Did Princess Margaret's Husband Have Affairs, as 'The Crown' Depicts?
"If it moves, he'll have it."
Season 3 of The Crown will cover the dissolution of the unhappy marriage between Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones (more often known as Tony Snowdon). It's...a bit of a ride, TBH, so strap in. The pair, who by all accounts had a really fiery chemistry, especially at first, were both passionate and creative people. But Snowdon had a reputation of being a playboy even before the two got married, and the story of the pair's extramarital affairs is long and intriguing. So what's the real story, to prepare for the fictional depiction on screen?
Snowdon had a bunch of lovers.
Where to begin with this one. Snowdon cheated on Margaret before and during their marriage. Two that we know about were Jacqueline Chan, with whom he started a relationship with before Margaret and with whom he was apparently in love, and model Gina Ward. In 1971, the press got confirmation of his relationship with Lady Jacqueline Isaacs.
Oh yeah, and apparently a few months after he got married, mutual friend (and obviously lover) Camilla Fry gave birth to Snowdon's child, which they passed off as her husband's, Jeremy Fry. There were rumors that Snowdon was in a polyamorous relationship with both of them—Snowdon was interested in both men and women, apparently—but those weren't confirmed. Either way, a DNA test confirmed one thing: Polly Fry was really Snowdon's. This was covered extensively in The Crown season 2, if you happened to watch, and it was juicy.
But probably the most infamous affair was with his soon-to-be second wife, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, a fellow divorcee and his one-time assistant who became his long-term relationship. After he and Margaret got divorced, he married Lindsay-Hogg quickly, and they had a child together.
It's not clear exactly how much Margaret knew at any one time while she and Snowdon were married, but she knew his proclivities and certainly knew about Lindsay-Hogg. Someone apparently once noted about the faithless Snowdon, "If it moves, he'll have it." Which...is not great, TBH. Snowdon actually got divorced from Lindsay-Hogg because—not kidding—he had fathered another child out of wedlock.
Margaret wasn't faithful either.
Lest we think that that Snowdon was only the one "having a good time" outside the marriage, Margaret also expressed her loneliness and unhappiness by having relationships with others. Reportedly, she was with Anthony Barton (one of Snowdon's friends; some thought Snowdon orchestrated the match) and Robin Douglas-Home. These weren't verified, but rumors swirled that she was with Dominic Elliott, Mick Jagger, and Peter Sellars at some point during her unhappy marriage.
But it was Roddy Llewellyn that was her most famous doomed affair—he was young and attractive, and Margaret was apparently smitten with him. Pictures of them on a beach in Mustique together led to the dissolution of the royal marriage, which, to me, is quite tragic—because the fault didn't lie completely with Margaret, but hers was the infidelity that the press fixated on.
Margaret never remarried after the divorce, either, so she was in the tougher position after the split. She was the first royal to divorce since Henry VIII—but, considering how unfaithful Snowdon had been, perhaps it felt a little bit like relief.
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