Photo: STF/AFP via Getty Images
Like her beloved sister, the lateQueen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret’s influence lives on.
Princess Margaret, known for her glamorous lifestyle but troubled love life, died at 71 years old on Feb. 9, 2002, after months of health problems.
“The Queen, with great sadness, has asked for the following announcement to be made immediately. Her beloved sister, Princess Margaret, died peacefully in her sleep this morning at 6.30am, in The King Edward VII Hospital,” an official announcement from Buckingham Palace said at the time.
To many, she was a royal rebel, favoring a party lifestyle. She chain-smoked and was known for her acerbic wit and sometimes cruel put-downs. But according to biographer Theo Aronson, her reputation didn’t bother her in the slightest. She once told the French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, “Disobedience is my joy.”
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on the island of Mustique.Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
Despite this, she always remained loyal to her sister, Elizabeth, who became Queen when Margaret was 22 years old. It was shortly after her sister’s coronation that Margaret announced herengagement to Captain Peter Townsend, but the marriage never took place. As a divorced man, he was not deemed an appropriate match for someone so close to the line of succession.
In May 1960, Margaret married the society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, and the glamorous couple — a fixture on the social scene for many years — went on to have two children: David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, known as David Linley, and Sarah Frances Elizabeth Armstrong-Jones, known as Lady Sarah Chatto. After a turbulent marriage for many years, they divorced in 1978.
Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones on their wedding day on May 6, 1960.
Spending much of her time in Mustique, where she had built a home, her lady-in-waiting Lady Anne Glenconner said they had the best of times together wherever they were in the world.
“Often when we did official things, funny things happened,“Glenconner told PEOPLE. “Once we were alone, we could laugh. I never laughed so much. We would roar with laughter.”
Lady Anne Glenconner and Princess Margaret.
The royal family requested that anyone making donations in memory of Margaret contribute to one of the charities of which she was a patron, the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, The Guide Association and the Royal Ballet.
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source: people.com
