Margaret was spellbindingly sexy, but even she couldn't tame Snowdon: An explosive biography, based on hours of interviews with the man himself

Lord Snowdon, who died final week aged 86, was plain Antony Armstrong-Jones when he wed Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister, in 1960. 

As our first extract from Anne de Courcy's explosive biography, based mostly on hours of interviews with him, reveals, he was a person of immense charisma who bewitched girls along with his wit, allure — and terribly excessive libido. 

When Antony Armstrong-Jones, as he was then, met Princess Margaret, she was 27 and on the top of her magnificence and charisma — poised, trendy and groomed to perfection.

In one of many lengthy, elegant night attire that made probably the most of her petite, female determine, swathed in furs and glittering with diamonds, she was an icon of glamour, exuding an aura of subtle, difficult sexuality, with a look that might flip from melting to icy in a second.

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon pictured dancing collectively in 1962: Whereas she was spellbindingly attractive, even she could not tame him 

Solid-off loves: Tony terminated his romances with dancer Jacqui Chan and actress Gina Ward on his engagement to Margaret 

She was imperious, wilful, and if she was bored, confirmed it. At one small dance given in her honour, when her host requested her: 'Ma'am, will you begin the dancing?' she replied: 'Sure — however not with you.'

The untimely demise of her father, King George VI, in 1952, had been an enormous blow to her, and one of many huge issues of her life can be that nobody would ever measure as much as him.

The one man she had thought may accomplish that was the royal equerry Peter Townsend, and she or he'd needed to give him up as a result of he was divorced.

The unhappy ending of this relationship meant that she aroused each chivalry and sympathy, whereas the nation speculated eagerly concerning the males in her social circle.

For the equally charismatic and pushed Armstrong-Jones — already slicing a swathe by way of London's most fascinating ladies whereas creating a reputation for himself because the photo-grapher of the second — she was a singular and intoxicating problem.

Their first assembly was in early 1958, at a cocktail party held by one among her ladies-in-waiting, Girl Elizabeth Cavendish, who thought the younger photographer's originality and excessive spirits would enchantment to the Princess. She sat them subsequent to one another, and the 2 hit it off.

Rapidly they established their mutual curiosity within the arts and ballet. 'I loved his firm very a lot, however I didn't take loads of discover of him as a result of I believed he was queer,' the Princess later advised her authorised biographer.

Removed from being 'queer' nevertheless, he was serially seducing girls ('if it strikes, he'll have it,' summed up one shut good friend on the time), lots of whom have been the virginal 18-year-old debutantes he photographed.

Princess Margaret pictured driving along with her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, from Kensington Palace to Clarence Home

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon at a ball in help of Dockland Settlement at Savoy Lodge in 1963

It turned a problem to see if he may get them into mattress — not simple in these pre-Capsule days when being pregnant was each lady's nightmare. Nonetheless, he often succeeded.

He was additionally holding down two longer-term relationships, one with dancer Jacqui Chan — an beautiful magnificence who was his first actual love — and one with actress Gina Ward, the niece of an earl.

It was when he met Margaret once more a couple of months later — commissioned by one among her many dazzled admirers to her — that their actual rapport started.

With the utmost politeness, he made her change her garments, her jewelry and her pose simply as if she have been another sitter, whereas on the identical time chatting away along with his normal combination of jokes and gossip about mutual pals.

Margaret, accustomed to unquestioning deference, had by no means met anybody like him.

Princess Margaret sees the Each day Mail within the making as The Earl of Snowdon and the Editor, Mr Arthur Brittenden (1924-2015), look on in 1968

THE DNA TEST AND DAUGHTER HE KEPT AT A DISTANCE 

Free-for-all: Jeremy and Camilla Fry have been intimate pals of Tony

Tony was within the third week of his honeymoon within the Caribbean when again in Britain a daughter was born to Jeremy and Camilla Fry.

Child Polly was delivered in the identical four-poster mattress that Princess Margaret had slept in throughout visits to the household dwelling.

