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Princess Margaret: A Life Unfulfilled
Traces the personal life of Princess Margaret of England, focusing on her relationships with Peter Townsend, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, and Roddy Llewellyn.
- GenresBiography
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 12, 2021
Although I can absolutely see how this would have been shocking when first published in 1981, it is a relatively tame royal biography reading it now in 2021. I can't say that I learned anything new overall but I'm once again struck by how lonely the Princess must have been. At the time, I'm sure interest in her relationship with Roddy was at its height, but I would have loved more about her day to day.
January 16, 2022
This biography tells the story of Princess Margaret through her men. While I think it's a good reference for someone building a story or image of Margaret to have such facts about these men in her life, it fails to paint a complete or satisfying portrait of the woman.
One problem with all of these contemporary biographies of Margaret is they approach Peter Townsend as a Love Story instead of predatory. This author gets close by remarking on Margaret and Peter remember how the met differently and how young she was when she first met him. However he doesn't take that to the conclusion that Margaret being so young she cannot correctly remember how they met is CREEPY.
Margaret says she met Peter in the Great Hall at Windsor with both her parents being present while Townsend said he met her with her sister in a corridor of Windsor with no one else present except the guard and master of household. Peter's recollection is much more intimate than Margaret's and doesn't frame her a child who must always have a chaperone.
While reading this, I couldn't help but draw parallels to The Crown and Finding Freedom, arguably the two most important British royal media in pop culture at the moment. I wish The Crown had progresses slower to show some of these moments.
For instance, Phillip put off his naturalization as a British citizen because of the 1946 plebiscite restoring the Greek monarchy. He was asked not to remove his Greek citizenship so close to the reestablishment as not to appear as a rebuke of Greece. Margaret, Harry, Eugenie, Beatrice, and the Queen were all told to hold off their weddings. I think the Crown accurately shows that the Queen is unsympathetic to Margaret as she had to wait too, we get none of that in Finding Freedom. Those authors don't awknowledge that William's request for Harry to slow down is something almost every royal has to deal with.
Phillip also had to wait for the King's South Africa tour, which was a diplomatic necessity as South Africa had ousted their PM to support the British war effort. Ousted PM J. B. M. Hertzog is interesting, as he was opposed to supporting Britain in the war because they were colonists but he also held a lot of Nazi views and his minister of defense was a Nazi. Good example that someone can be right about one thing (colonialism bad) but be wrong on everything else. The author's tibit about this is more for shocking the reader than actually adding context to the inner machinations of a working royal.
In this book, we get very little actual details on how Margaret's household is set-up or how public engagements function. As I mentioned above, I think this is a good supplementary book because of the details but in no way is it complete or thorough.
Per the novel, Princess Margaret always had a crush on Peter since she met him as a teen but it was once Peter's marriage was failing that they grew closer and by the time she was 18 and he was 34 they had a public display of affection on their trip to investiture of Queen of Netherlands, Juliana. Very suspect that 16 days after she turned 18 they had that public dance and displays of affection like holding and leaning on each other. Townsend broke with protocol to do things like meet her at airports. He encouraged this. The quotes from Peter Townsend himself are incredibly gross including how he congratulate himself on a princess falling in love with him! "The lot that destiny had reserved for me" ... Ewww. The author states that Peter and Margaret would meet at friends homes for weekends when he was stationed in Belgium. I realize the age of consent was 16 at this time in the UK, but as a modern American reader all I can think of is "gross" and none of these articles, movies, or books properly capture my disgust with Townsend.
So much of Margaret's young adult unhappiness stems from the changing world of women post World War II. Her mother expected her to get married and run a household like it was 1901. But the world was different. Margaret was different. Yet the king did not push her towards an actual career. Her mother thought none of this would be an issue of Margaret married a peer with a large estate and then took up time to manage that estate. Only Margaret married none of her rich Duke and Earl friends. I thought the author did a good job in showing the descent of this change. I do think this book would be better with a second edition updated for the new decade showing how so many of Margaret's possible rich, titled suitors for divorced or went bankrupt. Happiness is not secure for the rich.
As always, Tommy Lascelles was a brilliant Private Secretary to the King and Queen. He wanted Princess Margaret to marry 10th Duke of Buccleuch, Richard Scott, who I do believe had the status and money for her. Only it was not to be and he's been happier married to his wife for over 40 years. These sorts of tibits are the first I've heard, so like I said, this book has some good info, just not completely. The insight that the King would have arranged a marriage for her to another rich peer to give her a "profession" if he had lived long enough is quite fascinating.
