Why the ‘one relationship’ Princess Margaret really ‘did want to work’ was destined to be ‘difficult’

The “one relationship” Princess Margaret really “did want to work” was destined to be “difficult”, according to an enlightening documentary.  

• Princess Margaret apparently really did want her marriage to Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon to “work” but he “wasn’t good” at royal life.
• It’s been claimed he “got bored” of royal engagements and that Princess Margaret “annoyed” him with a certain trait.
• This royal news comes as Prince George, Charlotte and Louis are set to make a special appearance alongside Kate and William this weekend. 

Throughout her life Princess Margaret’s romances captivated the world’s imaginations, from her almost-marriage to Group Captain Peter Townsend to Princess Margaret’s affair with a gardener 17 years younger than her. She only married once - to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, later Lord Snowdon. And whilst this has been described as the “one relationship” Princess Margaret really “did want to work” by her authorized biographer, it seems that certain factors meant it was always destined to be “difficult” between them. 

Princess Margaret’s Lady-in-Waiting Lady Anne Glenconner got candid in Part 2 of the 2018 BBC documentary, Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal. She claimed that whilst Antony “loved” being a royal at first, the charismatic photographer soon tired of the responsibilities that came with it.

“Tony loved all the royal thing at the beginning,” Lady Glenconner said. “And then he got bored. Then off he went. And, I mean, he was a brilliant photographer, and he wanted to go around the world photographing interesting people, you know.”

Her reflections on the challenging situation between the royal husband and wife were echoed by Princess Margaret’s friend Lady Jane Rayne. 

“He stopped going with her on any of the public things,” she claimed. “And after a bit she realized that, you know, he wasn’t going to, so she did all her public things on her own. It was naughty in a way because he married Princess Margaret and he therefore, knowing who he was marrying, he should’ve helped her. But he didn’t.”

This couldn’t have been a bigger contrast to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s dynamic. Lady Jane compared Lord Snowdon to Prince Philip’s unwavering dedication to being with the Queen “whenever” he was needed, saying that “Tony wasn’t good at that.”

“He spent more and more time away. And she was quite possessive, Princess Margaret. She liked to be in touch with him and wondering what he was doing the whole time and that annoyed him, you know,” Lady Gleconner added, before Lord Snowdon’s biographer Anne De Courcy explained why it was “so difficult”. 

“It was very difficult. Both of them were people who had managed never to have no said to them. They were both very center stage and very determined,” she declared.

It was then that her authorized biographer Christopher Warwick remarked, “And one thing we kind of have to remember is that the one relationship she really did want to work was her marriage and she didn’t want to be a divorcee.”

Whilst her marriage might have been the “one relationship” Princess Margaret “really did want to work”, sadly his reluctance to embrace the responsibilities and sacrifices that are part of royal life perhaps suggests that it was always destined to be challenging. The couple divorced in 1978 and Princess Margaret’s hilariously ruthless response to being told by her private secretary Lord Nigel Napier that Antony wanted this might come as a surprise to some. 

“Thank you, Nigel. I think that’s the best news you’ve ever given me,” she supposedly replied.