Princess Margaret: The Trouble with Townsend

Princess Margaret. Known for her glamour and beauty, her early love for nightlife and the arts, and her consistent appearance in the papers. She struggled throughout her life to balance an independent spirit and artistic temperament with her duties as a member of Britain’s Royal family. From her dramatic almost-marriage to her very public divorce, Margaret’s turbulent love life dominated the Royal spotlight for years. The Princess’s romantic entanglements were the stuff of rumour, tabloid speculation and scandal, yet they played a critical role in modernising Royal love along the way. Hand in hand with her marriage was her shocking divorce, which almost became her unwritten legacy, and normalised Royal divorce for the future generations, despite the backlash she faced at the time. Coming of age at a unique time when celebrity culture and tabloid journalism were just beginning, her status as younger sister to the Queen of the Commonwealth and her natural beauty, made her the first choice for the press to write stories about, particularly when they were so scandalous. Princess Margaret had a large part in modernising the Royal Family, more so than her sister, The Queen. Although she may have been a darling of the gossip columns, she will always be remembered as glamorous individual who stood out amongst Royal stereotypes.