Philip had served in the Navy with Townsends' older brother Michael so there was some respect there. This is a big contrast to Phillip's permanent hate of Margaret's third main love, Roddy.
The book details some of Margaret's party lifestyle and 2 things stood out to me. First, she had an interest in theater and did some charity plays for such parties (one with Lady Algy). Like her nephew Edward and other relatives, Margaret had an artistic theater side. Second, so many of her friends were obsessed with making sure she was happy. They treated her like she was fragile. Some of this was because of her title and cultural norms. Of course she came out weird when her friends are bending over backwards to set her up with someone because she's a Princess who can't be own her own. It's a horrible combination for a modern day world where we must find happiness and industriousness in ourselves.
I think the real shift to the public expecting selflessness from their royals comes from WW2 and this is reinforced my the media language, holding Margaret breaking up with Townsend for the good of the Commonwealth and Church as a proper royal, selfless act. This is different from royals of yore where selfish whims are expected. Yet behind closed doors, Margaret's courtiers and friends were bending over to set her up with a husband and find parties to entertain her. Not really selfless.
Billy Wallace and Margaret were perfect party companions as he didn't work. They had a falling out when he cheated on her, though the relationship was loose and not a passionate one. Billy ended up marrying Elizabeth Millar who's younger sister Annabel Whitehead became Margaret's lady in waiting.
I think the most abosultely shocking thing I learned was Tony was only 5'3" while Margaret was 5'1" these people are SHORT! The movie adaptations always feature taller actors fitting with our current standard of beauty but that absolutely floored me.
It's fun looking back at the baseless gossip tabloids pre my time. Like gossip that Margaret would convert to Catholisism. Of course that's not true, simply a tabloid story based off an off hand comment that she enjoyed the ceremony of Catholic mass, and boom tabloid headline. Lord Snowden was called some bad words and made fun of his height in a shocking manner. Finding Freedom failed to catalog the experiences of people like Margaret, instead making Harry's situation sound unique.
While the Crown focused on a throuple relationship Tony was in, this book only goes as far to say 2 of Tony's groomsmen were asked to step out because they both had convictions for being gay. We never get any dissection of Margaret uncovering Tony is bisexual, fathered a child before her, or any other insight into her thoughts on his sexual history.
Colin Tennant, whose wedding was where M and Tony met for the first time as he was the photographer, gave them a plot of land in Mystique for their wedding present. Since this book was written, there's been some good articles on land development in Mystique and Lord Tennant being a crazy asshole. Since this book gave so little information on the inner workings of Margaret, I would have preferred more economic investigation into Mustqie.
Well the author is making a theme that Margaret's life is unfilled I can't help but see how many of Margaret's friends all had unhappy endings (Colin, Townsend, Tony, etc). There runs a theme of infidelity and unhappiness among "The Margaret Set" that I don't see in the Queen nor in the friends of Will+Kate (see Pippa's happy marriage).
If Margaret's story is not told by her men, what else is their to tell? She had no great accomplishments beyond the tabloids generated by her love stories. The royal engagements like meeting Lady Bird can hardly be called accomplishments outside of the bare minimum job requirement. I'm not offended by the title or theme of this book as I do think there's a sense of sadness with how Margaret lived her life. I don't think it's something to admire or aspire for.
Snowden was made in Earl as to be lower than Philip who was a Duke at the time. Initially he had declined title at marriage but then got one before the kids were born because Margaret wanted the kids to have some future reflection of their birthright. Which now feels weird since Lady Chatto is simply a watercolorist and stay at home mom while David Linley is a artist and furniture designer. Neither really living up to any birthright other than the birthright of artists. However, I don't think Princess Margaret ever fought for hire titles as she has a famous quote that her "children aren't royal, they just happen to have a Queen as an aunt." Lady Chatto did go to Canada for a few engagements with Margaret. I would have liked the book to dive deeper into how Margaret navigated loosing ranking in succession. Especially in Harry's tantrum about his kids only being a Duke and not more.
I liked the tidbit that Margaret disliked sitting in rooms with open doors because of her experiences growing up in palaces where someone is always listening.
