Prince William and Harry’s aunt was left ‘seriously injured’ after a ‘really bad fall’ from a horse, her brother has revealed.
Lady Sarah McCorquodale, 70, the older sister of Princess Diana, was admitted to hospital following the accident.
Her brother Earl Spencer said the fall took place ‘in the last month’ and she is still in recovery.
Appearing on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, he joked that his sister had been a ‘handful’ in hospital.
He said: ‘Sarah, who is nearly a decade older than me, who was always in trouble, she’s quite punchy.
‘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 reveal any other information about the accident.
Lady Spencer has remained close to her nephews following Diana’s death, and last year was spotted joining William for an engagement.
The sister of the late Princess Diana cut a modest figure as she was spotted in the background while her nephew attended the Sovereign’s Parade at RAF College Cranwell.
She was dressed in a sand-coloured turtleneck top along with a warm black coat as she stood in the far distance as William spoke to officer cadets at their graduation.
Lady Sarah was filmed holding a program as she watched the future King carry out his visit on behalf of King Charles.
The aunt of William and Harry briefly dated King Charles two years before he began a romance with her younger sister, back in the 1970s.
In fact, Lady Sarah, 69, even introduced Diana to Charles and says she played ‘cupid’ for the pair.
Their romance involved polo matches and an invitation to Balmoral but it was after a skiing trip to Klosters in 1978, that Sarah told the media that she was not in love with him.
Yet there were no hard feelings and Sarah later prided herself on being the matchmaker for Diana and Charles.
In the midst of William and Harry’s feud, Lady Sarah and her siblings, Charles Spencer and Lady Jane Fellowes, are among the few relatives in the family who still have close relationships with both of the pair.
The Spencers were reported to have attended Princess Lilibet’s christening in Montecito; an event at which the Windsors were not present.
They were also front and centre to support Prince Harry at an Invictus Games event in London last year – with Earl Spencer captured warmly embracing his nephew at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Educated at the famous West Heath boarding school, near Sevenoaks, in Kent, Lady Sarah later worked in London.
When younger sister Diana moved to London in the late 1970s, she shared Sarah’s flat.
Andrew Morton’s biography of Diana suggested that Sarah tasked her little sister with much of the cleaning – although Diana didn’t mind the work.
It was during Diana’s time in London that her relationship with Charles blossomed.
In the meantime, Lady Sarah had met Neil McCorquodale, a farmer and former officer with the Coldstream Guards.
They married in a modest ceremony on May 17, 1980, at St Mary’s Church in the village of Great Brington near Althorp with a reception at the family home.
Lady Sarah – or Lady Sarah McCorquodale, as she had become – often accompanied Diana on official visits as one of her ladies-in-waiting.
And Sarah was one of the few people Diana trusted during her final years.
