Princess Margaret's Heartbreaking Love Life | Behind Palace Walls | Real Royalty

hmm queen elizabeth's welcome to the emir of kuwait earlier this year was billed as a further cementing of ties between the two countries this was the 69th official visit by a foreign head of state since the queen ascended the throne more than 40 years ago once again the red carpet treatment rolls into action [Music] in 1967 it was the turn of another oil rich shake king faisal of saudi arabia the welcome was the same then as it is now only the fashions have changed the formality remains the lineup of dignitaries and the presentations are performed with the practice and precision of a military parade thirty years later the royal sisters duties are the same while the queen is with the emir of kuwait princess margaret is the guest of honor at the royal college of art's annual fashion show in the evening the queen is the emir's guest of honor at a banquet at the dorchester hotel royal family firm is busy tonight and there's more handshaking for princess margaret with the art world's top brass the queen makes herself comfortable for a long evening at the emir's dinner table it's all in the line of duty just another day in the life of the royal sisters princess margaret has attended thousands of fashion shows unlike her sister she was always a bit of a bohemian attracted to fashionable occasions and to the arty side of life she was the princess diana of her day princess margaret's problem in the 50s was that she was so stunningly beautiful she was regarded as the royal families equivalent of elizabeth taylor and she was so beautiful she was a fairy tale princess in every sense of the world in those wonderful heart nor gowns she wore the royal sisters have always displayed tremendous individuality as children margaret outshone her sister as the principal attention seeker while elizabeth was more serious and driven by a sense of duty i think in a way princess margaret was more of the kind of social girl than princess elizabeth ever was elizabeth i think was quite happy leading a fairly outdoor kind of life what she liked as horses in the countries like she likes now margaret was always far more social so in a way i would say margaret was really more the belle of the ball than ever princess elizabeth was unlike margaret princess elizabeth did not inherit her mother's warmth and captivating charm as a child she confided in her governess that when she grew up she wanted to live a peaceful life in the country margaret on the other hand was emotional and passionate she fell in love with group captain peter townsend but he was divorced so marriage was out of the question she lost the man she loved and it ruined her because she was afterwards unable to make a relationship with anybody else it's difficult to know actually who would satisfy princess margaret someone much stronger than herself and that would have been a real real beefy man because she's a very strong outward going character very talented instead she married society photographer anthony armstrong jones in 1960 16 years later their marriage ended i think she's probably not an easy woman to live with she was used to she's a princess a king's daughter very imperious used to getting her own way armstrong jones wasn't prepared to do this i don't think he wanted his own career quite rightly margaret was a difficult person one years there were various extra mallets extra marital interests so in a way it was a very difficult situation i think it was inevitable that it should break up really people expected her to live happily ever after a fantasy life that's not the way it is in the real world she was seen with what was regarded as unsuitable men uh created a lot of scandal caused a lot of discussion in the house of commons people thought she should be stripped of all her privileges and her civilist allowance everybody's forgotten about that now and i think that it's just as well they have because she sacrificed a great deal to stay in the royal family and do her duty and it's about time we all recognize that divorced for nearly 20 years margaret is seldom seen publicly on the arm of another man the death of her first love peter townsend earlier this year left her more alone than ever unable to find real happiness she casts a lonely shadow across the face of the monarchy [Music] she never really seems at ease in her position in the world i think she's never really accustomed herself to how a princess fits into modern life now relegated to the royal sidelines her friends claim it's not easy to keep her amused at home alone in kensington palace she watches television and has her meals brought to her on a tray she's lost part of her lung due to heavy smoking notoriously late to bed and late to rise she's the only royal of her generation to carry a front door key always that there is a sense that she's not quite a behemoth not quite a princess she's never i don't think resolved her own personality in in in a royal setting so i think as a result she is not really an extremely happy person but princess margaret was certainly not the first royal to suffer marital unhappiness edward vii's love affair with his danish wife alexandra was short-lived his mistresses included the actress lily langtry and daisy countess of warwick he had a 12-year affair with alice keppel the great grandmother of prince charles's mistress camilla parker-bowles king edward and queen alexandra had five children