Princess Margaret Got A Sharp Response After Insulting Elizabeth Taylor To Her Face

As a young woman, it was evident that Margaret didn't always love royal life. The princess was described as "bored, mécontente, ready to burst out against it all" by historian A.L. Rowse. He even called her “a Duke of Windsor among the women of the royal family,” a reference to her uncle Edward VIII, who famously abdicated the throne to be with the woman he loved. He, like Margaret, wasn’t one to blindly follow the rules.

As Margaret got older, her rebellious side didn’t seem to fade. According to some stories, she wasn't always gracious to her guests. She once had visitors wait late into the night while she got ready for a dinner party, only to emerge looking like "a huge ball of fur," as journalist and biographer Nancy Mitford once recalled.

Most young ladies (and many older ladies) might detest being called "ma'am," but not Margaret. In fact, she insisted upon it — if the witness accounts are to be believed. According to reports, the princesses would be friendly until you called her by anything other than "ma'am" or "your highness."

According to an anonymous dinner party guest, Margaret and the gang were once happily playing Trivial Pursuit, until she answered a question incorrectly: “She got so furious that she tossed the whole board in the air, sending all the pieces flying everywhere.”

Despite literally being royalty, Margaret still felt threatened by famous people, according to some sources. She allegedly told Robert Evans that she didn’t care of his movie Love Story, and she made her dislike of Boy George and Stephen Sondheim known, often right to their faces.

Margaret had a razor-sharp wit and didn’t always use it for good. When she met Grace Kelly, former actress and the Princess of Monaco, she had some choice words for her. “Well, you don’t look like a movie star,” she told her dryly. Sometimes, celebrities left the palace feeling worse than when they walked in. When Margaret finally asked ‘60s model Lesley Lawson about herself, and Lawson replied, “My friends call me Twiggy,” Margaret had just one response: “How unfortunate.”

Still, Margaret found herself up against a worthy opponent from time to time, such as when she met Judy Garland. While at a party, Margaret sent Garland a message across the room, asking her to sing. Garland wasn’t impressed by the request and had a fiery response.

“Go and tell that nasty, rude little princess that we’ve known each other for long enough...that she should skip the ho-hum royal routine and just pop over here and ask me herself,” Garland angrily replied. We can only imagine how Margaret reacted!

Elizabeth Taylor didn’t let Margaret get away with insulting her, either. When she overheard Margaret comment that Taylor’s new diamond ring was “the most vulgar thing I’ve ever seen,” Taylor immediately hatched a plan for revenge.

When the two later met at a party, Taylor graciously offered to let Margaret try on the ring herself. When she did, Elizabeth Taylor went in for the kill. “Doesn’t look so vulgar now, does it?” she quipped at an astonished Margaret.

For all the nasty rumors swirling around Margaret, it can’t be denied that she endured some tough times. She wasn’t permitted to marry Peter Townshend, her first love, because of his divorce, and their affair was a massive scandal at the time.

Ironically, Margaret paved the way for future royals to get divorced: After a series of affairs (one reportedly with Mick Jagger and another with Roddy Llewellyn, who was 17 years her junior), she and her husband divorced. It was the first royal divorce since 1901. 

According to royal protocol, no one was allowed to go to bed until Margaret did, a rule she used to her advantage. She once arrived hours late to dinner, forced the exhausted staff to wait on her every whim, and didn’t go to bed until 4 AM.

Margaret even expected her sister, the Queen, to cater to her every need. Whenever Margaret burned her feet in the sun during a family trip to Mustique, she’d dramatically use a wheelchair to get around... which annoyed Elizabeth to no end.

In retaliation, Elizabeth would only provide one wheelchair at Mustique, which was meant for the Queen Mother, not Margaret. When Margaret once dashed to claim the wheelchair, Elizabeth reportedly said, “For God’s sake, Margaret — get out! That’s meant for Mummy!” 

By the end of her life, Margaret was so unpopular with the public that Sotheby's had to bribe guests to chat with her for a few minutes. This is only a rumor, but judging by her past behavior, we wouldn't be surprised!

Whether these stories are true or just exaggerated tall tales is hard to know. In reality, Margaret had close friends her whole life, all of whom claimed that these outrageous stories were simply ways for Margaret to amuse and connect with the public.

Margaret herself once commented on her complicated reputation. "It was inevitable, when there are two sisters and one is the Queen, who must be the source of honor and all that is good... the other must be the focus of the most creative malice, the evil sister," she said. According to the press, Elizabeth was the heir, and Margaret was the "spare" — a harsh term and one that cruelly paired well with Margaret's painful life.

Many still say it didn't have to be this way for the princess. Her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was married to George, the second son of King George V. Even though their father was royalty, Margaret and her elder sister, Elizabeth, never imagined that he would ascend to the throne. Then, when Margaret was five years old, King George V passed away. George's brother, Edward, initially became king — but he soon abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. So, unexpectedly, George took his place as King George VI, and Margaret became a princess.

