What ‘The Crown’ Season 5 Got Wrong About Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s Reunion
Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, was always an active and intricate member of the royal family. Throughout her lifetime she was known for her work to give back as well as promoting the arts. But it was her relationship with Peter Townsend that people often remember best.
Ever since Netflix’s The Crown debuted in 2016, the British royal family and the history surrounding it have been under great scrutiny. With that being said, some are wondering about the accuracy behind Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s season 5 reunion.
Princess Margaret’s early days
In 1960, in the royal family’s first-ever broadcast wedding, Princess Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, aka Lord Snowdon. Just 29 at the time, Margaret’s marriage quickly went south.
“Beneath The Crown: The True Story of Princess Margaret from ’78 to ’85” revealed that during these uncertain and tough marital times, Princess Margaret was rumored to be romantically involved with pop culture icons like Mick Jagger and David Niven.
Despite having two children together, Princess Margaret and her husband were both stepping outside of the marriage. This led to the couple’s eventual divorce in 1978. It caused a lot of negative attention for the royal family. That very same year Peter Townsend resurfaced into the spotlight and Margaret’s life.
A look back at Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s relationship
As Margaret prepared to take on divorced life, Townsend released his new autobiography and with it reopened an old door. In Time and Chance, Townsend recapped his relationship with the royal and gave readers an inside look at the couple’s dashed hopes to get married back in the 1950s.
As the story goes, the sister of the late queen first met Townsend during a tour in Southern Africa when Margaret was just a teenager. At the time, Townsend was married with children, but that didn’t stop the two from falling for one another.
Eventually, Townsend got divorced and proposed to a young Princess Margaret in 1953, but, unfortunately, things were not that simple. From strict rules regarding divorce in the Church of England to the unusual circumstances that required Princess Margaret to get permission from the Queen, her sister, the engagement remained stagnant for quite some time.
In the end, after much deliberation, Princess Margaret called off the engagement in 1955. In his book, Townsend wrote, “She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything — her position, her prestige, her privy purse”.
A few years later Townsend would marry Marie-Luce Jamagne, and shortly after, Princess Margaret and Armstrong-Jones wed. However, as much of the world knows, that wasn’t exactly the complete end of their story.
Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend’s reunion was depicted in Netflix’s ‘The Crown’
Season 5 of The Crown has fans and viewers buzzing. Part of the discussion has to do with the infamous relationship between Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend.
In the newest season, Margaret and Townsend are shown running into one another for an intimate reunion. However, the lavish and serendipitous party scene that was depicted in the Netflix show isn’t exactly how things went down in reality, reveals Ms Mojo.
When Townsend heard his former lover on Desert Islands Discs, a popular British radio show, he reached out to her. After reconnecting, Margaret invited Townsend to Kensington Palace for tea.