As fun as some of Margaret's quips are today she also had ones that didn't quite land including some off-color clips about Ireland after she was told not to visit there with that IRA issues. The book doesn't mention the Troubles at all beyond that line and that she was once boo'd by some Irish Americans on a visit to California.
The author mentions a home movie where Meg impersonates Q Victoria which was given to QEII as a present. I'm sure that we'll never see the light of day is some of Tony's other friends seem to have done non politically correct impersonations as well. However I do think that would be fun to one day see.
One thing to note is while the Crown set up Margaret's USA tour as a great success which made her sister jealous this author writes of it as not being a success due to the large expense and a mix-up in seats on the flight back where they ended up having to force some people off the plane and pay for extra baggage and it was a mess that labor mps complain about as it showed the excess of royalty. Prob true as M was ready to spend money while traveling all over the USA. I wish this book had gotten more into the weeds about money.
Tony went to India on assignment for the newspaper as his dad had died and he needed the time to grieve. During that time period, M had an emotional affair with Anthony Barton. Having married relatively late, the author states she thought that her marriage would always work; so an emotional affair came as a surprise to her. The author asserts that Tony encouraged his friend to hit up Margaret since he was having affairs.
While Tony and Margaret clearly were very sexually attracted to each other and had the same sense of humor, there was a disconnect on their lifestyles. Additionally, Margaret could be codependent like she was codependent with her mother and Tony could set up cruel traps. Multiple times he would bait Margaret into making a scene. I really didn't like him.
Similar to the disconnect with Charles and Diana, and was never anything but a city girl. She had no desire to go out in the country and Tony made no effort in bringing her out to the country. Fighting over real estate seems to be a British royal family tradition.
The author says M and T talked about building a lakehouse together, he then built his country house without talking to her, so that's when she called Collin to follow through on the wedding gift.
The retelling of the after party of the "Magic Christian" was a lot to follow and I bet money Ringo Starr remembers none of it. Lots of affairs were started up during that period including Snowden with a 23-year-old right in front of Margaret's eyes.
This book says it was Tony that leaked to the press about Margaret's stay in Mystique with Roddy. He didn't mention Roddy to the reporter but wanted to draw attention to him spending his birthday in the cold English weather while his wife went to the beach. A poor old me act. He even went to meet her at the airport with a photo op in mind. One of his many traps.
While the Beatles party and Snowdon traps would have made for good television in the Crown, the worst thing the cut out was that Roddy (Margaret's new paramour) had lost his virginity to Jackie (one of Snowdon's paramours). *According to this author. That's full wild.
Roddy's story takes up a massive part of this book. Unlike Snowdon whose sexual activity is interesting, Roddy is more unlikable. While the attempt to present him as a sensitive, lost boy whose love with Margaret helps him find his purpose (to be a gardener) he wastes the opportunity given to him. When he turned Margaret's trips down because he's studying to be a gardener, I wanted to punch the air. Finally after being a wet blanket making terrible choices, he's going to make his own money and live a nice life. Only instead, he decides to make a musical album captializing on his fame of dating Margaret. He's a terrible house guest still and becomes even more of a user to his friends and family, refusing to pay for anything. In the beginning, when the author shockingly divulges that Roddy got an ingrown hair in his anus that required surgery, I felt bad for the guy for having such a public account of his life. But he's comes off as such an wet-blanket asshole, good riddance!
Roddy did win a libel suit against the News of the World (another thing Finding Freedom forgets). A thing I wish they'd included in the Crown: drunk driving after visiting Margaret he hit a police car.
Per the author, Tony never told Margaret he was going to remarry, she learned it from the wedding announcement in the newspaper. Clearly, she liked assholes. Only Tony was smart while Roddy and Billy were dumb. But maybe Tony's boundary was needed as Margaret sounds clinically co-dependent.
For Margaret, her health was declining so she saw Roddy less and less. When he broke it off it was a good thing as this meant he was less likely to run to the press. The author never went into detail about Margaret's mental health struggles, downplaying the overdoses and not mentioning therapy. The author does mention alcohol hepatitis.
The author also mentions how Margaret had no desire to go to Scotland (like Prince Charles) or continental Europe (like Princess Michael) to get remarried after a divorce. I wish the book had delved more into her religious beliefs, as I do think Margaret's hesitance in getting remarried after a divorce was because of her beliefs in the Church of England. After the divorce with Tony, I think she was only looking for companionship not marriage. And she found that her mother, sister, and ladies-in-waiting. Sometimes it takes all of one's like to find happiness with our female friends. And I like to think she did find that, so in that way, her life was fulfilled.
