Princess Diana’s Brother Charles Spencer Just Revealed the Surprising Pop Star That Almost Used His Home for a Wedding

As one of the biggest pop stars in the world at the beginning of the 2000s, Madonna could get just about anything she wanted. And, while engaged to film director Guy Ritchie, the “Like a Virgin” singer had her eyes set on one specific thing: getting married at Charles Spencer’s home.

According to Spencer, who’s the late Princess Diana‘s brother, the singer called him many years ago making the unexpected request, Daily Mail reports. “I was cooking at home one day and the phone went and this voice said, ‘Hello, it’s Madonna here,’” Earl Spencer remembered in The Rabbit Hole Detectives podcast. “I thought, ‘Well, who on earth is this? It’s too ridiculous.’”

“And then I realized it was [her], and she said she wanted to get married and use my house for the wedding,” Spencer continued. The royal/historian lives in the Althorp House, a gorgeous Grade 1 listed mansion dating from the late 17th century.

Spencer continued, “We had this rather surreal conversation where I was just thinking, ‘This is beyond belief.’” After going through some details, Spencer remembered that the singer asked if he was okay, and then he did the same. “Well, I’d recommend you don’t give birth and bring out an album in the same month,” Madonna reportedly told him.

Spencer, for his part, joked about Madonna’s remarks, saying, “I have stuck by it religiously.”

Unfortunately for Spencer, Madonna quickly her changed mind about the wedding venue and got married to Ritchie in the Skibo Castle in Scotland in December 2000. The pair then split up in late 2008.