Lord Snowdon, who died final week on the age of 86, was Antony Armstrong-Jones when he married Princess Margaret in 1960, however their relationship was marred by infidelity on each side. In the present day, in our final extract from Anne de Courcy's fascinating biography of the photographer, we reveal how he was a devoted women' man to the top...
Sooner or later early in 1977 — separated from Princess Margaret and dwelling in a good friend's basement flat in Belgravia — Tony opened the door to discover a girl standing there. She was slim and fairly, with darkish hair and inexperienced eyes.
'I'm a journalist and I need to do a narrative on you. However I additionally need to have an affair with you,' she introduced.
Journalist Ann Hills, who dedicated suicide, was Lord Snowdon's mistress for 20 years
He didn't suppose twice. 'If women who're fairly enticing throw themselves at one, it is rather troublesome to withstand.'
The affair started there after which. Her identify was Ann Hills, she specialised in writing about social coverage points and the interview — which he gave her — was on his pet topic, the rights of disabled individuals.
Like Tony, she was quick, 4ft 10in. Like him, too, she had a voracious urge for food for intercourse and boasted she may get any man into mattress inside 5 minutes of assembly him.
She was married with two sons, however had no qualms of conscience about her lifestyle, believing that if she was discreet, her promiscuous behaviour did nobody any hurt.
Lots of her affairs had been fleeting — however not this one. Ann would go to Tony or he would go spherical to her flat within the morning.
It was straightforward throughout college time period time; harder if her sons had been at dwelling. On these events, they had been despatched into the backyard to play.
When Ann and Tony met, she knew he was in a relationship together with his assistant, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, however thought it was simply one other fling. She was depressing when she opened a newspaper, in December 1978, and browse that that they had married.
Lord Snowdon, 86, was seen together with his ex-wife of 22 years, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg earlier than he died
What Ann had not realised, when she'd launched into their affair 18 months earlier, was how a lot Tony would come to imply to her. 'I can't break off this relationship,' she advised a good friend. 'It's completely very important to my being — to my life.'
Typically, she would go to see him at his dwelling in Launceston Place, Kensington, beneath the pretext of serving to him write his speeches on the disabled. This excuse was all of the extra convincing as a result of it was true.
As such, her presence in the home was accepted with out suspicion by Lucy. However the lovers' trysts weren't practically as frequent as Ann wished. She wished extra. She was additionally sad that they may not be collectively overtly. As soon as, she stated sadly to a good friend: 'He's simply pushed previous me — and I couldn't even wave.'
She continued to produce other lovers, some informal, others dwelling along with her. However Tony was her precedence and he or she advised the live-in lovers to 'disappear' when he visited her.
When her father remonstrated along with her in regards to the affair, saying 'He's obtained a spouse and baby,' she replied: 'Nicely, he can break it off, however I'm not going to.'
Tony by no means did, and the affair continued for an astonishing 20 years, on a regular basis behind his spouse's again. Catastrophe, nevertheless, was at all times simply across the nook — and on New 12 months's Eve, 1996, it struck.
Though nonetheless deeply in love with Tony, Ann's life had gone right into a downward spiral.
She labored as a contract journalist, however had been sacked from a long-standing column in The Guardian. A live-in lover had damaged up along with her as a result of she couldn't give him youngsters, and her newest relationship was falling aside. She was 55 and hated the prospect of a dwindling succession of lovers as she aged.
As for Tony, she advised a good friend: 'I'm feeling actually p***ed off about this affair. At the most effective of occasions, I don't see him practically sufficient. And at Christmas, naturally, he's obtained to be together with his household.'
Her Christmas was spent along with her ex-husband and their grown-up youngsters. Then, on December 29, she took her aged father to the theatre. He was conscious his daughter's shallowness was at all-time low.
After Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret separated in 1976, he later married Lucy Lindsay-Hogg (pictured)
'She couldn't face not being successful at journalism,' he stated. 'She additionally frightened in regards to the prospect of not having a person in her dwelling.'
It was then that, desperately lonely, she rang asking Tony to name her, which he did. She didn't choose up and he left her a message saying he would like to see her after New 12 months and that he was involved about her. He ended: 'Chin up!'
On New 12 months's Eve, a good friend rang to ask Ann over, obtained her answering machine and felt frightened. She contacted Ann's father and collectively they went spherical to her mansion-block flat in Marylebone.
On the kitchen desk was a suicide word, telling of her issues and asking for a brooch Tony had given her to be returned to him, together with a word saying she had at all times liked him and at all times would.
