It has been revealed that an aunt of Princes William and Harry – who is also a sister of the late Princess Diana – recently suffered a “bad fall” while out riding
Prince William and Prince Harry’s aunt was badly injured in a horse riding accident, her brother has revealed. Lady Sarah McCorquodale, a sister of the late Princess Diana, is said to have had a spell in hospital following a “bad fall”.
Her accident came to light after her younger brother Earl Spencer spoke out about it during a podcast interview, saying she had been a “handful as a patient”. Lady Sarah, 70, is the oldest of Diana’s two sisters and dated the then-Prince Charles several years before Diana. Speaking to the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth, Earl Spencer revealed: “Sarah, who is nearly a decade older than me, who was always in trouble, she’s quite punchy.
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“She’s still riding, and she’s had a really bad fall in the last month and has been in hospital for a long time. And I think, [she] was quite a handful as a patient, because the lead doctor said to my brother-in-law, ‘She’s quite a character, isn’t she?'” Earl Spencer did not give any futher details about his oldest sister’s injuries.
Lady Sarah married Neil McCorquodale in 1980 and they have three children – Emily, George and Celia.
Diana was said to be close to Sarah and she sometimes accompanied her on engagements as a lady-in-waiting. After Diana’s death, she accompanied the then Prince of Wales alongside her other sister Jane to bring the princess back to the UK.
In Spare, Harry movingly writes about how Lady Sarah gave both William and Harry a lock of Diana’s hair each that she had clipped from her sister after she died in order to give to her nephews.
She also joined Jane in supporting Harry by attending his graduation from the Army Air Corps pilots course during his time in he military. Diana’s other sister is Lady Jane Fellowes, who recently became a widow upon the death of her husband Robert in last July.
She has three children, Laura, Alexander and Eleanor – and gave readings at the funeral of her sister as well as at Harry’s wedding in 2018. In 2019, she attended the christening of Harry’s son Prince Archie’s and was also at the unveiling of a statue of Diana in July 2021.
It was reported she also attended Princess Lilibet’s christening in Montecito last March and was with her younger brother Earl Spencer in May at Harry’s Invictus service at St Paul’s in May.
The current head of the Spencer family and holding the title of Earl Spencer is Diana’s younger brother Charles.
He is the custodian of the family’s Althorp estate in Northamptonshire, where he is said to have hosted his nephew Harry during his time in the UK last week.
Father-of-seven Charles, who split from his third wife Karen, counts the late Queen as one of his godparents. He is believed to have been extremely close to Diana – delivering a blistering yet moving eulogy at her funeral in Westminster Abbey in 1997, where he publicly pledged to protect William and Harry.