Forty-four years later, in 2004, Polly contacted Tony. He was her godfather, however ever since she was 18, she'd heard rumours from household pals that Tony, not Jeremy, was her father.

Now, married herself and with 5 youngsters, she wrote to Tony and requested to see him.

Over lunch, she requested him if he would comply with a DNA take a look at. He agreed — and it proved conclusively that he was certainly her father.

She was relieved to know the reality — however was anxious for the information to not attain Jeremy, who was 80 and more and more frail.

To her nice misery, the story broke within the newspapers — leaked, in all probability, by a good friend.

When contacted by the Press, Jeremy stated the 'allegation' that he was not Polly's father was 'utter nonsense'.

For his half, Tony denied data of any rumours or of a DNA take a look at. Polly's response to inquiries was 'no remark'.

Along with her silence, Jeremy's denial and Tony's stonewalling, the story died.

However Polly's hope that she and Tony may forge a brand new relationship as father and daughter remained unfulfilled.

He was about to show 74, and had no want to change the tenor of his life.

His previous avuncular affection for her remained unchanged — however that was so far as he needed it to go.

Secret visits to his Pimlico studio started. Dressed as anonymously as doable in tweed skirt, sweater and headband, she would slip by way of the small alleyway that led to the yard and into the small basement sitting room the place Tony would prepare dinner them a easy supper. 

Sometimes, he would whisk her off to his room at his good friend Invoice Glenton's home in Rotherhithe; when he sprayed the corridor with air air purifier and put in smooth, violet-tinted rest room tissue in the home's single, communal bathroom, it was a touch that some particular customer was anticipated. 

At weekends, when Margaret joined her mom at Royal Lodge, Tony would drive to Windsor to see her there. One wonderful excuse for visits was his fee to take the 29th birthday portraits of the Princess.

In any case, so outre was the concept the Queen of England's sister was conducting a secret love affair with a photographer that this was the best safety of all towards discovery.

For Tony, it was all extremely thrilling. He was used to fairly ladies and conscious of the impact his well-honed sexual experience had on girls. However Margaret was one thing totally different, gilded with the mysterious, mythic aura of royalty.

Every little thing round her spoke of this. For a easy weekend nation home go to, the names of fellow visitors had first to be submitted to her lady-in-waiting, accompanied by a file on each.

At each meal, the Princess was served first and nobody may converse to her with out first being addressed by her. In some homes, if she didn't assist herself to, say, potatoes, nobody else may.

Peter Sellers speaking to Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon on the premiere of The Magic Christian in 1969

Whereas he was tremendously impressed by the Princess for her magnificence, intelligence and wit, he was additionally enormously happy with himself for turning into her lover

She was a problem like no different — even to take the Queen's sister on the again of his bike was nearly unbelievable, and the considered a relationship was overwhelming. 

When she made her curiosity plain, for as soon as he was not the one controlling the scenario.

And whereas he was tremendously impressed by the Princess for her magnificence, intelligence and wit, he was additionally enormously happy with himself for turning into her lover.

Every had extraordinary sexual magnetism, with a libido to match. Once they entered one another's power subject of attraction, their mutual gravitational pull was irresistible and shortly they have been sexually besotted.

But, though by the summer time of 1959 they have been deeply in love, he was nonetheless main his busy non-public life at full throttle. Women nonetheless got here and went on the studio, and though Jacqui Chan was much less in proof, he was nonetheless carrying on his affair with Gina Ward.

There was, too, one other growth that will return later to hang-out him. At weekends, Tony typically went to go to two of his closest pals, Jeremy Fry and his spouse, Camilla, at their home, Widcombe Manor, close to Bathtub.

Fry, tall and intensely good wanting, had an awesome magnetic attraction — and style — for women and men alike. Camilla was one among Tony's previous flames. All three knew one another intimately.

It was a time when ethical codes have been altering, and the Sixties — with its explosive combination of sexual freedom and the breaking down of taboos — have been simply over the horizon.

Tony, along with his urge to problem accepted boundaries, was on the forefront of this new age. 