their eldest son eddie the heir to the throne was engaged to marry princess mary of tech but the wedding never took place i somehow had the feeling that mary wouldn't have been all that worried about it because her great ambition of course was to be a princess and of course the queen of england but i don't think it was public knowledge um not even perhaps to his parents that he was gay and it was only when he was discovered in this brothel in cleveland street uh when it was raided by the police that it it was known that he was gay and then he became very ill shortly afterwards and died from pneumonia at an early age instead mary married prince eddie's younger brother georgie later king george v as his queen mary was a formidable partner and often blind to her own children's need for maternal affection queen mary uh was a very forbidding figure you just look at photographs of her very very shy very reserved and quite unable to talk about what was in her heart you could not imagine a royal child climbing on her lap and giving her a great big hug it just wasn't on the eldest sons david and bertie were denied their mother's affection their father's stern criticism made them even more unhappy they were terrified of their parents i mean they were emotionally repressed i mean they were frightened of their mothers they were frightened of their fathers and conversation was absolutely painful with most terrible tension there's no cheerful family banter i mean george v if he was talking to his children he would bark a series of challenging questions at them and these poor little children were so frightened you know they would cry but they could never answer and then he would get into terrible rage the duke of york was the queen's father later george vi as a result of this hectoring and chiving from his father he developed the most awful stutter which of course dogged him right after the time and he was king the two brothers grew apart david became edward viii but his relationship with an american divorcee wallace simpson scandalized royal circles and led to his abdication when edward viii was um cavorting with mrs simpson and things were getting very dicey indeed he'd been away on a cruise on the narlen yacht and everybody was talking about this scandal he was seen with mrs simpson on board the nylon there they were in the little matalo tops and shorts drinking cocktails flirting it was a huge scandal and everybody knew that the abdication was looming so he came back and he went to see his mother went to see queen mary really prepared perhaps to have a very serious talk and she was sitting there in all her sort of finery and very formal figure and he was just waiting to you know tell what was in his heart and all she could say to him was didn't you find it terribly warm in the adriatic so he said afterwards you know there was no discussion about anything that mattered so of course off he went and abdicated never discuss the abdication at all we maybe really couldn't bring herself to talk about and this is something which um the duke of windsor which edward viii simply couldn't understand his mother wouldn't ever see the duchess of windsor would never meet her and would never discuss her with him until he had to bring up the subject and she simply asked him a very short question she simply could understand what it was all about their exile resulted in a financial settlement with the government giving the royal family tax-free status on their private income when george vi came to the throne in 1936 he had to pay his brother he made an agreement with his brother to to pay something like 25 000 pounds a year he could then go to the treasury and say look i had to make this special payment out of my pocket you're not paying what can i have in return that seems a very likely point at which the treasury gave in and said okay you don't have to pay tax on your private income anymore this special tax exemption was a valuable legacy for the new king george vi with his brother exiled abroad bertie and queen elizabeth were able to provide a stable and loving home for their two daughters but the young elizabeth was more influenced by her grandmother queen mary than by her own mother the sad thing is in a way that she didn't inherit her own mother's warmth and spontaneity and the person she admires almost most i'm apart from queen victoria is her grandmother queen mary and you can see a great resemblance between the two you know that shyness that formality that slight distance from the public in 1947 doer post-war britain was cheered when princess elizabeth married prince philip of greece thrown into the duties of monarchy from an early age elizabeth had little time to enjoy the pleasures of normal family life the female side of the royal family was a dominating influence on prince charles's early life in those early years when the queen and prince philip were abroad he spent so much time with his grandmother that on one occasion he seemed hardly to recognize his own mother when she became queen prince charles was four princess anne was two and they would see her perhaps for half an hour in the morning nine o'clock for half an hour and then she would go off for a week maybe a month maybe several months but in a good week she might be there in the evening and go up to see them having their baths and sit on a little gilt chair which will be brought in by a lackey not take part in bath time or splashing or anything like that