When Princess Margaret Meets Wallis Simpson…

Princess Margaret (left) and the Duchess of Windsor. Images from Wikimedia Commons

What do you think could have happened if Princess Margaret and Wallis Simpson were on the same room, right in front of each other, standing face to face? We can only imagine! But, once, the two infamous royal personalities sort of bonded with each other and that was not even on the English soil.

In his book, Princess Margaret: A Biography, biographer Theo Aronson provides us with a detailed and vivid account of this intimate meeting between the two controversial personalities.

In May 1974, Princess Margaret and her husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon, went on an official visit to the United States and Canada. According to Aronson, the couple were staying in New York when she unexpectedly came face-to-face with her uncle’s wife. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Windsor, widowed in 1972, made what would be her last visit to her country of birth. As usual, she was staying in a suite at the Waldorf Towers. The Snowdons, upon arriving at the hotel, were told that the Duchess was also staying there. Knowing it would be rude not to see the bereaved widow, a strictly private meeting was arranged between the two royal ladies. The princess saw the duchess very rarely and always on formal occasions, explained Aronson. No one else in the princess’ entourage was allowed to join them.  

Margaret suggested that their meeting be photographed but it remained unclear what made her agree to do so. Aronson wrote “It may be that by now, with the Duke of Windsor safely dead, even the implacable Queen Mother had decided that a little show of family forgiveness would do the monarchy no harm.”