Last line of the book after that relationship is ended:
"Princess Margar.et wants someone to look after her and she's confident that she will find him," says the close friend. "And this time she says she's supposed to have happily ever after - just like princesses are supposed to."
One problem with all of these contemporary biographies of Margaret is they approach Peter Townsend as a Love Story instead of predatory. This author gets close by remarking on Margaret and Peter remember how the met differently and how young she was when she first met him. However he doesn't take that to the conclusion that Margaret being so young she cannot correctly remember how they met is CREEPY.
Margaret says she met Peter in the Great Hall at Windsor with both her parents being present while Townsend said he met her with her sister in a corridor of Windsor with no one else present except the guard and master of household. Peter's recollection is much more intimate than Margaret's and doesn't frame her a child who must always have a chaperone.
While reading this, I couldn't help but draw parallels to The Crown and Finding Freedom, arguably the two most important British royal media in pop culture at the moment. I wish The Crown had progresses slower to show some of these moments.
For instance, Phillip put off his naturalization as a British citizen because of the 1946 plebiscite restoring the Greek monarchy. He was asked not to remove his Greek citizenship so close to the reestablishment as not to appear as a rebuke of Greece. Margaret, Harry, Eugenie, Beatrice, and the Queen were all told to hold off their weddings. I think the Crown accurately shows that the Queen is unsympathetic to Margaret as she had to wait too, we get none of that in Finding Freedom. Those authors don't awknowledge that William's request for Harry to slow down is something almost every royal has to deal with.
Phillip also had to wait for the King's South Africa tour, which was a diplomatic necessity as South Africa had ousted their PM to support the British war effort. Ousted PM J. B. M. Hertzog is interesting, as he was opposed to supporting Britain in the war because they were colonists but he also held a lot of Nazi views and his minister of defense was a Nazi. Good example that someone can be right about one thing (colonialism bad) but be wrong on everything else. The author's tibit about this is more for shocking the reader than actually adding context to the inner machinations of a working royal.
In this book, we get very little actual details on how Margaret's household is set-up or how public engagements function. As I mentioned above, I think this is a good supplementary book because of the details but in no way is it complete or thorough.
Per the novel, Princess Margaret always had a crush on Peter since she met him as a teen but it was once Peter's marriage was failing that they grew closer and by the time she was 18 and he was 34 they had a public display of affection on their trip to investiture of Queen of Netherlands, Juliana. Very suspect that 16 days after she turned 18 they had that public dance and displays of affection like holding and leaning on each other. Townsend broke with protocol to do things like meet her at airports. He encouraged this. The quotes from Peter Townsend himself are incredibly gross including how he congratulate himself on a princess falling in love with him! "The lot that destiny had reserved for me" ... Ewww. The author states that Peter and Margaret would meet at friends homes for weekends when he was stationed in Belgium. I realize the age of consent was 16 at this time in the UK, but as a modern American reader all I can think of is "gross" and none of these articles, movies, or books properly capture my disgust with Townsend.
So much of Margaret's young adult unhappiness stems from the changing world of women post World War II. Her mother expected her to get married and run a household like it was 1901. But the world was different. Margaret was different. Yet the king did not push her towards an actual career. Her mother thought none of this would be an issue of Margaret married a peer with a large estate and then took up time to manage that estate. Only Margaret married none of her rich Duke and Earl friends. I thought the author did a good job in showing the descent of this change. I do think this book would be better with a second edition updated for the new decade showing how so many of Margaret's possible rich, titled suitors for divorced or went bankrupt. Happiness is not secure for the rich.
As always, Tommy Lascelles was a brilliant Private Secretary to the King and Queen. He wanted Princess Margaret to marry 10th Duke of Buccleuch, Richard Scott, who I do believe had the status and money for her. Only it was not to be and he's been happier married to his wife for over 40 years. These sorts of tibits are the first I've heard, so like I said, this book has some good info, just not completely. The insight that the King would have arranged a marriage for her to another rich peer to give her a "profession" if he had lived long enough is quite fascinating.
Philip had served in the Navy with Townsends' older brother Michael so there was some respect there. This is a big contrast to Phillip's permanent hate of Margaret's third main love, Roddy.
