Horseback riding is a passion that many people carry with them their entire lives. Take 75-year-old Princess Anne, who still rides, and Queen Elizabeth, who was active on horseback up until a few months before her 2022 death. It comes as no surprise that Princess Diana's 70-year-old sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, hasn't given up her equestrian spirit, but brother Charles Spencer recently revealed that she took a "bad" spill off her horse.
"She's still riding, and she’s had a really bad fall last month and has been in hospital for a long time," Earl Spencer shared on the "Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth" podcast. While the earl didn't reveal exactly how long his sister has been hospitalized, he did admit that she was acting like her usual spirited self.
The head of the Spencer family, 61, called his big sister "quite a handful as a patient," adding, "the lead doctor said to my brother-in-law, 'She’s quite a character isn’t she?' Which I think is code for, ‘Could you take her home?'"
Lady Sarah McCorquodale and her family are seen arriving at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding.
Lady Sarah (left) is seen greeting Prince Harry alongside sister Lady Jane Fellowes, while Prince William shakes hands with Earl Spencer at the unveiling of Princess Diana's Kensington Palace statue.
Lady Sarah's accident follows the traumatic horse incident Princess Anne experienced in June 2024. The Princess Royal was hospitalized for five days after a mysterious head injury resulting from what doctors deemed "as being consistent with the type of impact from a horse's legs or head," per the BBC.
Along with Diana, Earl Spencer and Lady Sarah share another sibling, Lady Jane Fellowes, 68. The siblings reunited for a rare public event in 2021, joining Prince William and Prince Harry to officially unveil the statue of Princess Diana in the sunken gardens at Kensington Palace.
During his interview on the "Rosebud" podcast, Earl Spencer shared that he finds it "quite difficult" when "total strangers" come up to him and talk about where they were when Princess Diana died. "I’m sure that’s helpful to them, it’s not entirely helpful to everyone else," he admitted.
