"Disobedience is my joy," Princess Margaret is quoted as once saying. Queen Elizabeth's younger sister, regarded as a "rebel royal," led a life of glamour and excess, a lifestyle that later seemed to catch up with her.
The Princess, known for smoking, began the habit as a teenager. In the book Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret, author Craig Brown wrote that Margaret's daily routine included "chain-smoking" at 9 a.m. and a "vodka pick-me-up" at 12:30 p.m.
The Princess' nephew Charles, now the King, has previously described his aunt as "somebody who was such a vital and free spirit".
It's been reported that Margaret used to smoke 60 cigarettes a day. Andrew Morton penned in the 2021 biography Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters that the Princess was "smoking and drinking excessively" in 1966.
Her father King George VI, also a smoker, underwent an operation "for lung resection," a procedure to remove all or part of a lung, in 1951. Over 30 years later, his younger daughter Margaret had surgery in 1985 to remove a small area of her left lung, which was said to be "innocent."
© Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty ImagesEven after the operation, the Princess continued smoking. According to The Telegraph, Margaret's dependence on cigarettes increased when she stopped drinking for a period in 1984 after contracting hepatitis. It wasn't until she was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1993 did she reportedly quit smoking for good.
Declining health
In her later years, the Princess experienced multiple strokes. While at her holiday home on the island of Mustique in February 1998, Margaret had a "mild stroke". The following year, in 1999, she "severely scalded" her feet in a bathroom accident. The Telegraph has suggested that Margaret may "have been slow to realise how hot the water was because she suffers from Raynaud's Disease, a condition which affects the circulation, and in which smoking is especially dangerous, since nicotine increases the constriction of the small arteries."
Per the royal family, Margaret's scalding accident affected her mobility to the point that she required assistance when walking and was sometimes confined to a wheelchair. The royal family's website notes that the Princess was diagnosed with further strokes in 2000 and 2001.
Her poor health limited the number of public engagements she could undertake in her final years. Two months before her death, Margaret made her last public appearance in December 2001 at Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester's 100th birthday celebrations.
© Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty ImagesDeath after a "dreadful time"
Queen Elizabeth's sister passed away on February 9, 2002 at the age of 71 . The day before she died, the Princess suffered a stroke and developed cardiac problems. Her passing was announced in a statement issued by the Queen's press secretary.
"The Queen, with great sadness, has asked for the following announcement to be made immediately. Her beloved sister, Princess Margaret, died peacefully in her sleep this morning at 6.30am, in The King Edward VII Hospital. Her children, Lord Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, were at her side," the statement read.
"Princess Margaret suffered a further stroke yesterday afternoon. She developed cardiac problems during the night and was taken from Kensington Palace to The King Edward VII Hospital at 2.30am. Lord Linley and Lady Sarah were with her, and The Queen was kept fully informed throughout the night."
Charles, then-the Prince of Wales, paid tribute to his "darling aunt" in a TV broadcast, during which he acknowledged that she "had such a dreadful time in the past few years with her awful illness and it was hard for, let alone her to bear it, but for all of us as well and particularly had such a wonderfully free spirit."
"She loved life and lived it to the full and from that point of view it was even harder for everybody to witness this, and of course at this moment, all our hearts go out to all those people who also have relations who have suffered from strokes and they know only too well the agony that people have to go through."
He also recalled his aunt's smoking, admitting that one of his "fondest memories" of Margaret was her "sitting at the piano playing away with a large, very elegant cigarette holder in her mouth."
© Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesReunited with her beloved father
The date of Margaret's funeral, February 15, coincided with the 50th anniversary of her father's funeral. The Princess was cremated, with her ashes interred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St. George's Chapel.
Following the Princess' death, her former lady-in-waiting, Lady Anne Glenconner, spoke with The Scotsman about Margaret's desire to be cremated and laid to rest at St. George's Chapel, where her father was, rather than buried at Frogmore in Windsor Great Park.
"I think she'd like to be with the late King, which she will now be," Lady Glenconner said. "There's room I think for her to be with him now."