The book details some of Margaret's party lifestyle and 2 things stood out to me. First, she had an interest in theater and did some charity plays for such parties (one with Lady Algy). Like her nephew Edward and other relatives, Margaret had an artistic theater side. Second, so many of her friends were obsessed with making sure she was happy. They treated her like she was fragile. Some of this was because of her title and cultural norms. Of course she came out weird when her friends are bending over backwards to set her up with someone because she's a Princess who can't be own her own. It's a horrible combination for a modern day world where we must find happiness and industriousness in ourselves.
I think the real shift to the public expecting selflessness from their royals comes from WW2 and this is reinforced my the media language, holding Margaret breaking up with Townsend for the good of the Commonwealth and Church as a proper royal, selfless act. This is different from royals of yore where selfish whims are expected. Yet behind closed doors, Margaret's courtiers and friends were bending over to set her up with a husband and find parties to entertain her. Not really selfless.
Billy Wallace and Margaret were perfect party companions as he didn't work. They had a falling out when he cheated on her, though the relationship was loose and not a passionate one. Billy ended up marrying Elizabeth Millar who's younger sister Annabel Whitehead became Margaret's lady in waiting.
I think the most abosultely shocking thing I learned was Tony was only 5'3" while Margaret was 5'1" these people are SHORT! The movie adaptations always feature taller actors fitting with our current standard of beauty but that absolutely floored me.
It's fun looking back at the baseless gossip tabloids pre my time. Like gossip that Margaret would convert to Catholisism. Of course that's not true, simply a tabloid story based off an off hand comment that she enjoyed the ceremony of Catholic mass, and boom tabloid headline. Lord Snowden was called some bad words and made fun of his height in a shocking manner. Finding Freedom failed to catalog the experiences of people like Margaret, instead making Harry's situation sound unique.
While the Crown focused on a throuple relationship Tony was in, this book only goes as far to say 2 of Tony's groomsmen were asked to step out because they both had convictions for being gay. We never get any dissection of Margaret uncovering Tony is bisexual, fathered a child before her, or any other insight into her thoughts on his sexual history.
Colin Tennant, whose wedding was where M and Tony met for the first time as he was the photographer, gave them a plot of land in Mystique for their wedding present. Since this book was written, there's been some good articles on land development in Mystique and Lord Tennant being a crazy asshole. Since this book gave so little information on the inner workings of Margaret, I would have preferred more economic investigation into Mustqie.
Well the author is making a theme that Margaret's life is unfilled I can't help but see how many of Margaret's friends all had unhappy endings (Colin, Townsend, Tony, etc). There runs a theme of infidelity and unhappiness among "The Margaret Set" that I don't see in the Queen nor in the friends of Will+Kate (see Pippa's happy marriage).
If Margaret's story is not told by her men, what else is their to tell? She had no great accomplishments beyond the tabloids generated by her love stories. The royal engagements like meeting Lady Bird can hardly be called accomplishments outside of the bare minimum job requirement. I'm not offended by the title or theme of this book as I do think there's a sense of sadness with how Margaret lived her life. I don't think it's something to admire or aspire for.
Snowden was made in Earl as to be lower than Philip who was a Duke at the time. Initially he had declined title at marriage but then got one before the kids were born because Margaret wanted the kids to have some future reflection of their birthright. Which now feels weird since Lady Chatto is simply a watercolorist and stay at home mom while David Linley is a artist and furniture designer. Neither really living up to any birthright other than the birthright of artists. However, I don't think Princess Margaret ever fought for hire titles as she has a famous quote that her "children aren't royal, they just happen to have a Queen as an aunt." Lady Chatto did go to Canada for a few engagements with Margaret. I would have liked the book to dive deeper into how Margaret navigated loosing ranking in succession. Especially in Harry's tantrum about his kids only being a Duke and not more.
I liked the tidbit that Margaret disliked sitting in rooms with open doors because of her experiences growing up in palaces where someone is always listening.
As fun as some of Margaret's quips are today she also had ones that didn't quite land including some off-color clips about Ireland after she was told not to visit there with that IRA issues. The book doesn't mention the Troubles at all beyond that line and that she was once boo'd by some Irish Americans on a visit to California.
The author mentions a home movie where Meg impersonates Q Victoria which was given to QEII as a present. I'm sure that we'll never see the light of day is some of Tony's other friends seem to have done non politically correct impersonations as well. However I do think that would be fun to one day see.
