The beautiful younger sister of the present Queen, Princess Margaret’s glamorous appearance and lifestyle, not to mention her complicated love life, made her a favored subject of the early paparazzi. In 1953, the year of Elizabeth’s coronation and wedding to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Margaret, too, had dreams of settling into marital bliss, having fallen in love with divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend, who was 15 years her senior. In face of disapproval from the media, the government and the Church (which had earlier refused to recognize her uncle’s marriage to Wallis Simpson), as well as from within the Royal Family, she relented and cancelled plans to wed Townsend in 1955. She later married photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones, who was re-titled Lord Snowdon, but engaged in a number of extramarital affairs, most notably with Roddy Llewellyn, who this time was 17 years her junior. Unsurprisingly, the marriage ended in divorce in 1978.
Prince Harry’s Crown Jewels and King Henry VIII’s Wives: Top 10 Royals Behaving Badly
The nearly-nude, self-censored photos of the young Prince Harry are hardly an embarrassment for the oft-spotlighted British Royal Family. Past royal dynasties have witnessed illicit affairs, illegitimate children and plenty of acrimonious marital breakdowns.