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2. A teenage love affair

Princess Margaret in 1951
Princess Margaret in 1951| AFP/Getty Images
  • Princess Margaret desperately wanted to marry her divorced lover, but it was forbidden. 

If you’ve seen Season 1 of Netflix’s The Crown then you probably know some major details about Princess Margaret’s sordid love affair with her father, King George VI’s married personal assistant, Captain Peter Townsend. However, we bet you didn’t know that the princess was just 17 years old when she began secretly seeing Captin Townsend who was 16 years her senior.

The public finally caught on to the love affair, when Princess Margaret was caught on camera, picking a piece of lint off of Townsend’s lapel at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Though Townsend eventually did get a divorce, Parlament forbid the pair to marry. If they did, Princess Margaret was told she would lose her royal privileges and would have to leave England for at least five years.

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