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“To many people, Princess Margaret was the black sheep of her generation of royals. But that reputation did not necessarily trouble her,” reads Princess Margaret’s obituary in the New York Times. According to a biographer, Theo Aronson, she once told the French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau: “Disobedience is my joy.” Such seemed to be the motto of the queen’s younger sister, who, throughout her 71-year-long life, had a complicated persona. She smoked, she drank, she had an affair with a man 17 years her junior. And, as a result, colorful anecdotes about Princess Margaret are abundant.
The princess passed away in 2002, and the British monarchy became a little less lively. However, thanks to The Crown, a whole new generation of royal watchers has been captivated by the (albeit fictionalized) tales of her outrageousness—like the time she posed with a tiara in a bathtub—as well as moments of tragedy: Who can forget about her doomed romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend?
In honor of the wild royal, we’ve compiled 11 outrageous stories about Princess Margaret, whose rebellious streak remains legendary to this day.
She signed her checks as “Margaret.” No title. No last name. Just Margaret.
She had a luxurious—and ridiculous—morning routine. It started with breakfast in bed at 9:00 a.m., “followed by two hours in bed listening to the radio, reading the newspapers (which she invariably left scattered over the floor), and chain-smoking,” according to Craig Brown’s book, Ma’am Darling. Then, at 12:30, it was time for a vodka pick-me-up.
When bored at dinner parties, she and her husband, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon, would play the bread game. Every time someone said something cliché, either Margaret or Anthony would rip off a piece of bread and put it in the middle of the table. At the end of the night, whoever had ripped the most pieces of bread would win.
When Armstrong-Jones wanted a divorce from his already estranged wife, it was up to Margaret’s private secretary, Lord Nigel Napier, to deliver the news over the phone. To which the princess replied: “Thank you, Nigel. I think that’s the best news you’ve ever given me.”
Royal protocol dictated that dinner couldn’t start until Princess Margaret arrived—which was a problem, because Margaret could be unfathomably late. Here’s a tale from Love From Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, a collection of correspondence from the late British aristocrat: “Dinner was at 8:30 and at 8:30 Princess Margaret’s hairdresser arrived, so we waited for hours while he concocted a ghastly coiffure.”
Princess Margaret hated squirrels. So much so that, upon seeing a woman feeding them in a public park, she walked over and began whacking them with an umbrella.
Her wit was legendary—and often quite cruel. This is what happened when Princess Margaret allegedly met Twiggy at a dinner party. “Who are you?” she asked. The supermodel responded: “I’m Lesley Hornby, ma’am, but people call me Twiggy.”
“How unfortunate,” Princess Margaret retorted.
Did Princess Margaret have an affair with Mick Jagger? That’s still up for debate. But the fact that rumors of one even exist is quite impressive. As are the reports that Picasso desperately wanted to marry her.
She lived an extravagant lifestyle: Her six-week honeymoon on the royal yacht Britannia, for example, cost $115,000 in 1960. In 1995, she took $10,000 worth of clothing for a weeklong trip to the United States. Once, she demanded a motorcycle escort for a trip from Kensington Palace to Waterloo Station.
On her wedding day, she wore the Poltimore Tiara—a diadem which came not from the Crown’s collection, but her own. In quite an independent move at the time, she bought it herself at an auction for approximately $7,700.
She loved to smoke and drink, so much so that, according to Ma’am Darling, she “tried to combine the smoking and drinking by gluing matchboxes onto tumblers, so she could strike matches while drinking.”