Princess Margaret made headlines due to 'intimate' moment on Queen coronation

Prince Margaret had a secret love affair with her father's equerry Pete Townsend

By Web Desk
November 13, 2022
Princess Margaret made headlines due to 'intimate' moment on Queen coronation

Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, was famously involved with a royal aide.

Margaret was discreetly dating her father's equerry, Pete Townsend, until she blew her cover during Elizabeth's coronation.

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Royal commentator Roberta Fiorito tells Royally Obsessed: "The king sees her being carried up the stairs after a party by Peter Townsend.

"The footmen are all definitely aware, there's moments where there's picnics, him and Margaret are laying together on their own blanket at Balmoral.

"But the public really wasn't because it wasn't weird for Peter Townsend to be around the Royal Family at all times. He's just an equerry, why would they think any different?

"The gossip columnists didn't think anything of it until 1953 when there's this moment after the Queen's coronation."

She continued: "She picks off either a piece of lint or she brushes off some dirt from his outfit and the journalists spot it.

"The press goes berserk because this intimate moment...they pounced. This set off the whirlwind and poor Margaret, to think back on all she's had to go through in 1952, her father passes away at a young age, her sister becomes Queen.

"They have to move from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House, the Queen has to move from Clarence to Buckingham. Peter Townsend divorces his wife in 1952, she's so young."

Margaret never got to marry Pete due to his divorcee status.

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