The truth behind Princess Margaret’s ‘promiscuous’ and ‘bisexual’ ex-husband: From ‘sleeping with her friends’ to ‘leaving the royal packets of drugs around’, the society photographer is remembered eight years on from his death

Charming and seductive, Antony Armstrong-Jones was a talented photographer whose creative appetite was just as strong as his sexual desires. 

The first Earl of Snowdon, a title he acquired after marrying Princess Margaret, passed away eight years ago today aged 86.

The couple spent 18 years together and though the marriage started out with a glamorous celebration in 1960, it was not to last. 

Together, they lived at Kensington Palace and welcomed two children – Viscount David Linley and Lady Sarah – but their relationship slipped into decline.

Both had extra marital affairs and Tony’s, as he was commonly known, started from ‘day one,’ Tom Quinn wrote in his 2021 publication, Scandals of the Royal Palaces.

Despite knowing the Eton-educated photographer was ‘both extremely promiscuous and bisexual’, Margaret still pursued him after years of grieving her lost lover, Peter Townsend, the author told. 

When asked about his sexuality by writer Anne de Courcy, Tony responded: ‘I didn’t fall in love with boys – but a few men have been in love with me.’

After Margaret and Tony married on May 6, 1960 at Westminster Abbey in London, he continued his work as a photographer and mingled with models and creatives while balancing royal life, too.

The Princess was attracted to Tony’s ‘unconventionality’ and how he accepted her as an equal despite her regal title, however this would prove to impact the relationship in a negative way as he began to ‘treat her with no respect or difference at all,’ Mr Quinn wrote.

The first Earl of Snowdon, who died eight years ago today, pictured in 1965

The professional photographer watching Margaret hold a camera in 1960

Tony would enjoy seducing female assistants and, at the same time, have sexual relations with male friends.  

‘When his growing dislike of his wife reached an articular pitch of unpleasantness, he made a point of sleeping with one or two of her male friends, including two prominent aristocrats who cannot be named as they are still alive and their relationship with Tony has never been publicly acknowledged,’ Mr Quinn claimed. 

He would take it even further by bringing his most recent affair into the palace with the knowledge that his wife would be aware. 

Margaret would also be unfaithful and had multiple affairs herself during the marriage, Mr Quinn wrote. 

A staff member told the royal author how she allegedly had relations with many different people including actor and bodyguard John Bindon.

Margaret also had an affair with the nephew of Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, Robin Douglas-Home, according to Mr Quinn’s source.

The couple mostly kept their relationship problems private but members of staff would witness some of the drama. 

Ron Wilson, member of staff, recalled to Mr Quinn in his 2020 book, Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir From Queen Mary To Meghan Markle, their ‘blistering rows’ over how many people the other had slept with.

The couple, wearing matching sunglasses, watch the Badminton Horse Trials together back in 1970

Tony talking to Brigitte Bardot while Margaret chats with Sean Connery at a film premiere in 1968

Tony with the royals including the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth and his wife and children

He told the author, ‘She’d have sex with someone and flaunt it at him, so he’d go off and do the same and let her know.

‘Once, I believe she slept with one of his male friends and then he deliberately slept with the same man.’ 

However, their tumultuous marriage took its toll on the Princess and she turned to other means of escape, including alcohol, prescription drugs and smoking. 

Another staff member recalled to Mr Quinn in Scandals of the Royal Palaces, how Tony was rumoured to give Margaret ‘all sorts of drugs,’ that both would try including cocaine and LSD.

They added: ‘But in the end when their relationship got really bad, Lord Snowdon used to leave little packets of drugs around their apartment and by Margaret’s bed with notes on them saying things such as, ‘Why don’t you take all these and do us all a favour?’ 

The staff member described how Tony may not have been completely serious but ‘was asking her to commit suicide’.

Eventually, Margaret and Tony separated in 1976 and divorced in 1978 – the first in the Royal Family in 400 years since Henry VIII. Afterwards, the Princess remained at Kensington Palace alone for the rest of her life.

Born March 7, 1930 in London to Welsh barrister Ronald and Anne Messel, Tony lived an eventful life.

Tony, with a camera in hand, after taking photos of a fire in London in 1959

The Lord dancing with Margaret at the Georgian Ball at Mansion House in 1964

The couple visiting the Acropolis during their holiday in Athens in 1963

When he was a child, his parents divorced and Tony went to live with his mother, who married Lawrence Parsons, Sixth Earl of Rosse.

At 16 years old, he contracted polio and survived the illness but it took a toll and left him with a limp for the rest of his life.

Tony won a place at Cambridge, but he left after his second year and decided to devote himself to photography instead.

He soon made a name as a portrait photographer and by 1957, had put on a one-man exhibition of his work and published two books of photography.

The Etonian went on to become known by the royals and was commissioned to take portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and their children at Buckingham Palace. 

His childhood illness also meant that, as an adult, the future Lord Snowdon would be a tireless campaigner for disabled people. 

He married his second wife, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, the former wife of film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg in December, 1978.

They remained together for more than two decades, but infidelities and the 1998 birth of Tony’s youngest child, Jasper, with Melanie Cable-Alexander, ended the marriage in 2000.

Margaret and her husband attending a ballet performance at the Royal Opera House with the Queen Mother in 1960

Margaret and Tony pictured together in 1961

Despite the unhappiness of their marriage, Antony and Margaret remained friends throughout their lives.

His charming character also meant he maintained his relationship with the Royal Family and  he continued to spend time with them, taking a number of official royal photos.

The photographer died peacefully in his home on January 13, 2017.

He was laid to rest at St Baglan’s Church in the remote village of Llanfaglan near Caernarfon during an intimate funeral attended by just a handful of close family and friends – a far cry from the luxurious palace life he had lived with Princess Margaret.