Sarah Spencer Romanced Prince Charles Shortly Before Introducing Him to Her Sister Lady Diana

Prince Charles and Princess Diana had known each other distantly before setting their foot in a dwindling marriage. Back in 1977, the Prince of Wales first met Lady Diana when she was only 16 years old. Charles, who was 29 then, met the Spencer family in their home located in Althorp. Interestingly, Lady Diana's sister, Sarah Spencer had a short-lived romantic relationship with Charles as reported by People. 

Lady Sarah introduced the two when she was dating the son of Queen Elizabeth however, she wasn't interested in marrying him. According to Mirror, she had said, she wouldn't ever get married to the Prince of Wales "if he [Charles] were the dustman or the King of England." Diana again crossed paths with Charles in 1980 when they were invited to Philip de Pass's house in Sussex. By then Sarah and Charles' relationship had fizzled out and she married Neil McCorquodale who later claimed that he played the cupid for the future royal couple during his engagement with Sarah. "I introduced them. I’m Cupid," he said back in 1981 as reported by The Guardian.

Recalling their first meeting with Diana, Charles told The Telegraph during an interview, "I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was. I mean, great fun, and bouncy and full of life and everything." In the tapes for the biographical documentary, Diana: In Her Own Words of the Late Princess of Wales, she shared about their next meet, "He’d just broken up with his girlfriend and his friend Mountbatten had just been killed. I said it would be nice to see him." According to Town and Country Mag, Lady Di said, "We were talking about Mountbatten and his girlfriend and I said, ‘You must be so lonely.’ I said, ‘It’s pathetic watching you walking up the aisle with Mountbatten’s coffin in front, ghastly, you need someone beside you.’"

Adding on she said, "Whereupon he leapt upon me and started kissing me and I thought, urgh, this is not what people do. And he was all over me for the rest of the evening, following me around like a puppy." Soon, the duo started seeing each other more often, however, most of their relationship took place on the phone. According to Harpers Bazaar, the couple had met only thirteen times, before Charles proposed her with the marriage. 

Soon, in February 1981, they announced their engagement. Speaking with BBC Radio, the British royal Prince remarked, "She had planned to go to Australia quite a long time before anyway with her mother and I thought 'Well I'll ask her then so that she'll have a chance of thinking it over when she's away and saying I can't bear the whole idea—or not, as the case may be,'" as reported by Tatler. 

Before her marriage, however, the "People's Princess" had her doubts about Charles. In her documentary, she said, "We had this ghastly interview the day we announced our engagement," as she recalled a terrible encounter. "And this ridiculous [reporter] said, ‘Are you in love?’ I thought, what a thick question. So I said, ‘Yes, of course, we are,’ and Charles turned round and said, ‘Whatever love means.’ And that threw me completely. I thought, what a strange answer. It traumatized me."