Within the subtle world through which he and the Frys moved, the place relationships of each type flourished and the place it was implicit that sexual orientation was a matter of choice, it was inevitable not solely that they'd be within the avant-garde of any such angle, but additionally that their behaviour would symbolize it.

Jeremy's ardour for Camilla had waned and, annoyed, she discovered it simple to encourage a captivating former boyfriend, whereas Jeremy and Tony have been extremely sexed. 

Alcohol and 'poppers' — amyl nitrate stimulants — helped all of them shed any remaining inhibitions. As one good friend put it later, 'it was a fairly good free-for-all there'.

Throughout one among these romps in early September 1959, a toddler was conceived (later, when the being pregnant was confirmed, it was assumed that Jeremy was the daddy); quickly afterwards, in October, Tony went to remain at Balmoral for the primary time.

Princess Margaret and her then-fiance Antony Armstrong-Jones proper, are pushed by their host Jeremy Fry into his dwelling Widcombe Manor, close to Bathtub, Somerset

Swedish actress Britt Ekland, spouse of British comic Peter Sellers, declaring landmarks to Lord Snowdon throughout a vacation in 1967

Once more, nobody hooked up any significance to his go to, pondering — if in any respect — that he was there in an expert capability. 

Whereas he was staying, the Princess acquired a letter from Peter Townsend telling her that he was getting married.

The Princess was shocked, and it's popularly supposed that Tony proposed to her that very day whereas they walked within the heather and she or he, out of pique, accepted. It wasn't like that.

She was decided to indicate the world fairly the other response and the truthful one — that she was over Townsend and his marriage wouldn't wound her.

The choice to marry got here a number of months later — at Widcombe Manor, which the Frys had provided as a 'secure home' for his or her courtship.

And it was right here, on the scene of these latest frolics, that Margaret and Tony turned secretly engaged.

By no means has a royal love affair resulting in an engagement been stored so quiet — however Tony's sharp-eyed pals observed one thing was up.

His model was altering from tight denims and desert boots to well-cut darkish fits and crisp white shirts. A dialog that Tony had with the younger inside designer David Hicks may also have given the sport away, however didn't.

'I'm going to make a really grand marriage,' stated Hicks. 'Oh, actually?' stated Tony. 'Who to?' 'Girl Pamela Mountbatten,' replied Hicks proudly. 'Oh, I don't name that grand,' responded Tony.

The couple pictured on their wedding ceremony day on Might 6, 1960

THE WEDDING GIFT TO MARGARET THAT LEFT TONY FUMING 

The bride and bridegroom with the Royal Household on the balony at Buckingham Palace

Princess Margaret and Tony have been married on Might 6, 1960. Straight after the marriage breakfast, they left on the Royal Yacht Britannia for his or her honeymoon within the Caribbean.

The outward voyage was stuffed with the formality to which the Princess was used however which was, if not unfamiliar, alien to Tony.

At dinner, she wore an extended gown each night time, with jewels and a tiara; he placed on a dinner jacket. The crew have been ordered to avert their eyes as they served espresso or drinks by the pool.

Early one night, as Colin Tennant (a former escort of the Princess) and his spouse Anne sat by their home on Mustique, searching to sea, they noticed Britannia arrive and decrease a ship. From it stepped a white-clad younger officer to ask in the event that they want to come aboard for dinner.

'I despatched a message again saying we'd like to,' stated Anne Tennant, 'however that as we hadn't had a shower for a month, may we probably have a shower first? Our hut was very primitive — no scorching water, electrical gentle or something like that.'

They got a cabin and bathtub and, in the course of the course of dinner, Colin Tennant advised them of the attractive empty seashores of white sand, suggesting they selected a special one each day. There have been eight of those on the three mile by one mile island. 

From then on, every morning sailors from Britannia would go to the chosen seashore, arrange a tent for shade and lay out a picnic lunch and drinks earlier than departing to depart the couple solely alone. Within the evenings they'd be a part of the Tennants for drinks. Throughout one among these evenings, Colin, realising that he and Anne had not given them a marriage current, stated to his previous good friend Margaret: 'Look Ma'am, would you want one thing in somewhat field or. . .' — waving his arm about — 'a chunk of land?'

