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Lord Snowdon, Former Husband Of Princess Margaret And Professional Photographer, Dies At 86

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 01:59 PST, Jan 16, 2017

Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, the first Earl of Snowdon and former husband of Princess Margaret, Lady Snowdon, died Friday at the age of 86. Lord Snowdon, a well-known photographer, had news of his death shared by the photo agency Camera Press.

“The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on 13th January 2017.”

Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon, was the man who introduced Princess Margaret to the world of Hollywood and rock ‘n’ roll after she broke up with her first love, Peter Townsend, says the Inquisitr. Fans of the Netflix series The Crown will be introduced to Armstrong-Jones in Season 2 of the show, which shows Princess Margaret rebounding from Townsend and looking for love with the man who would be the father of her two children. Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth, predeceased her former husband.

Lord Snowdon passed peacefully on January 13, and reports are that Queen Elizabeth had been notified, but Buckingham Palace has made no official comment, says Town & Country. Best known for his photography before, during, and after his relationship with Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon’s work appeared in the Sunday Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and the Telegraph. More than 100 of his works hang in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery. Lord Snowdon was the photographer who took Lady Diana and Prince Charles’ iconic engagement photo.

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Although Armstrong-Jones had polio as a child, he overcame it and lived a long, healthy life. He immersed himself in his work and met his future wife, Princess Margaret, when he was on assignment to photograph the royal family. The couple married in 1960 at Westminster Abbey. Together, they had two children, David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones.

The New York Times said that Lord Snowdon, known as Tony to his friends, started his career in photography in 1952 with the magazine Tattler after failing out of Cambridge. Known as a bit of a womanizer, Lord Snowdon conducted a private affair for months with Princess Margaret before getting engaged. Armstrong-Jones was used to being a party boy, but dating royalty was something new.

Anne de Courcy spoke at length of Snowdon in the biography, Snowdon: The Biography.

“For Tony, it was all overwhelming. He was used to pretty girls, from unsophisticated debutantes to models and actresses of varying degrees of experience, and he was aware of the effect his well-honed sexual expertise had on women. But Margaret was something different. She was gilded with the mysterious, mythic aura of royalty.”

Although Armstrong-Jones was a commoner and the first ever to marry the daughter of the king, the family embraced him after her torrid affair with Peter Townsend, a divorced man who carried on with Princess Margaret while he was still married. After their divorce, Lord Snowdon remarried Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg, with whom he had one child, and that marriage broke up after it became public that Snowdon had impregnated an editor, Melanie Cable-Alexander.

Later, it came out that Lord Snowdon had another child before he was engaged to Princess Margaret. Snowdon also had another child, named Jasper, with a mistress in the 90s.

Lord Snowdon is survived by his children and grandchildren.

Are you familiar with the photography of Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon?

[Featured Image by Getty Images File]

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