There was no signal of Ann, nevertheless, till her father went out on to the flat's roof terrace. It was a freezing evening with a sprinkling of snow. Ann's physique was in a far nook by a chimney-stack, sporting a black gown and the stiletto heels she at all times wore. Beside her lay an empty bottle of Moet et Chandon champagne and a china mug lined with the sediment of the huge dose of tranquillisers and painkillers that had prompted her loss of life.
The police took away her diaries, and from these it was clear the taking of her life was no spur-of-the-moment resolution.
Six months earlier, she had made a will and put all her affairs so as, however those that knew her had been positive that nothing in her relationship with Tony — who had at all times been supportive of her — may have triggered her tragic finish.
On the inquest, notes from her diaries had been learn, revealing not solely her tangled love life but additionally her deep emotions for Snowdon.
The Press had a subject day. On vacation in India, Lucy picked up an English newspaper to be taught that her husband had had a mistress for the entire of their married life — and earlier than.
It was a bombshell, and was deeply wounding for her. Nor, on her return dwelling, did Tony, who hated discussions of this sort, give her any type of rationalization.
However worse was to return. 'Most individuals in Tony's life don't know what's occurring in different areas,' considered one of his assistants as soon as advised me. 'He's good at maintaining plenty of balls within the air directly — however typically, all of them crash. After which there's large fallout.'
It was about to be a type of moments. Tony attended a celebration on the Wallace Assortment museum in London to mark the centenary of Nation Life journal. Its options editor was a younger girl by the identify of Melanie Cable-Alexander.
Tony noticed her throughout the room and requested the person he was speaking to if he knew her. 'Sure,' he replied, 'cracking woman, isn't she?' and launched them.
Melanie, daughter of a baronet, was fashionable, clever, enticing and 33 — the identical age as Tony's daughter, Sarah.
Nation Life had invited varied eminent individuals to visitor edit considered one of its weekly points, and Tony, together with his data of pictures, was a pure alternative. Melanie was delegated to work alongside him.
She felt a right away sense of rapport with this handsome, older man glowing with concepts and enjoyable. As she lived just a few minutes' stroll from Launceston Place, it was handy for her to drop by on the way in which to work if there was something that wanted discussing.
Melanie, daughter of a baronet, was fashionable, clever, enticing and 33 — the identical age as Tony's daughter, Sarah (pictured along with her son Jasper)
He known as her 'Darling Melanie', however the thought of an affair by no means entered her head: he was twice her age and married.
He invited her to Outdated Home, his West Sussex retreat, and he or she had a nice lunch with Tony, Lucy and their daughter, Frances. However the subsequent time he requested her there, they had been alone and he made it clear how interested in her he was.
A critical affair began, largely performed at Outdated Home, the place buddies handled them as a pair.
Melanie quickly fell deeply in love, but it surely was a shock for her to find she was pregnant. It was 'a mistake', she stated later. She can be bitterly harm by strategies from a few of Tony's buddies that she had tried to lure him into marriage.
Nervously, she broke the information to Tony, unsure of what his response can be. He stated it was fully her resolution as as to if or not she had the child; if she determined to, he would stand by her.
She didn't know what to do.
She was pregnant by somebody extraordinarily well-known however who, to protect his marriage, insisted on secrecy. What can be the impact on a baby rising up with a father who couldn't be acknowledged?
She had no actual dwelling and never a lot cash. May she work and take care of a baby on her personal? She tried discussing all this with Tony, but it surely was the type of dialog he merely wouldn't have.
Finally, she determined that the chance to have a baby by somebody she liked overrode all different issues. She would go forward and settle for the implications.
As her being pregnant grew to become apparent, considered one of her visits to Launceston Place prompted Lucy to ask Tony who the daddy was. 'I believe she had a one-night stand,' he advised her.
Lucy, who after the Ann Hills affair had realised simply how practised her husband was at concealing the reality, was not satisfied.
For her half, Melanie had advised him he ought to inform Lucy the reality. If he wished his marriage to work, as he stated he did, he ought to face square-on what was occurring.
After DNA exams requested by Tony proved incontrovertibly that the child was his, he telephoned Melanie, and, as a substitute of speaking himself, put Lucy on the telephone. She requested if the kid Melanie was carrying was Tony's.
'I'm afraid it's,' replied Melanie. 'Thanks very a lot,' stated Lucy. 'I simply wished to know the reality.'
Lucy's love for Tony had been wholehearted and he or she had vowed by no means to go away him. However she felt completely betrayed, and so she moved out of Launceston Place.
Two weeks later, on April 30, 1998, Melanie's son Jasper was born. Tony's identify was not on the start certificates, and his involvement was not but suspected. However regularly rumours started to unfold and shortly the story was out.
