Hereditary creativity and curses and a royally non-royal life. Princess Margaret’s two children,
Antony and Sarah lead a life of excitement, despite the drama!
Princess Margaret has long been known as the original wild child of the royal family
especially when you consider her affair with Peter Townsend. Following the affair,
Margaret settled down with her photographer husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones. It was with
Anthony that Margaret had two children – David and Sarah Armstrong-Jones.
Despite being fifth and seventh in line for the throne at the time of their births,
both David and Sarah have taken a page out of their mother's book
and built lives for themselves outside of the royal spotlight.
"It’s so nice when a man is unaware of his best features."
"And so sad when a lady hides hers."
Though their romance turned sour in the later years of their marriage, Princess
Margaret and her new husband happily welcomed their first child, a boy, on November 3, 1961.
Their first and only son, David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, was born in the royal residence
of Clarence House and was christened in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace. Despite
their difference in rank, he counted Queen Elizabeth's four children, Prince Charles,
Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward, among some of his closest childhood friends.
According to the Manchester Evening News, David often traveled with his cousins
on family holidays and even took music lessons with Prince Andrew starting when
he was five years old. Queen Elizabeth was also named as David's godmother.
At his birth, David was fifth in line for the throne, but now,
many a royal baby later, he is only 24th in line.
Three years after welcoming David, Princess Margaret's only daughter
and the queen's only niece, Lady Sarah Frances Elizabeth, was born on May 1, 1964.
Following in her brother's footsteps, Sarah also led a charmed life, growing up
in Kensington Palace surrounded by her parents, her older brother, and a crew of royal cousins.
However, things weren't always perfect – especially when it came to Margaret and
Antony. During Sarah's childhood, serious cracks began to show in Margaret and Antony's marriage.
The two divorced when their daughter Sarah was only 13 years old. Perhaps
luckily for the young royal, Sarah wasn't spending much time at Kensington Palace.
During her teenage years, Lady Sarah joined her brother David at Bedales
Boarding School in Hampshire, which Vanity Fair called, quote,
"Britain's artsiest private school." Later in life, David would tell the magazine:
Despite her marital troubles, Princess Margaret was said to have been a very hands-on mother,
especially when it came to educating her children on art and culture, according to Women's Health.
In several interviews following her death in 2002, David remembers his mother as a
passionate lover of art who would often take him and his sister on antiquing
trips and visits to the National Gallery, telling Alain Elkann in a 2018 interview:
In another interview with Vanity Fair, David recounts a story where his mother
and grandmother, the Queen Mother, took him to the National Gallery to see a Vermeer painting.
When the young David asked about the other artwork the museum had to offer,
his ever-honest mother said, "If you want to see those, you can go on your own."
It's no surprise that Princess Margaret had an artsy streak,
considering she had married one of the country's most sought-after photographers.
Together, she and Antony raised a bohemian family, prioritizing art and freedom and
keeping around an exciting cast of high-society characters for their children to marvel at.
"Everybody wanted to breathe the same air as Margaret and Tony."
Although art had an influence on his life, after graduating from Bedales,
the princess's oldest child flew the coop and settled down in the South East market
town of Dorking. He opened a shop where he built and designed his own furniture there.
With high-profile clients such as Elton John and Valentino, David Linley has made a name
for himself in the world of furniture craftsmen. He’s since transformed his small Dorking shop into
a bespoke furniture and interior design empire, now known as Linley, according to Women's Health.
He credits his photographer father, Antony Armstrong-Jones,
for his success, telling The Telegraph in 2011:
Princess Margaret was also a huge supporter of David's pursuits.
Looking back on the early days of his Dorking shop, David told Vanity Fair:
While David has been a furniture man for most of his adult life,
Lady Sarah's career trajectory has been more of an artistic whirlwind.
After leaving Bedales, the young noble found work as a wardrobe assistant in the 1983 film
"Heat and Dust." Hello! reports that it was on set where Sarah met her future husband,
Daniel Chatto. Eventually, Sarah flitted off to
the art world like her father before her to make her name as a painter.
Under the name Sarah Armstrong-Jones, the princess's only daughter began a
relationship with the prestigious Redfern Gallery in London's West
End in 1994 and has seen her work exhibited there on several occasions.
She has also won awards, including the Winsor & Newton Prize in 1988
and the Creswick Landscape Prize in 1990.
With three of Queen Elizabeth's children undergoing scandalous divorces in the 1990s,
the British tabloids have christened the Windsor line with a bit of a royal marriage curse.
David also sadly fell victim to the family curse in 2020 when he announced his divorce
from his wife, Serena Armstrong-Jones, after 26 years of marriage, according to Town & Country.
At the time, a spokesman for the couple told
CNN that the two reached an "amicable" decision to end their marriage, saying:
Despite their rocky union, David and Serena continued to affect a united
front for their children, Viscount Linley, Charles Armstrong-Jones,
and Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones, and to raise them out of the spotlight.
Unlike her brother and several royals, Sarah and her actor-husband are still
going strong after 28 years of marriage. Following in her mother's footsteps,
David Chatto's commoner status never seemed to bother the lowkey Sarah.
The couple was married in a quiet ceremony at St. Stephen's Walbrook Church in July 1994
after almost ten years of dating. Their wedding guests featured all the usual royal suspects,
Hello reports, with standouts being Lady Sarah's aunt, Her Majesty the Queen,
and her uncle, the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as her grandmother, the Queen Mother.
A teenaged Zara Tindall (then Phillips) even served as one of Sarah's bridesmaids. At the time,
the wedding made headlines for being the first public outing attended by Prince
Charles and Princess Diana following Charles' scandalous interview with Jonathan Dimbleby,
where he admitted to having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
"Make a whole difference to my life, which would become intolerable otherwise."
Despite the “intolerable” family drama and the alleged royal curse,
Sarah and Daniel remain happily married.
While Princess Margaret's children always maintained close ties to their maternal cousins,
David and Sarah grew much closer to the queen following their mother's 2002 death.
Sarah, in particular, is said to have been "adored" by Queen Elizabeth, who frequently
allowed her niece to accompany her to her favorite holiday house, Craigowan Lodge, in Aberdeenshire.
David, for his part, honored his beloved aunt, Queen Elizabeth, by walking behind
her coffin during its procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.
While Princess Margaret's two children may remain quietly off the British tabloids' radar, they have
found ways to pay tribute to their mother's legacy and honor their place among the royal family.
In addition to attending these milestone family events, Sarah has been spotted wearing her
mother's statement pearl earrings and her diamond brooch on several occasions according to Express.