Prince Charles had a secret relationship with Princess Diana's sister Sarah, but it didn't end well
Before he got married to Princess Diana, Prince Charles was secretly dating her elder sister Lady Sarah Spencer, a report in the Mirror claims.
Charles was already involved with Sarah when he met Diana in 1977. According to the report, Sarah even accompanied Charles on a visit to plush Swiss ski resort Klosters during their relationship.
While not much is known about their romance, it is believed that Charles ended the relationship abruptly because he did not like Sarah interacting with a journalist at the resort during their trip.
The journalist, James Whittaker from Daily Mirror, shared: "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," Whittaker continued.
However, when Charles became aware of what had happened, he was not happy and was very disapproving. He reportedly told Sarah, "You have just done something incredibly stupid."
Their relationship ended shortly after, and months later Charles began courting Diana.
But contrary to rumors and their awkward history, Diana did not have a fall out with Sarah over her relationship with Charles. In fact, it was Sarah that paired her sister with Charles.
During a previous interview with the Telegraph, she said, “I introduced them, I’m Cupid.”
Recalling the event in 2011, Whittaker said: "My mission improbable as a young journalist was to discover who Charles would marry and be first with the news. So when Sarah introduced me to Diana I should have taken more notice of the shy, gangly-16-year old. Sarah by contrast was a lively, lovely redhead and I was captivated.
"Putting obvious obstacles aside — like she was totally out of my league and stepping out with the most eligible bachelor in the land – I chanced my arm". James had further suggested that the pair meets for lunch when another reporter overheard and also invited himself.
Four years after breaking up with Sarah, Charles married Diana on July, 29 1981.
Perhaps it helped that Sarah got married one year before her sister in 1980, to Neil McCorquodale. They now have three children — Emily, George, and Celia. She is still close to her nephews Princes William and Prince Harry, and attended Meghan and Harry's wedding earlier this year.
Charles and Sarah's relationship took place when there was a lot of pressure for the former playboy to settle down and get married. It is reported that Charles dated more than 20 women before finally settling down with Diana.
Diana soon outshone Charles and went on to become Britain's most loved royal. Rumors suggest that Charles grew very jealous of Diana as she was the 'People's Princess'. The difficult marriage of Diana and Charles ended in divorce in the year 1996. Diana passed away in a tragic accident in the year 1997 and Charles went on to marry Camilla Parker, who became the Duchess of Cornwall.
According to a documentary, Diana shared: "My father-in-law said to my husband 'if your marriage doesn't work out, you can always go back to her after five years. Which is exactly — I mean, for real I knew that it had happened after five (years) — I knew something was happening before that but the fifth year I had confirmation".