With Lucy gone, Melanie and Tony may see one another extra simply, they usually did so. For Tony, intercourse, as at all times, was a motivating drive. However on the identical time, he was desperately attempting to patch up his marriage. He couldn't, nevertheless, convey himself to do the one factor Lucy wished — talk about his behaviour honestly.
Melanie got here spherical when she may, however most of her time was occupied by her job and her rising baby. For the primary time in years, Tony, who hated being on his personal, spent a lot of his time alone. He appeared low and depressed.
His lifeline was his work, however even right here there have been disappointments.
In early 1997, not lengthy earlier than the loss of life of Diana, Princess of Wales, he had taken footage of her for a charity sale of her attire — just for them to be judged too formal alongside the brisker, livelier footage taken by the brand new star photographer, Mario Testino, whose footage acquired all of the media consideration. It felt like a snub for Snowdon.
In the meantime, Melanie was struggling for cash. She had no dwelling of her personal and was dwelling with a small baby in a single room of a good friend's home. There have been confrontations over how a lot help Tony ought to present.
She had refused newspaper provides to inform her story, however, to finance a home, Tony requested her to just accept a profitable supply from Hiya!
She was sad on the thought, however consented. It raised £250,000, which paid for half a flat in Kensington. Tony stumped up the remaining.
As their affair continued, Melanie discovered its drawbacks had been starting to outweigh the constructive features. Tony was controlling and over-possessive. And he was too demanding sexually, with a libido larger than males half his age.
He additionally disliked a two-year-old claiming most of its mom's consideration. He was used to having all the pieces round him organized in its particular place, and to have a tiny baby roaming free was like having a tiger in his dwelling.
The affair started to crumble as Melanie realised there was no future with Tony. In the meantime, Tony's hopes of a reconciliation with Lucy had been dashed when she filed for divorce and was granted one. But neither she nor Tony pushed for his or her decree nisi to be made absolute.
This gave Tony a faint glimmer of hope that he would possibly nonetheless win her again. From then on, if a newspaper referred to him as being divorced, he would write to level out that, truly, he was nonetheless married.
However though each Lucy and Melanie had departed, he was not alone for lengthy.
Outdated girlfriends got here to lunch; ladies had been often noticed beneath the cover by his housekeeper when she went to make his mattress.
And a brand new, common appeared — brigadier's daughter Emmy Hirst, a sublime and exquisite blonde.
She was a good friend from means again and when he moved the connection up a gear, it appeared completely pure to each of them.
By now, Tony — champion of the disabled who had used cash from his divorce settlement from Princess Margaret to determine the Snowdon Award Scheme to present grants to handicapped college students — was disabled himself. The consequences of his childhood polio had returned, inflicting muscular atrophy.
From limping badly and utilizing a stick, he now wanted a wheelchair. However nobody ever heard the mildest phrase of criticism from him.
For Emmy, it was unhappy seeing somebody who had been so lively now confined for many of the day to a swivel chair in entrance of his desk.
He was nonetheless an enormous earner — his annual earnings had been upwards of £250,000. However financial savings must be made. With a spouse dwelling individually, their daughter, and his son by one other girl to help, the payments had been piling up. With a heavy coronary heart, he bought his beloved Outdated Home in Sussex.
Then businesswoman Victoria Charlton, one other previous good friend, got here to work for him. Victoria discovered him new and profitable purchasers amongst Russia's billionaires.
She took him on a photographic tour of India, which for him felt like a return to the golden days when he had flown all around the world on thrilling commissions.
They started an affair. For a very long time, Emmy was unaware of it — however when she cottoned on, she left. She didn't see why she ought to put up with infidelity from somebody for whom she'd executed a lot.
'I'm into caring,' she advised him, 'however not into sharing.'
Nonetheless, what neither Emmy nor Victoria knew was that Tony had taken one more of his previous buddies as a lover.
Marjorie Wallace, chief govt of Sane — the psychological well being charity she based — had identified Tony since she was a journalist accompanying him on photographic assignments on the Sunday Instances again within the Seventies.
They went out on the highway collectively, engaged on tales about situations in hospitals and psychological houses. Many of those assignments fell to her as a result of loads of her colleagues discovered Tony troublesome to work with. And Marjorie quickly found why.
'He would insist on being incognito, so I'd ring up the resort and inform them to anticipate Miss Wallace and Mr Smith. Then we'd arrive, and in the event that they didn't recognise him, his face was a examine.'
Within the automotive, he would at all times insist on having the window open, even when rain was coming in.
'May we've got the window up, Tony?' Marjorie requested as soon as, with water pouring down her shoulder. 'But when I shut it, how on earth will they recognise me?' answered a shocked Tony.
- ABRIDGED extract from Snowdon: The Biography, by Anne de Courcy (W&N, £9.99). © Anne de Courcy
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