Lady Sarah Spencer also married and gave birth to three children, Emily, George, and Celia, The Mirror reports. She has maintained a relationship with her royal nephews and attended Harry’s royal wedding in May. Princess Diana’s other sister Jane Spencer did a bible reading at the ceremony.