but just sit there rather and easily and then dash away after half an hour um to put on a tiara end long frock [Music] the burden of official duties took its toll on the queen's family life charles and anne in particular suffered from the pressures of the royal diary [Music] she spent much more time with prince edward and prince andrew especially edward because you know she was used to it all by then when he was born years later in 1964 so by then she knew she knew exactly what was happening and she spent a lot of time with him and she used to go get involved with his education in a way she didn't really with the other she just left everything to philip the queen and prince philip were good parents many times we've heard that prince philip taught his children to swim he taught them to shoot he taught them to ride because they had a lot of household help they were perhaps able to give their children more quality time than many ordinary parents can now her children are grown the queen could spend more time on her favorite hobby horse racing royal ascot and the derby have always been her favorites it was announced during the meeting that the queen had leased the cult gay time from the national stud so it was a fitting climax when on the last day of the meeting gordon richards riding for the first time in the queen's colors rode gay time to victory in the gordon stakes the queen's total wealth exceeds 400 million pounds she has eight palaces at her disposal and a huge income from private funds she spends an estimated 1 million pounds a year on horse racing the queen's horse racing activities are expensive but i believe they're run at a profit it is a very expensive hobby like charles's polo is a very expensive hobby only middle east shakes these days the only other people that can do it on the hull or robert sangsters and so on i don't think in terms of the global royal finances they contribute a great deal and whatever they do would go into the private finances rather than offsetting the things that the taxpayer still pays for like private yachts trains and planes eight palaces do they really need eight palaces to live in and if her queen's horse won the derby i don't think that the taxpayer's burden would be reduced the queen now pays tax on her private income much of the royal family's wealth today was accumulated during the years of tax exemption agreed when edward viii was exiled the queen had 41 years of tax exemption right through a period when taxes were much higher than they are now in fact at one point tax was 98 on investment income so that gave her a massive advantage over other wealthy people to simply accumulate money by far the richest woman in britain the queen seen here at the windsor horse trials dresses when off-duty in a practical and down-to-earth way despite her enormous wealth when it comes to spending money on herself she's not an extravagant woman people imagine her leading a very extravagant life but not at all the shampoo and set that old fashioned thing actually and under the dryer once a week and being thrifty she wants it to last so when she's going around she likes to wear a sensible headscarf [Music] the duchy of lancaster like the duchy of cornwall for prince charles is a huge land holding bringing in about three and a half million pounds a year for the monarch but this is just a small percentage of the queen's annual income still a routine visit to her estate guarantees a turnout unconcerned about her wealth the crowd's attention is focused on the way she looks and what she wears and one particular burning issue what does she keep in her handbag the biggest secret in the world isn't it what does her majesty queen elizabeth ii keep in her handbag a powder compact because we've seen that coming out probably some dog biscuits and some some smelling salts or something lipstick back of the cigarette so she can have a quiet puffles the queen does enjoy a cigarette her camera hanky no tights nothing like that because the ladies in waiting carry on all that and of course a lady in waiting known historically as the woman of the bed chamber carries the money one of the best known of the women of the bed chamber it's uh lady susan hazy the the wife of the chairman of the bbc at the present time she's been there for over a quarter of a century and has helped to bring up the children they do a fortnight on and a fortnight off and what they will do is they will act as a companion to the queen if she's going out on a visit locally here in london or the home counties they will go along with her they're always on hand to um to escort the queen if perhaps she's she's retiring to powder her nose or something like that and they're also friends they're people that she can she can perhaps say please ring so and so for me at home or please you know things that she hasn't got enough time to do herself they can help her out in that way they will have a photographically reproduced copy of the day's program and they will advise her majesty that the next person you're going to meet is mr joe bloggs who has been a dustman for 30 years madam and has never ever had a day off sick and the queen will meet him and say hello mr blogs i'm delighted that you've had such a wonderful work record and he is so surprised that the queen knows so much about him but the lady in waiting is the person who has actually briefed her majesty the queen's other family her dogs are personally attended to by one of her