A look back at the biggest British royal scandals

Princess Margaret fell for Captain Peter Townsend when she was still a teenager, thus beginning their forbidden and heartbreaking love story.
Margaret was 17 and Peter 15 years her senior, married with two sons, but it was him later divorcing that brought scandal on the royal family.

Though Peter proposed to the princess in 1953, they had many hurdles to overcome before they could live in marital bliss. Divorcés weren’t allowed to remarry in the Church of England, so Margaret needed her sister Queen Elizabeth’s permission to marry while she was under 25.

Choosing the crown over love

In the end, after much turmoil, the princess chose royal duty over marrying her true love – and five years later, in 1960, she wed photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.

But her first love stayed with her until the very end, according to her friend George Carey, who revealed Margaret’s deathbed
regrets in 2002.

“She was sad,” recalled George.

“There were moments she expressed that sadness. Here is a woman who longed for love and commitment, and the love of her life was forbidden… There was a deep human sadness in that.”

Few had likely heard the Latin term annus horribilis, meaning “horrible year”, until Queen Elizabeth II used the phrase to describe the disaster that was 1992.

The speech became so famous, it was recreated in The Crown 30 years later! Indeed, heartache ruled the royal family in those 12 months, starting with three out of four of the late queen’s children separating from their spouses.

A year of royal turmoil

Undoubtedly, her heir Prince Charles ending his 15-year marriage to Princess Diana was the most scandalous event as it opened up the British royal household to intense scrutiny and backlash from the public.

Elsewhere in the family, then-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson split, while Princess Anne’s divorce from Mark Phillips was finalised.

Disaster strikes Windsor

To cap off the tumultuous year, a fire ravaged Windsor Castle in November, causing millions of dollars of damage to Her Majesty’s main residence. Four days later, the Queen, then 66, gave her speech at a luncheon to celebrate her 40-year reign.

When Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a tell-all scoop in 2021, after their spectacular exit from the royal family, one of the most shocking revelations led to a racism row involving Buckingham Palace.

The Suits actress revealed that when she was pregnant with their first child Prince Archie, Harry spoke to members of his family and there were several “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he was born”.

Refusing to name names

Though the couple didn’t disclose who said what – “That would be very damaging to them,” said Meghan, then 39 – fingers started pointing as backlash around the palace grew.

“That conversation, I am never going to share,” said Harry, then 36.

“At the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.”

Palace responds

Buckingham Palace issued a rare public statement: “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

Princess Anne’s marriage to Captain Mark Phillips was on the rocks within a year of their 1973 wedding, but it wasn’t until 1991 that his affair betrayal was revealed.

That year, Kiwi art teacher Heather Tonkin came forward with claims that Mark had fathered her daughter Felicity, who was born in 1985. While Mark, then 43, denied the accusations, it was revealed he’d been paying the then-40-year-old teacher upwards of $14,000 per year as a consultant on “equestrian matters”.

A DNA test also proved he was Felicity’s father.

Though Anne and Mark had resolved to work through their issues years earlier, his secret love child proved too hard a hurdle to overcome and they divorced in 1992.

The scandal that stunned the palace

A recorded 1989 phone conversation between then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wreaked havoc for the royal family. During the six-minute call, the future king was heard telling his then-mistress he wanted to “live inside her trousers”.

He went on to joke to her about being reincarnated as a tampon, so he could live “inside her”.

Private words, public fallout

Toward the end of the chat, he told her, “Your greatest achievement is to love me,” to which Camilla replied, “I’d suffer anything for you. That’s love. It’s the strength of love.”

The intimate call was leaked to the media in 1993. At the time, Charles was still married to Princess Diana and Camilla was still married to army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.

Even before the Epstein files, Sarah Ferguson knew how to put her foot in it! Six years after marrying then- prince Andrew, Fergie found herself at the centre of perhaps one of the biggest and most bizarre royal scandals to date, when intimate photos of her holidaying with US financial advisor John Bryan were printed in British papers.

In one of the infamous pictures, taken at a private villa in the South of France, John, then 37, was seen licking 32-year-old Fergie’s foot, humiliating the royals. In 2022, John publicly revealed what really happened between him and the former duchess.

A holiday moment turned scandal

“We were in a private villa with seven acres of land surrounding us to ensure our absolute privacy,” he shared.

