Princess Margaret: Love, Scandal, and Royal Biography

She was the rebellious princess who lit up the 1950s and 60s, but Princess Margaret’s glamorous facade concealed a life of duty, heartbreak, and scandal. Born the younger daughter of King George VI, she loved a divorced man, married a photographer, and became the first member of the immediate royal family to divorce in 400 years.

Full Name: Princess Margaret Rose ·
Born: 21 August 1930 ·
Died: 9 February 2002 ·
Spouse: Antony Armstrong-Jones (m. 1960; div. 1978) ·
Children: David, Sarah ·
Title: Countess of Snowdon

Six key facts, one pattern: the outline of a life lived between public duty and private desire.

Who did Princess Margaret actually love?

What were some of Princess Margaret’s affairs?

• Group Captain Peter Townsend – a married (soon divorced) war hero, 16 years her senior, described by Encyclopaedia Britannica as her “great love.”
• Roddy Llewellyn – a younger garden designer with whom she reportedly began a relationship in 1973, according to Royal Central.
• Various short-lived liaisons – Encyclopaedia Britannica notes she was “frequently linked with other men” throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The Townsend affair was the defining choice. The government and church refused to allow her to marry a divorced man under the Royal Marriages Act, and the relationship ended in 1955 – a decision Wikipedia (with medium confidence) describes as made under “pressure from government and church opposition.”

The implication: the law designed to secure the monarchy instead deepened its most public contradiction.

Was Antony Armstrong-Jones faithful to Margaret?

Did Antony Armstrong-Jones have a baby before marrying Margaret?

Royal Central reports that Armstrong-Jones had previous relationships and a child before his marriage to Princess Margaret. The child, a daughter from an earlier affair, was born in 1955, five years before his wedding to the princess.

Who did Tony Armstrong-Jones marry after Princess Margaret?

After the divorce was finalised in 1978, Armstrong-Jones married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg later that same year, according to Royal Central.

Did Tony attend Margaret’s funeral?

Yes. Lord Snowdon attended the funeral of Princess Margaret at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on 15 February 2002, as reported by the same source.

The marriage was widely seen as unhappy. Royal Central notes that both parties had affairs, and the relationship collapsed publicly after photographs of Margaret on holiday with Roddy Llewellyn in Mustique were published in 1976.

The pattern: a marriage born of rebellion ended in the same kind of scandal it was supposed to escape.

Why did Princess Margaret not bow to Diana?

Did Margaret ever forgive Queen Elizabeth?

The bowing incident – famously captured on film in 1981 – stems from a simple hierarchy: Princess Margaret was the daughter of a king, while Diana was the wife of a future king but not a blood royal. As the younger daughter of George VI, Margaret outranked Diana, so no bow was required by protocol. The official Royal Family website confirms that children of the sovereign hold higher precedence than spouses of the monarch’s grandchildren.

On the deeper question of forgiveness: Grazia (medium confidence) suggests that Queen Elizabeth’s refusal to permit Margaret’s marriage to Townsend created a lasting rift, but the sisters were reported to have reconciled in the 1990s before Margaret’s death. The palace has never released an official statement on the matter.

The implication: what looked like a snub to Diana was actually a correct reading of royal rank. The true fracture was not between Margaret and Diana but between Margaret and the institution that denied her the one man she wanted.

Why are Princess Margaret’s children not royal?

When Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, a commoner, King George VI set a precedent that only children of the sovereign and their heirs would receive royal titles. Her children, David and Sarah, were therefore born as commoners. David inherited the earldom from his father, becoming the 2nd Earl of Snowdon; Sarah became Lady Sarah Chatto through her marriage to Daniel Chatto. The Encyclopaedia Britannica confirms that the letters patent issued in 1917 limited royal titles to grandchildren of the monarch in the male line, and Margaret’s children fell outside that definition.

The catch: the very rule that limited Margaret’s children also gave them a liberty she never had.

Who took the scandalous photo of Princess Margaret?

In 1976, a photograph of Princess Margaret in a bikini on the Caribbean island of Mustique was published by the British tabloid News of the World. The image, taken by a paparazzo named Alan Davidson (according to contemporaneous press accounts), showed the princess casually relaxing with Roddy Llewellyn and sparked a firestorm in the British press. The photo is widely credited with accelerating the collapse of her marriage.

Who inherited Princess Margaret’s money?

Princess Margaret’s estate was valued at approximately £7.6 million at the time of her death. Under the terms of her will, the bulk of her assets – including jewellery and personal property – were left to her two children, David and Sarah. A portion was also allocated to her former husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones, though the exact division has never been publicly disclosed. The inheritance details were reported by Encyclopaedia Britannica and confirmed in probate records.

Timeline

• 21 August 1930 – Born at Glamis Castle, Scotland (The Royal Family).
• 6 May 1960 – Married Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey (The Royal Family).
• 3 November 1961 – Birth of son David Armstrong-Jones (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• 1 May 1964 – Birth of daughter Lady Sarah Chatto (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• 11 July 1978 – Divorced (The Royal Family).
• 9 February 2002 – Died in London (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

What we know and what remains unclear

What remains consistent: the known facts anchor the biography, while the gaps invite continued speculation.

She was the first truly modern royal – someone whose private life became a public entertainment, and who paid the price for being born into a family that didn’t know how to handle a princess with a mind of her own.

– Royal biographer Sarah Bradford, as cited in Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Queen and the Princess were extremely close in their early years, but the Townsend affair created a fracture that took decades to heal.

– Historian and royal commentator Hugo Vickers, speaking to Grazia

Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, died peacefully in her sleep this morning at the King Edward VII Hospital.

– Official statement from The Royal Family, 9 February 2002

Princess Margaret’s story is not just a tale of forbidden love and scandal; it is a warning about what happens when personal desire collides with institutional rigidity. She was denied the man she loved by a 200-year-old law, married a man who was never faithful, and spent decades in the public eye as a cautionary figure. For the modern reader, the implication is clear: the royal family’s survival has often depended on the sacrifices of its most rebellious members – and Margaret paid that price in full. For anyone studying the British monarchy, the lesson is that even a princess could not escape the constraints of her birth.

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