The Queen looked on in horror as three of her children divorced, but no modern scandals can match the betrayal she felt at the behaviour of her “wild child” sister Princess Margaret.
As interest grows in the original “royal rebel” New Idea can reveal how the Queen banned Margaret from marrying the love of her life, ordered compromising pictures to “disappear” and believed her sister spread false rumours about Prince Philip’s affairs.
Margaret was still a teenager when she fell in love with Group Captain Peter Townsend, a Royal Air Force officer 16 years her senior who worked as equerry to the King.
Margaret became convinced that if she played the long game she could marry the man she loved after her 25th birthday – when she no longer needed the Queen’s permission – and she could sway the church, court and public to accept the union.
But following the death of their father in 1952, the new Queen, supported by Prince Philip, who did not like Townsend, made it clear that the marriage was a non-starter.
In October 1955, besieged by the press, the tearful couple drafted an announcement, signed by Margaret, in which she declared she would not marry Townsend.
Margaret said she reached the decision “entirely alone” but did she ever fully forgive her sister?
In her new book The Queen’s Marriage, controversial author Lady Colin Campbell claims Margaret took revenge on the Queen by telling her Philip was having affairs.
“It was all done in the heat of the moment, but the Queen felt betrayed,” she said.
In 1960, Margaret married society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, who became the Earl of Snowdon. He had introduced Margaret to a bohemian lifestyle of parties and exotic holidays, and both were soon rumoured to be having numerous affairs.
The pair dabbled in drugs with Margaret remarking “cocaine is such an amusing little drug” and they were not averse to watching soft porn together.
Margaret’s hedonistic years of drinking, smoking and louche affairs sadly ended with her premature death aged 71 in February 2002.
For the full story see this weeks issue of New Idea, on sale now!
