Princess Margaret spent her ultimate days reminiscing about her real love.
The declare was made by George Carey, the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, in a brand new ITVX docuseries titled “The Actual Crown: Contained in the Home of Windsor.” The five-part documentary goals to look at the struggles the British royal household has endured over time.
Carey, who was Archbishop between 1996 and 2002, revealed within the documentary that he visited Queen Elizabeth II’s youthful sister on her deathbed in 2002.
“She was unhappy,” he recalled, as quoted by U.Okay.’s Day by day Mail. “There have been moments when she expressed that unhappiness.”
Princess Margaret handed away in 2002 at age 71. (Picture by Tim Graham Picture Library through Getty Photographs)
“Here’s a girl who longed for love and dedication, and the love of her life was forbidden from her, and there was a deep human unhappiness in that,” he shared.
The princess first met Peter Townsend in 1947 when she was 17 years outdated. She shortly fell head over heels for the dashing World Battle II fighter pilot who was married with two sons.
A yr after Townsend divorced his first spouse, he proposed to Margaret, who was 16 years his junior, in 1953. On the time, divorcées weren’t allowed to remarry within the Church of England. Margaret additionally required her sister’s permission to marry earlier than the age of 25.
Regardless of the couple’s love for one another, the much-decorated conflict ace was banished from Buckingham Palace on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill to a diplomatic submit in Brussels. Nonetheless, the romance survived, not less than till 1955. On the time, Margaret was 25 and third in line to the throne. That yr, she ended her engagement with Townsend.
PRINCESS MARGARET’S LADY-IN-WAITING DETAILS HER 34-YEAR EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR
Peter Townsend, the fighter pilot who liked and misplaced Princess Margaret, died in 1995 after greater than 30 years of self-imposed exile. He was 80. (Picture by PA Photographs through Getty Photographs)
“I’ve been conscious that, topic to my renouncing my rights of succession, it may need been doable for me to contract a civil marriage,” Margaret mentioned in a press release to BBC Radio on the time.
“However, aware of the Church’s instructing that Christian marriage is indissoluble and acutely aware of my obligation to the Commonwealth, I’ve resolved to place these concerns earlier than any others,” she shared. “I’ve reached this determination completely alone, and in doing so I’ve been strengthened by the unfailing help and devotion of Group Captain Townsend.”
After the couple referred to as it quits, Townsend moved to Belgium earlier than settling down in France. Then in 1959, he married Marie-Luce Jamagne.
“[Margaret] may have married me provided that she had been ready to surrender every little thing – her place, her status, her privy purse,” Townsend later mirrored in his 1978 memoir. “I merely hadn’t the burden, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have misplaced.”
Princess Margaret referred to as off her engagement to Peter Townsend in 1955. (Picture by Derek Berwin/Fox Images/Getty Photographs)
In 1960, Margaret grew to become engaged to Antony Armstrong-Jones. It was a fast engagement, with the couple saying, “I do” mere months later. However the union wasn’t to final. The pair divorced in 1978, two years after they separated.
Townsend died in 1995. He was 80.
Wanting again, Carey mentioned he believed that Margaret died with a “deep unhappiness” about her misplaced love.
“I talked to her quietly and mentioned a prayer, anointed her with the oil, and she or he died quickly after that,” he mentioned. “It was a stunning transferring event.”
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Princess Margaret (left, seen right here with Queen Elizabeth and Peter Townsend) and the remainder of the British royal household is the topic of a brand new docuseries titled ‘The Actual Crown: Contained in the Home of Windsor’. ( Picture by Keystone/Getty Photographs)
HOW MANY SIBLINGS DID QUEEN ELIZABETH II HAVE? A LOOK INTO THE LIFE OF PRINCESS MARGARET
Margaret was 71 when she handed away. Her sister, who grew to become England’s longest-reigning monarch, died in September of final yr. She was 96.
The queen’s eldest son, King Charles, will likely be topped on Might 6.
The Related Press contributed to this report.