For royal watchers, Princess Margaret is an eternal “It girl” of the British royal family. Even more than two decades after her death in 2002, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II is remembered as something of an icon for living her high-profile life exactly as she wanted to, whether signing her checks as simply “Margaret” or smoking, drinking, and enjoying the London art scene. As The New York Times once put it, the princess “spent most of her life playing the role of the royal family’s most celebrated black sheep.”
Margaret was known for her beauty, style, and glamour—and her love of a good party. The press and the public rapturously followed her romances, starting with her early 20s relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend, a British Royal Air Force officer who had served as an attendant to her father, King George VI. The pair wanted to get married, but were not allowed to because Townsend had gotten divorced. Margaret would go on to marry the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, whom she met at a dinner party in 1958. The two got divorced in 1978, after she allegedly had an affair with a younger man and was spotted with her lover on a private island in photos splashed across the tabloids.
Though she was a favorite paparazzi subject, she also posed for the camera on numerous occasions—as part of her royal duties, but also as a muse for artists of the moment, including Cecil Beaton, Slim Aarons, and her own photographer husband, Lord Snowdon.
Below, we share 27 iconic photographs of Princess Margaret, from her World-War II era childhood, to her London wedding at which she wore the Poltimore Tiara, to her night out with The Beatles, to her adult years hanging with Mick Jagger.
