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Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret grew up as close friends as much as they were sisters. With four years as an age gap between them, Princess Margaret looked up to Queen Elizabeth. The Queen was the wise and shy one, while Princess Margaret was the funny and mischievous one. These differences created a dynamic that led to a good relationship between them until Princess Margaret died in 2002.However, people believe that their relationship was a little more complicated than the public knows, especially in light of the Drama TV series ‘The Crown’, where different amazing actresses including Helena Bonham Carter play Princess Margaret, and how the TV show portrays the two sisters.While the TV show doesn't get everything historically right, people are not mistaken to think that Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret had a complicated relationship, or at least at some point.
Queen Elizabeth And Princess Margaret Were Best Friends
From a young age, the sisters were the best of friends. They studied together, played together, and even wore the same clothes for a very long time during their childhood. However, their personalities were different. Queen Elizabeth was more of a shy and introverted person, while Princess Margaret was always the center of attention and made people laugh.
Queen Elizabeth was the kind of person who woke up early, drank a cup of tea, and got to work, while Princess Margaret woke up late and chain-smoked for a while. Andrew Morton, the English journalist and writer who wrote the book, ‘Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters’ said in an interview with Vogue, "Elizabeth was dutiful, stoical, an introvert; Margaret was extrovert, quixotic, emotional. They were the yin and the yang, and, in a way, every royal has a shadow self; Margaret was the shadow of Elizabeth.”
No one thought that Elizabeth would be queen one day until their father took the throne despite the line of succession. That’s when their lives changed and Elizabeth started getting a little more responsibility, which is when the rivalry started.
Did The Crown Come Between Queen Elizabeth And Princess Margaret?
In Morton’s book, he states that Elizabeth once said, “Margaret always wants what I’ve got.”
While Margaret has said while in her fifties, “still playing second best after all these years, I guess I’ll be second best to my grave.”
There was obvious jealousy and envy that ruled the relationship between the two sisters, which happens between sisters all the time, especially when they’re from a royal family.
Based on what some common friends of the royal family said, Margaret has expressed that she has the right personality to be a monarch. According to the Telegraph, Princess Margaret was “subconsciously jealous” of Queen Elizabeth because she had everything she wanted, which is the crown, a husband, and children.
Her envy was proven on multiple different occasions as she rebelled. For example, while they had a good relationship and were best friends, Princess Margaret skipped the Queen’s 10th wedding anniversary.
Not to mention, historically, the crown always comes between royal siblings, and it did to a degree. Yet, the sisters remained close and had an unbreakable bond and love to the day that Princess Margaret died.
Queen Elizabeth Cried At Princess Margaret’s Funeral
Princess Margaret, the countess of Snowdon has had a hard time throughout her life living as an independent and free-spirited royalty. It was reported that she lived most of her life suffering from depression. She was also an excessive alcohol drinker and smoker. Reportedly, she smoked 60 cigarettes a day which is three whole packs.
With such unhealthy habits, she was frequently sick. Princess Margaret had pneumonia, a lung operation in 1985, and at least three strokes between the years 1998 and 2001. Princess Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71, after having a fourth stroke.
That was a devastating event for Queen Elizabeth. To lose her sister with whom she shared friendship, laughter, and love, got the best of the Queen. Aside from all the differences they had, the sisters had a direct telephone line to each other's home where they checked on each other daily.
Princess Margaret’s funeral was on the 50th anniversary of her father’s funeral. Her ashes are in the King George VI memorial chapel next to her father's. At the funeral, Queen Elizabeth cried publicly, which was out of the ordinary for the queen and for any monarch in history to show such vulnerable emotion publicly.
Siblings might get jealous and compete against each other, but love will always unite them.
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