'A chunk of land,' replied Margaret, taking a look at Tony, who smiled in settlement, though inwardly it confirmed his rising dislike of Colin — wedding ceremony presents, felt Tony, ought to be given to some collectively, slightly than to at least one particular person solely, as Colin clearly supposed.

A plot on a small peninsula, then coated with dense, thorny vegetation, was chosen for its privateness and its views. Maybe, with hindsight, one thing in a field may need been higher.

There have been last-minute unfastened ends to be tied up, and he telephoned his lover Gina Ward, who was too staggered by his information to really feel something however shock and disbelief.

'Tony, you'll have an terrible life,' she advised him. 'You possibly can't take this on. And, anyway, you're in love with me!'

Solely after the decision was over did the ache of her personal loss strike dwelling, with the sensation that she had been 'damaged into 100 items'.

Jacqui needed to be advised, too. She was filming at Pinewood, and Tony delegated his good friend Bob Belton to drive down and break the information. There was an extended silence earlier than Jacqui stated: 'Nicely, I hope she will cope higher than I may.'

As quickly because the engagement was introduced, warnings flew thick and quick.

Girl Elizabeth Cavendish requested the Princess if she was fairly positive 'since you received't all the time know the place he's and he received't all the time need to inform you'.

One in all Tony's pals, Peter Saunders, warned: 'These individuals aren't for you, Tony. They may chew you up and spit you out. I do know it's a bodily factor in the mean time, however on the finish of the day, for goodness sake, don't do it.'

Tony's father, deeply upset, wrote: 'Boy, you'll be mad to marry Princess Margaret.'

When the Queen Mom telephoned society photographer Cecil Beaton and advised him of the engagement, he stated: 'Oh how fantastic, you should be thrilled, Ma'am. How merely marvellous, he's terribly intelligent and gifted.'

When he put the cellphone down, he stated in tones of disgust: 'Foolish lady!'

Even playwright Noel Coward, a fervent royalist, famous in his diary: 'He appears to be like fairly fairly however whether or not or not the wedding is solely appropriate stays to be seen.'

To the traditional aristocracy and people near the throne, the shock was immense.

Right here was the daughter of the final King-Emperor, introduced up amid scenes of immense grandeur at a time when half the map of the world was purple, about to marry not, as may need been anticipated, the eldest son of a duke with huge estates, however a person who as they noticed it was not even in a 'respectable' career, who took snaps for a dwelling.

But Tony all the time had the Queen Mom's assist, and the Queen's adopted. From their perspective, his intelligence, pure finesse, wonderful manners and apparent devotion to Margaret spoke closely in his favour.

He received on properly with Prince Philip, too — one of many Duke's early letters has an arrow pointing to his signature 'Philip' with the phrases: 'Attempt to carry your self to name me this!'

When the workers at Clarence Home have been assembled and advised that Princess Margaret was engaged 'to a photographer referred to as Armstrong-Jones', there was an extended drawn-out 'ooh' of disappointment.

Princess Margaret with Lord Snowdon as he shakes fingers with Ringo Starr -  they met the Beatles earlier than the world charity premiere of their second movie, Assist

Few of the workers had heard of him, and most had anticipated the Queen's sister to make a far grander marriage than to a person cruelly (and monstrously unfairly) described by the novelist Kingsley Amis as a 'dog-faced, tight-jeaned fotog of fruitarian tastes'.

After the marriage, a lot of courtiers and servants had no hesitation in exhibiting their hearty disapproval. 

Margaret's dresser, Ruby Gordon, did so by ignoring Tony's presence and any orders he may give, and by varied gestures that might — simply — be put all the way down to accident or forgetfulness.

Margaret stored of Tony underneath the glass of her dressing desk and Ruby would rigorously put the Princess's silver-backed dressing-table mirror on prime of it to cover it.