Almost overnight, Margaret and Elizabeth’s worlds were transformed. Growing up, Elizabeth found herself preparing for the day that she would take her father’s place. Margaret, meanwhile, had to come to terms with being second in line for the throne. She was only six years old, but she could probably tell that her older sister was suddenly being treated with more favor. Allegedly, little Princess Margaret once complained, “Now that Papa is king, I am nothing.” However, despite the tribulations at the time, the children did have moments of normalcy.

In her unauthorized 1950 book The Little Princesses, former royal governess Marion Crawford said the little girls fought like regular siblings. She wrote, “Neither was above taking a whack at her adversary if roused. Lilibet was quick with her left hook.” As for Margaret, Crawford wrote, she was “more of a close-in fighter, known to bite on occasions.” She added, “More than once, I was shown a hand bearing royal teeth marks.” The young girls frequently fought over toys and clothes, and Elizabeth’s usual complaint, Crawford remembered, was “Margaret always wants what I want.”

In The Little Princesses, Crawford also detailed the differences between the sisters. She remembered how the children had received a spoonful of barley sugar from their father every night, and their responses showed just how different they were. Crawford recalled, “Margaret pushed the whole lot into her mouth. Lilibet, however, carefully sorted hers out on the table, and then ate it very daintily.” And as she grew older, Margaret was apparently allowed to take more liberties. Her father especially doted on her, reportedly once saying, “Lilibet is my pride, Margaret my joy.”

Margaret would continue to be unconventional in public as an adult, too. She broke the rules — she was sometimes seen (as an adult) smoking, a big no-no back then — and it fascinated people. Unlike her sister, Elizabeth, who needed to remain modest at all times, Margaret could wear daring dresses with low necklines. As a result, she became a fashion icon in her own right. But it was during her unusual and sometimes turbulent youth that the young princess first encountered the man who would capture her heart.

Apparently, Margaret first met Peter Townsend when she was just 14 years old. A war hero from a lineage with close ties to the royals, Townsend had been chosen to serve King George and his family in 1944. In that role, he often accompanied the young Princess Margaret on excursions, and gradually the teenager fell in love with the married older man. Then, in February 1952 George VI succumbed to fatal lung cancer. Elizabeth, who by this time was married with two children of her own, ascended to the throne as Elizabeth II.

Even though the births of Prince Charles and Princess Anne made it less likely than ever that Margaret would become queen, her place in the line of succession was nonetheless about to throw her personal life into disarray. In 1953 Margaret and her mother were living in Clarence House, a royal mansion in the Westminster district of London. And, Townsend was the Comptroller of the Household. But it wasn’t long before the arrangement caused a scandal because Margaret was caught sharing a seemingly intimate moment with Townsend during her sister’s coronation.

There had been rumors about the princess and Townsend in the press outside of Britain, but it wasn't until the Queen's coronation that things exploded. The catalyst? Margaret casually removed a bit of fluff from Town's uniform — and the action was captured on camera. "It didn't mean a thing to us at the time," Townsend later said. "It must have been a bit of fur coat I picked up from some dowager in the Abbey. I never thought a thing about it, and neither did Margaret. We just laughed over it. But that little flick of her hand did it all right. After that, the storm broke."

Soon, the world would learn their love secret. Townsend and his wife divorced, and he subsequently proposed to the princess. And even though her suitor was 16 years older than her, Margaret readily accepted. Divorce was still considered a taboo subject, however, and the pair faced a difficult battle for acceptance. Townsend was considered a commoner, too, and that made the match even less palatable to British high society. Most importantly, though, the Church of England still took a hardline stance against remarriage. And as the head of that institution, Queen Elizabeth struggled to support her sister’s decision.

And precisely because Queen Elizabeth II was head of the Church of England, Margaret needed Elizabeth’s permission to marry a divorced person. It was all down to a law called the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 — which basically banned a royal from marrying a divorcee. So Margaret's request was practically unthinkable. Elizabeth no doubt wanted her sister to be happy and tried to come up with compromises, but she couldn’t change the royal protocol. There would have to find another way.

Without her sister’s permission, Margaret faced the prospect of appealing to Parliament for approval. Unfortunately, this option would likely have created an even bigger scandal for the royal family. It might even have been up there with Prince Harry stepping away from the official duties of the royal family in 2020! After all, the British media campaigned to prevent the marriage, and the government also spoke out against it. Instead, then, Elizabeth asked Margaret to postpone her engagement for 12 months.

