Lady Sarah and her brother, David, then Viscount Linley, grew up in the nursery of Kensington Palace, Apartment 10. They were raised with a nanny called Verona Sumner, although their parents, most especially their father, were comparatively hands-on (for the time), with their father teaching them to build things and be creative. They spent weekends, depending on with which parent, at either Nymans or Royal Lodge. Holidays were given to the royal estates at Sandringham and Balmoral, where Lady Sarah did a lot of landscape painting.