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In those more restrained days, the British press did not report on Margaret's private life. But Fleet Street turned against her all the same, complaining that she was rude, free spending and neglectful of royal duties. When she made a final lunge for unsuitable romance, the tabloids pounced. In 1973 she took up with Roddy Llewellyn, a landscape gardener 17 years her junior. The papers published a photograph of the two capering on Mustique. The charade of her marriage collapsed entirely, though she and Snowdon did not formally split until 1978.
Margaret's affair with Llewellyn ended not long after. But eventually the British press and public softened toward her. Compared with the present generation of royals, her misadventures started to seem quaint. By that time, the years of heavy smoking and single-malt Scotch had begun to take their toll, but by that time too, she had lived a vivid life. It tells you something that she called her house on Mustique Les Jolie Eaux (Happy Waters). No doubt she was a woman made miserable by the confines of royalty. She also made merry within them.
--By Richard Lacayo