Over time, though, the British public appeared to come around to the idea of Princess Margaret marrying Townsend. And for the next two years, the media continued to speculate about whether the marriage would take place. Then, in 1955, Anthony Eden — himself a divorcee — became prime minister of the United Kingdom. And with Elizabeth’s help, he drafted an arrangement that would allow Margaret to follow her heart. However, Eden and Elizabeth’s plan came with one notable caveat.

The new law was called the Regency Act 1953. The act actually bumped Margaret down the line of succession by stating that Prince Philip would become Regent if the Queen died while her children were still underage. But it also — according to the press at the time — eased the way for Margaret to marry Townsend. All she had to do was forfeit the claim she or any future children would have to the throne... The proposal was made public on October 28, 1955, and just days later Margaret came out with an announcement of her own.

In a statement issued on October 31, Margaret revealed, “I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend. I have been aware that, subject to renouncing my rights of succession, it might have been possible for me to contract a civil marriage. But mindful of the Church’s teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before others.”

Margaret’s statement added, “I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend.” Indeed, in 1978, Peter published his autobiography, Time and Chance, in which he spoke about his relationship with Margaret. He said, “She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything – her position, her prestige, her privy purse. I simply hadn’t the weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost.”

In 2019 royal expert Angela Mollard told Australian magazine New Idea’s podcast Royals that the Queen hated having to sound the death knell for Margaret’s relationship, and that Margaret became bitter as a result. Mollard said, “There was very much a cooling for a number of years — Margaret felt she had been betrayed by her sister. The Queen was, first and foremost, committed to country, it had to come before family. People at the time said she was devastated.” But even after the Townsend affair, Margaret was a magnet for scandal.

The writer Gore Vidal always maintained that the princess told him, regarding her relationship with Elizabeth, “It was inevitable when there are two sisters and one is the Queen, who must be the source of honor and all that is good, while the other must be the focus of the most creative malice, the evil sister.” Margaret herself revealed the end of the relationship left her "thoroughly drained, thoroughly demoralized." Sadly, though, it did not represent the end of her romantic strife.

There was a brief engagement with Billy Wallace in 1956. It was so brief, in fact, that an official announcement was never made. Wallace later confessed, "I had my chance and blew it with my big mouth, or she would have become Mrs Wallace and I would have been able to handle her." Then, in October 1959 a new suitor, Antony Armstrong-Jones, was on the scene. A photographer from a respected family, he was considered a far better match for the young princess. But, while Armstrong-Jones was visiting Margaret at Balmoral Castle, her lost love sent her a letter.

The correspondence apparently revealed that Townsend was engaged to be married to Marie-Luce Jamagne, who was just 19 years of age. Allegedly, Armstrong-Jones proposed to Margaret the very next day. But, according to a friend of the princess, she was apparently aware that Armstrong-Jones was planning to propose and asked him not to do so while she was at Balmoral. He then agreed — but didn't wait too long before asking for her hand marriage. The princess accepted and on February 26, 1960, their engagement was officially announced.

Margaret and Armstrong-Jones — who became Lord Snowden — were married on May 6, 1960, in an elaborate ceremony at Westminster Abbey. It was the first-ever televised British royal wedding. There were 2,000 guests at the ceremony — and a further 300 million watching from their homes. A six-week honeymoon followed, with the couple sailing the Caribbean aboard the royal yacht Britannia. But even though the British media gushed over the couple’s glamorous lifestyle, trouble was brewing behind the scenes. Their marital problems soon appeared, too.

Over the years, Margaret is alleged to have indulged in a number of extra-marital affairs. Eventually, in 1976 the British press leaked photographs of the princess on holiday with a much younger man named Roddy Llewellyn. This ruined Margaret's reputation. The Republican MP Willie Hamilton went so far as to call her "a floozy" and "a monstrous charge on the public purse." Soon, she and her husband announced that their marriage was over. Margaret then found herself once again attempting to negotiate the tricky subject of divorce as a member of the royal family.

Fortunately, this time there were fewer complications. And in July 1978 she became the first senior British royal to divorce since 1901. The media did not appear to support her decision, however, and journalists continued to vilify her in the national press. "When my sister and I were growing up, she was made out to be the goody-goody one," Margaret reportedly said sometime later. "That was boring, so the press tried to make out I was wicked as hell."

Despite this derision, though, history would prove to be on Margaret’s side. In fact, her actions helped pave the way towards the more relaxed attitude regarding love and marriage that exists within the royal family today. And as divorce has become more commonplace around the world, and other royals such as Charles and Diana have gone their separate ways, Margaret’s decisions seem less and less controversial from a modern perspective. Interestingly, Margaret’s story may have also played a part in the dissolution of the Royal Marriages Act, repealed across the Commonwealth in 2015.

Today, only the first six individuals directly in the line of succession need to seek royal approval before tying the knot. This new law is called the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. The other major change that the act brought about was making it clear that anyone the firstborn legitimate child — male or female — would be the next in line to the throne. And even though these might seem like small changes, they're ones that might have seen Princess Margaret and Princess Diana live very different lives.