One thing to note is while the Crown set up Margaret's USA tour as a great success which made her sister jealous this author writes of it as not being a success due to the large expense and a mix-up in seats on the flight back where they ended up having to force some people off the plane and pay for extra baggage and it was a mess that labor mps complain about as it showed the excess of royalty. Prob true as M was ready to spend money while traveling all over the USA. I wish this book had gotten more into the weeds about money.
Tony went to India on assignment for the newspaper as his dad had died and he needed the time to grieve. During that time period, M had an emotional affair with Anthony Barton. Having married relatively late, the author states she thought that her marriage would always work; so an emotional affair came as a surprise to her. The author asserts that Tony encouraged his friend to hit up Margaret since he was having affairs.
While Tony and Margaret clearly were very sexually attracted to each other and had the same sense of humor, there was a disconnect on their lifestyles. Additionally, Margaret could be codependent like she was codependent with her mother and Tony could set up cruel traps. Multiple times he would bait Margaret into making a scene. I really didn't like him.
Similar to the disconnect with Charles and Diana, and was never anything but a city girl. She had no desire to go out in the country and Tony made no effort in bringing her out to the country. Fighting over real estate seems to be a British royal family tradition.
The author says M and T talked about building a lakehouse together, he then built his country house without talking to her, so that's when she called Collin to follow through on the wedding gift.
The retelling of the after party of the "Magic Christian" was a lot to follow and I bet money Ringo Starr remembers none of it. Lots of affairs were started up during that period including Snowden with a 23-year-old right in front of Margaret's eyes.
This book says it was Tony that leaked to the press about Margaret's stay in Mystique with Roddy. He didn't mention Roddy to the reporter but wanted to draw attention to him spending his birthday in the cold English weather while his wife went to the beach. A poor old me act. He even went to meet her at the airport with a photo op in mind. One of his many traps.
While the Beatles party and Snowdon traps would have made for good television in the Crown, the worst thing the cut out was that Roddy (Margaret's new paramour) had lost his virginity to Jackie (one of Snowdon's paramours). *According to this author. That's full wild.
Roddy's story takes up a massive part of this book. Unlike Snowdon whose sexual activity is interesting, Roddy is more unlikable. While the attempt to present him as a sensitive, lost boy whose love with Margaret helps him find his purpose (to be a gardener) he wastes the opportunity given to him. When he turned Margaret's trips down because he's studying to be a gardener, I wanted to punch the air. Finally after being a wet blanket making terrible choices, he's going to make his own money and live a nice life. Only instead, he decides to make a musical album captializing on his fame of dating Margaret. He's a terrible house guest still and becomes even more of a user to his friends and family, refusing to pay for anything. In the beginning, when the author shockingly divulges that Roddy got an ingrown hair in his anus that required surgery, I felt bad for the guy for having such a public account of his life. But he's comes off as such an wet-blanket asshole, good riddance!
Roddy did win a libel suit against the News of the World (another thing Finding Freedom forgets). A thing I wish they'd included in the Crown: drunk driving after visiting Margaret he hit a police car.
Per the author, Tony never told Margaret he was going to remarry, she learned it from the wedding announcement in the newspaper. Clearly, she liked assholes. Only Tony was smart while Roddy and Billy were dumb. But maybe Tony's boundary was needed as Margaret sounds clinically co-dependent.
For Margaret, her health was declining so she saw Roddy less and less. When he broke it off it was a good thing as this meant he was less likely to run to the press. The author never went into detail about Margaret's mental health struggles, downplaying the overdoses and not mentioning therapy. The author does mention alcohol hepatitis.
The author also mentions how Margaret had no desire to go to Scotland (like Prince Charles) or continental Europe (like Princess Michael) to get remarried after a divorce. I wish the book had delved more into her religious beliefs, as I do think Margaret's hesitance in getting remarried after a divorce was because of her beliefs in the Church of England. After the divorce with Tony, I think she was only looking for companionship not marriage. And she found that her mother, sister, and ladies-in-waiting. Sometimes it takes all of one's like to find happiness with our female friends. And I like to think she did find that, so in that way, her life was fulfilled.
Last line of the book after that relationship is ended:
"Princess Margar.et wants someone to look after her and she's confident that she will find him," says the close friend. "And this time she says she's supposed to have happily ever after - just like princesses are supposed to."
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October 19, 2019Interesting biography of another troubled British royal.
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