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Princess of scandal
Close friends and acquaintances of Princess Margaret shed new light on her very colourful life in a compelling new BBC2 documentary
She fell in love with a divorced war hero, married a bohemian photographer who’d made his friend’s wife pregnant, was the first princess to marry a commoner in 400 years, and the first to divorce in almost a century.
Thanks to The Crown, new audiences are intrigued by the story of Princess Margaret, the Queen’s little sister, and her journey from glamorous royal rebel to wheelchair-bound wreck in later life.
A new two-part BBC2 documentary, Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal, talks to some of her closest friends and reveals incredible footage of the Princess acting in amateur dramatics with Peter Sellers and personal film of her with husband Antony Armstrong-Jones. ‘Margaret’s story is part of the changing emotional landscape of the times,’ says director Hannah Berryman. ‘She pushed the boundaries of what someone like her should do in her love life. She showed the royals were normal too.’
Contributors include Lady Anne Glenconner, a childhood friend and lady-inwaiting, fellow lady-in-waiting Jane Stevens, close friend Lady Jane Rayne and Mustique barman Basil Charles.
They reveal a woman who revelled in her royal status yet lacked a role. She was bright and artistic but barely educated and frustrated that her job amounted to little more than opening things. From an early age she had to get used to her big sister Elizabeth, then-heir to the throne, being treated differently to her. And when Elizabeth, four years her senior, married Philip, she grew reliant on a group of louche friends, partying often.
She also harboured a secret love for a man she could never marry. Lady Anne, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, explains why her relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, a Battle of Britain hero who was the King’s equerry, was seen as inappropriate. ‘He was much older and what they called “staff”,’ she says. ‘And he was married with children.’
The documentary looks at how the relationship appalled the church – which was scandalised by Margaret’s love for a thendivorced man – but was largely supported by the public. Margaret was given a choice: renounce her titles or her lover.
On 31 October, 1955 she issued a statement ending the engagement for the sake of her ‘duty’. Some pinpoint Margaret’s fall from grace to when she had to give up the man she loved; but here, her friends disagree. ‘She looked almost heartbroken that day, but I don’t think she was,’ says Lady Anne. ‘She realised she’d have lost her glamour and become an ordinary housewife. She didn’t want that.’
As her friends disclose, she was mischievous and fun but a stickler for pomp and ceremony. ‘She loved being royal and didn’t want to be treated like an
ordinary person,’ recalls Lady Jane, the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry, who says even close friends were not allowed to sit in Margaret’s presence unless she had.
She changed the monarchy by marrying commoner Antony ArmstrongJones. ‘He was clever and charming but not who you’d expect to marry the Queen’s sister,’ says Lady Anne.
Just before they wed, he got Camilla Fry, his friend Jeremy’s wife, pregnant. When the relationship later imploded, the public turned against Margaret.
‘The reactions were extreme,’ says executive producer Chris Granlund. ‘There were swathes of affection for her as a young woman – so this story is about how a nation changed too.’ Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC2.