In fact, Margaret and Diana were said to be very close at one point. Princess Diana found an ally in Princess Margaret, who allegedly felt compassion for her niece-in-law when Diana was going through her tumultuous divorce. "I’ve always adored Margo. I love her to bits, and she has been wonderful to me from day one," Diana said. After all, decades earlier, Princess Margaret had been thrust into the same spotlight, and she found the light to be just as harsh.

Having endured decades of unhappiness in a complicated and often unpleasant marriage, Princess Margaret could easily see that Diana and Charles' relationship was more than strained. In fact, it was Margaret who eventually suggested the idea of an early divorce for Charles and Diana. During that time, the two were only separated. But Charles, despite his not-so-secret affair with another woman, allegedly disagreed on the matter. Nonetheless, Princess Margaret made her nephew understand that she was going to maintain her relationship with Diana.

According to the book Elizabeth & Margaret by Andrew Morton, Princess Margaret made a habit of joining Diana during many social events. They were even paired together at leisure outings, such as while shopping or on vacation. It sounds trite, but at a time when tabloids ripped Diana and Charles apart and questioned the monarchy's purpose, Margaret's show of support was huge. But even though they grew close, Diana and Margaret's allyship wasn't to last. It took just one daring interview for their carefully-constructed relationship to crumble.

The sit-down between Diana and interviewer Martin Bashir for BBC's Panorama was a royal nightmare. On television, Diana addressed many taboo issues. She opened up about her postpartum depression, her belief that Charles wouldn't make a good king, and her dislike of fame. Even if Diana was telling the truth about her years of mental health struggles and loneliness in the royal family, the damage was done. It was one scandal too many, and Princess Margaret had to make another difficult decision.

Andrew Morton detailed the fallout of the interview in Elizabeth & Margaret. Allegedly, despite how she was negatively viewed after her own divorce, Princess Margaret was enraged with the People's Princess. She not only saw the Panorama interview as a destructive move against her family, but as a threat to the stability of the monarchy overall. As one of the most popular royals, Diana and her influence couldn't be ignored. So, "Margo" didn't just stop talking to Diana — she decided to cut ties for good.

Princess Margaret committed to a very British way of handling the separation between herself and Diana. The Queen's sister wrote a letter that author Andrew Morton described as "wounding" and "excoriating." We'll never know the exact contents of the letter, but we do know one particularly gutting line from Princess Margaret: she accused Diana of being "incapable of making even the smallest sacrifice" in order to support the monarchy. The letter devastated Princess Diana, but that wasn't the end of Margaret's revenge.

Not content to just insult the Princess, Margaret wanted Diana to be completely eviscerated from her life. At a particularly petty moment, Princess Margaret ordered every magazine with Diana on the cover to be instantly removed from royal grounds. She forbade her own children from communicating with Diana — and Margaret's children were already into their 30s at that point. Clearly, the People's Princess had become an enemy to the royal family, and even to her former ally. The animosity continued beyond Diana's tragic death.

Not even the fatal car crash in Paris several years later relieved Princess Margaret's scorn for Diana. It's admittedly impossible to tell how someone really feels based on their facial expressions and body language alone, but Margaret's demeanor during Diana's funeral may still have been telling. During the sad occasion, Margaret hardly seemed interested as the carriage passed by. As it turns out, however, a more recent news development turned Margaret and Diana's falling out into something even more tragic.

In 2021 an independent investigation found that the interviewer, Martin Bashir, was guilty of deceit and of breaching BBC editorial conduct to get his sit-down with Diana. His methods apparently involved falsifying documents to get her to talk. Both Margaret and Diana knew how it felt to be manipulated by the press, of course. But could this common ground have saved their relationship? Princess Diana died in 1997, and Princess Margaret passed away in 2002; neither was alive to learn of the recent news developments, although perhaps their relationship wouldn't have healed either way.

After Margaret passed away in 2002, her ashes were placed in a tomb in Windsor, beside the remains of her beloved father. In 2016, a family friend of the royals told Vanity Fair that the day of Margaret’s funeral was “the only time anyone ever saw the Queen show her emotions in public.” Reinaldo Herrera recounted that “for a few minutes that day, as she stood by the steps of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, watching her sister’s coffin being borne away, her eyes betrayed her.” Elizabeth lived for 20 more years before passing away in September 2022.

Charles’ statement at Margaret's funeral read, “My darling aunt had such a dreadful time in the last few years with this illness, it was hard for let alone her to bear it but all of us as well, particularly as she had such a wonderfully free spirit.” Before she died, Margaret had requested that her body be cremated. Her whole family attended the ceremony, including the 101-year-old Queen Mother, who would die less than two months later. However, the actual cremation took place with no mourners present.