Princess Margaret was Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister. That proved to be a double-edged sword: Margaret had to grow up in her siblings’ shadow while Elizabeth worried over ruling an entire country. But that also meant that she had far fewer responsibilities, and she could kick back and have a good time while her older sister had to worry about all those royal responsibilities.
Make no mistake: in her younger days, Margaret had a reputation for being a party girl, and she generated more crazy headlines than those of Diane and Harry combined. We’re still learning about some of the wilder details of her life, but it can be hard to figure out what’s true because of all the rumors. And we can’t help but wonder: are these just the rumors that come from being the Queen’s sister, or do they indicate Margaret had an even wilder life than we ever guessed?
You’ll have to be the judge after you read all about it. Speaking of which, keep reading to discover the wildest rumors about Princess Margaret!
Was Margaret a cocaine user?
For members of the Royal Family, drug use is considered a big no-no. For example, when Prince Harry was busted for using marijuana, Charles went so far as to force his son to a rehab clinic in South London to essentially scare him straight. In his memoir, Harry later admitted to using other drugs, including cocaine. And as it turns out, this might have given him something in common with one of his most famous relatives: Princess Margaret!
When royal expert Tom Quinn wrote Scandals of the Royal Palaces, he claimed that Margaret’s ex-husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones, used to leave drugs such as Cocaine and LSD lying around their house. He believed Margaret had at least tried cocaine, though she may not have been a habitual user.
Additionally, Margaret attended a Rolling Stones concert in 1976 and hung out backstage, where the band and their associates were openly using cocaine. According to UPI, she smiled at the drug use and said to tour manager Peter Rudge, “Ah, cocaine, such an amusing drug, don’t you think?” He reported she did not use cocaine that night, but her comments certainly made it sound like she was familiar with cocaine!
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Rumors of an affair with Mick Jagger
As the above story indicates, Princess Margaret was a fan of the Rolling Stones. However, it seems like she might have liked Mick Jagger much more than she liked the rest of the band. Margaret met the musician at Lady Victoria Ormsby-Gore’s 16th birthday party, and they reportedly hit it off quite well. Those in attendance later reported that Margaret was quite flirtatious with the younger man; in turn, Mick Jagger seemed all too eager to ditch his girlfriend and rub shoulders with royalty.
For all their romantic chemistry, there has never been any proof of a full-blown affair between Princess Margaret and Mick Jagger. However, it’s common knowledge that Margaret had affairs while she was married, and one source told Tom Quinn that she had an affair with an unnamed “famous pop star.” Because of this circumstantial evidence, many still think Margaret had one of the most famous men in the world as her very own side piece!
Did the British government steal Margaret’s naughty pictures?
In 1971, there was a famous bank heist on Baker Street in London. The whole thing was very mysterious, but the 2008 film The Bank Job had a shocking theory: that the bank wasn’t robbed by regular thieves but was instead robbed by MI5, the British intelligence agency. It’s a wild claim, but one that filmmakers insist was based on some inside information they had acquired.
Even more startling was the film’s claim that MI5 wasn’t interested in the money inside the bank. Rather, they allegedly wanted to acquire raunchy pictures of Princess Margaret and her ‘70s boyfriend, Roddy Llewellyn. The story goes that MI5 wanted to ensure that nobody could ever release these photos to the tabloids or try to use them to blackmail Margaret. But the story has never been substantiated, and Margaret’s ex-husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones, has clarified that he finds the whole story unbelievable.
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Possible bad blood with Diane and Fergy
As Princess Margaret got a little older, she generated fewer headlines about her party-hearty lifestyle. Still, though, tabloids had a field day speculating about Margaret’s apparently fractious relationship with Sarah Ferguson, better known to some as “Fergy.” This mostly stemmed from the fact that (ironically enough) former party girl Margaret was reportedly ashamed of Fergy’s antics, including the release of photos where the Duchess went topless and had an American businessman sucking on her toes.
According to Express, Margaret wrote Fergy a nasty letter about the whole affair. “You have done more to bring shame on this family than could ever have been imagined,” she allegedly wrote. “Not once have you hung your head in embarrassment even for a minute after those disgraceful photographs.”
Margaret had a similarly rocky relationship with Diana after the younger woman’s bombshell BBC interview when she dished about Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. Reportedly, Margaret cut off all contact with Diana after that and encouraged her children to do the same. She also burned all her letters from Diana, and the two women reportedly had bad blood right up until Diana’s untimely death in 1997.