majesty's pages another important member of the royal household well pages are always attending the queen at buckingham palace or wherever she is and they are like errand boys virtually they do all the sort of fetching and carrying that the queen can't do perhaps they'll help the corgis on to the up the steps of a plane or they may take a message to prince charles's office or do any of the number of things that the queen may need throughout the day but she personally because she's so busy hasn't got time to do they see that things are done sometimes it's a matter of of recording a race at ascot when she can't be there to see it or watch it herself continuing her tour of the duchy of lancaster the queen arrives to meet some of her tenants near crew in cheshire she may be the landlady but it's impossible to forget that she's the queen as well they will be told what they have to do for example the gentleman will be told you should make a neck bow which is the bow from the neck not from the waist king george v said only had waiters should bow from the waist the ladies and should curtsy the queen carries out about 700 public engagements a year at home and abroad to avoid damage to her hand she shakes hands with her two index fingers only she appears cool-headed but is this always the case he never loses attempt but nobody's ever seen her lose a temper in public certainly she does have the royal glare and she uses us the magic words how interesting and when she says it in a certain tone everyone knows that that's the end of that particular conversation never far away the press know immediately if the queen is not feeling her best she's one of those people where you can look at her face and you know exactly what mood she's in that day she's got her queen victoria look she can be very daunting and you can think i've been a layla or not take too many pictures or keep out the way a little bit she's very obvious in her mannerisms of her face um i have seen her get crossed you know and and she's very controlled i mean she's a very controlled person during a recent outing at the windsor horse trials she expressed her displeasure with photographers blocking her view she has this frosty look that she's they call it or she calls it the frosty look i've heard a tale once that she was late for a lunch in a buckingham palace and she explained when she arrived that she'd been delayed by a woman at an investiture who just went on and on and on and wouldn't take any a hint that the queen would finish talking to her and she's the queen said so i just gave her one of my frosty looks and that did the trick the royal convoy continues with the queen's backup staff ready to jump into action every visit that the queen makes involves an enormous amount of preparation of course the queen has to be made secure so her personal police officer accompanied by a backup car because the backup car the uh that goes with the queen or any other member of the royal family uh contains all sorts of things including a couple of pints of uh of blood of the queen's group so that if anything did unto what did happen they would immediately be able to give her the the right sort of blood and the right sort of first aid the hosts always want to know what sort of program is going to be the ladies in waiting usually do a recce and they tell me the most common question they always ask dude what happens if the queen wants to go to the loo and what happened the answer is if the queen she never does if the queen ever wants to go to the loop um a lavatory should be set aside only for her use but nobody has yet ever known the queen to use it when she goes out so she must have a cast iron constitution absolutely their grandmother queen mary rewarded the young princesses with extra biscuits for good bladder control queen elizabeth ensured her daughters were able and willing to perform their public duties but in private margaret has rarely been happy and the queen's children of all so far failed in marriage the new generation of royalty has questioned the traditions of the old for the queen and her sister there was no choice the queen being a young and experienced woman had to get on with the job of learning to be queen and her first duty lay with the nation people forget this now they they look at the way we live today and they don't give the queen any credit for what happened 40 years ago [Music] it's inevitable in that position that you must be lonely there's so many secrets that you can't unburden yourself of but you can't confide in anybody she has to be so self-contained and the end result is i think she's been trained this way all her life that she is now a very uptight woman she often appears to be devoid of any emotion at all for generations the monarchy has survived with strong women to the fore with charles and diana separated the pattern is about to be broken the men are virtually invisible they don't matter even prince charles who'll be king is not as important as the women in his family and it just shows you that the queen and the queen mother they are the cement that holds the rest of the whole show together you

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 176,126

Keywords: real royalty, real royalty channel, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history, princess margaret, lord snowdon, windsor house, queen's sister, queen elizabeth, royal scandal

Id: 0ZP3BCehKiI

Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021