When she referred to as on the Princess within the morning, she would carry one cup of tea solely, setting it down firmly on the Princess's aspect of the mattress.

Undaunted, Tony shortly tailored to royal protocol. He was the right consort, decorously following Margaret intently behind on official visits and all the time saying the appropriate factor.

He fortunately participated in his new household's customs, reminiscent of their non-public race on Gold Cup Day at Royal Ascot earlier than the beginning of that day's racing. The get together would trip out of Royal Lodge and line up collectively to be began by an equerry.

'We went just like the clappers,' recalled Tony. 'Princess Margaret all the time received. I used to be final each time. I couldn't grip my horse due to my leg [affected by polio at 16]. As soon as, I couldn't cease and was headed straight for the Queen. All I may do was yell and she or he simply received out of the best way in time.'

He even managed to barter the outside rigours of Balmoral — albeit, along with his fixed urge to be by some means 'totally different', breaking the gown code by turning up for shoots in a polo-neck sweater and his own-designed saggy knickerbockers, teamed with a black umbrella.

In all of the heady pleasure, the couple's love was unmistakable and each discovered it troublesome, as one good friend put it, 'to maintain their fingers off one another'.

However seeing one another at their greatest, happiest and most unselfish, neither Tony nor Margaret realised that, primarily, they have been every accustomed to getting their very own manner.

They have been the nation's most glamorous couple within the early Sixties, and their events have been gatherings of the attractive and the well-known: the actor Dudley Moore on the piano, Cleo Laine singing, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan taking part in the idiot, poet John Betjeman telling tales.

But cracks have been slowly showing. Each have been stars, used to being the main focus of consideration, and a sure competitiveness was nearly inevitable.

The Princess was royal however Tony was magnetic, and wittier. There have been arguments and, extra ominously, the beginnings of the put-downs, then often disguised as jokes, that will come to so unnerve her.

Tony was not born to stroll two paces behind any girl and he was quickly bored. Although he cherished the perks and the status of being royal, the intoxication of being whisked to the theatre in mere minutes, flanked by outriders, of being stared at and admired, handed.

The contrariness in his nature, his nearly subliminal intuition to annoy, to scratch, to push at boundaries, reasserted itself. He needed, to make use of an idiom that was simply coming in, 'to do his personal factor'.

Work was as important to him as respiration, and he joined the Sunday Instances Journal as a photographer.

Left at dwelling, the Princess turned possessive, continuously attempting to trace him down by phone or turning up unexpectedly at eating places the place she thought he was lunching.

It was the worst factor she may have achieved. In his solipsistic view of the world, Tony's intuition was to push away a girl if he felt hemmed in by 'clinginess'.

More and more, he refused his spouse's calls for on his time. He would do one thing or meet somebody provided that he needed to, not on her say-so.

He would shut the door of his workshop within the basement of Kensington Palace and refuse to return out, leaving Margaret — introduced up by dad and mom who by no means reprimanded her, and unfamiliar with the phrase 'no' — at a loss.

Margaret had by no means had lunch alone in her life and anticipated she would see Tony typically in the course of the day. As an alternative, she discovered herself alone, filling in time by washing the coral she had collected on vacation within the Caribbean, or sticking the edges of matchboxes on tumblers so she would have one thing to strike a match on if she needed to smoke whereas consuming whisky.

She requested to accompany him on his pictures periods, unable to see that her presence would hardly make his sitters chill out. Amongst his Sunday Instances colleagues, a tacit consciousness developed that their star photographer welcomed assignments overseas.

What they didn't know was that, as soon as away, he hardly wrote to or telephoned his spouse — who grew correspondingly extra frantic in her efforts to take care of contact.

'The place is he?' she would cry unhappily.

There was bother forward.

• Abridged extract from Snowdon: The Biography by Anne de Courcy, printed by W&N at £9.99. © Anne de Courcy To order a duplicate for £7.49 name 0844 571 0640 or go to www.mailbookshop.co.uk Supply legitimate till January 23; p&p is free on orders over £15.

Tweet