“The girls [Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie] were tiny, just four and two. We were out by the pool and I was practising swimming with the children.”

Caught off guard

“Yes, Sarah was topless, but this was the South of France, for heaven’s sake. And we were in private – or so we thought. We were with the kids, having a great time. “We used to play fun, make-believe games. On this day, we were playing Cinderella and I said, ‘Look, let’s kiss Mummy’s toes.’”

“It was part of the game. I did it first and then I think one of the girls, probably Beatrice, did it.”

In what would be one of the most controversial interviews of all time, Diana, then Princess of Wales, sat down with current-affairs reporter Martin Bashir to discuss her marriage to the future king and his not-so-secret affair with Camilla on the show Panorama in 1995.

“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” the 34-year-old princess said, while revealing her own dalliance with cavalry officer James Hewitt.

Diana’s truth revealed

Diana also spoke about her struggles to fit in with the royals and her bulimia battle. In 2021, the BBC was forced to officially apologise after an independent inquiry found Bashir had secured the interview, viewed by 200 million people, by deception.

Following the ruling, both Princes William and Harry released scathing statements.

William’s powerful statement

“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said,” said William, then 38.

“The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.”

Harry defends Diana’s legacy

Harry, then 36, said, “Our mother lost her life because of this and nothing has changed. By protecting her legacy, we protect everyone and uphold the dignity with which she lived her life. Let’s remember who she was and what she stood for.”

He blamed the media’s “exploitation and unethical practices” for Diana’s fate.

There wasn’t a dry eye around the world when Prince Charles stepped in to walk Meghan Markle down the aisle in 2018. It was a job meant for her father Thomas, but just 48 hours before his daughter’s big day, the former TV lighting director, then 73, publicly pulled out of the royal wedding, revealing that he needed to have major heart surgery.

The paparazzi scandal

Days earlier, Thomas had been caught staging photos with paparazzi near his home in Mexico. In the images – which were printed by British newspapers and reportedly purchased for $240,000 – Thomas was seen exercising, reading a book titled Images Of Britain and searching for articles online about his daughter’s 19 May wedding to Harry at an internet café.

Meghan, then 36, hasn’t spoken to her father since.

Thomas speaks out

“I wish I hadn’t done the whole thing,” Thomas confessed publicly in 2021.

Meanwhile, in her sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan – who was pregnant with Lilibet at the time – admitted she felt betrayed.

A mother’s perspective

“I look at Archie and I think about this child on the way, and I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain,” the duchess said.

“I can’t imagine it, so it’s hard for me to reconcile that.”

Before Harry and Meghan, there was King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. In 1936, the late Queen Elizabeth’s uncle Edward abdicated the British throne just 325 days into his reign to marry US divorcée Wallis, causing the biggest constitutional crisis for the Crown in the 20th century.

Choosing love over the crown

“I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love,” he told a stunned world in a radio broadcast on 11 December.

A new king rises

Edward was succeeded by his younger brother King George VI, Elizabeth’s dad, and he and Wallis would go on to marry a year later. Accused of being Nazi sympathisers, they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, living out their lives in exile in France.

In 2010, Fergie found herself front and centre of another royal scandal, only this time, she was selling secrets and her connections. The former Duchess of York fell prey to undercover reporter and “fake sheikh” Mazher Mahmood – who specialised in exposés – and was filmed agreeing to introduce him to Andrew for about $840,000.

Selling access to Prince Andrew

In tapes released by the British press, the royal redhead was heard telling Mazher that if he transferred the funds into her own personal account, she would grant him access to her ex-husband.

“That opens up everything you would ever wish for,” she said.

“I can open any door you want and I will for you. Look after me and he’ll look after you… You’ll get it back tenfold.”

A public apology

As a result, Fergie was forced to issue a grovelling public apology.

“I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused,” she said.

“It is true that my financial situation is under stress, however, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgement and I am very sorry this has happened.”

In 1989, private letters between Anne and Queen Elizabeth’s equerry Timothy Laurence were stolen and sent to British newspapers.

The contents were never revealed, but were described as too “steamy” to print and the scandal placed even more strain on Anne’s already shaky marriage to Mark.

The pair separated but had vowed not to divorce – until Mark’s scandal broke and officially ended their marriage in 1992. That same year, Anne, then 38, and Timothy, 34, went public and wed. The couple are still together.