The late Princess Margaret’s affair with a man 17 years her junior has been revealed in the new eight-part series documenting the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, titled Elizabeth: Our Queen.
Lady Anne Glenconner, one of the late Countess of Snowden’s closest friends, was interviewed for the documentary and revealed that she was the one to introduce The Queen’s sister to Roddy Llewellyn. She admitted to feeling guilt over the action saying “It was difficult for the Queen and I felt rather guilty always having introduced Roddy to Princess Margaret”.
Princess Margaret was married to Antony Armstrong-Jones, the Earl of Snowdon, from 1960 until 1978 but was introduced to Mr Llewellyn in 1974 and began an affair with him soon after. Mr Llewellyn visited Princess Margaret’s holiday home on the exclusive island of Mustique several times, and they were photographed together there in February 1976. It’s also possible that his absence, while he was travelling in Turkey, was so taxing on the princess that she struggled to cope and overdosed on sleeping tablets. Of the incident, Princess Margaret later said she was “exhausted because of everything” and that she’d only wanted to sleep.
The ending of the Earl and Countess of Snowdon’s marriage was eventually announced and their divorce finalised on 11 July 1978. Princess Margret passed away at the age of 71 after suffering a stroke in 2002, the second one she had had in four years. The princess was laid to rest on 15 February 2002.
It was not until after Princess Margaret’s death that The Queen spoke to Lady Anne about her sister’s affair. Lady Anne said in Elizabeth: Our Queen: “after Princess Margaret’s funeral, the Queen, she said, ‘I’d just like to say, Anne, it was rather difficult at moments, but I thank you so much introducing Princess Margaret to Roddy ’cause he made her really happy’.”
