As viewers of The Crown already know, the queen's sister, Princess Margaret, was not especially lucky in love. Her first love, with Group Captain Peter Townsend, failed when the government told Margaret she would have to give up her royal rights to marry the divorced Townsend. In 1960, however, it seemed like she had finally found her match: Antony "Tony" Armstrong-Jones, a society photographer whose cultured and modern tastes matched her own. Armstrong-Jones was given the title Earl of Snowdon, making Margaret the Countess of Snowdon.
The strong personalities that drew the two together, however, soon split them apart. Early in their marriage, they had two children: David, Viscount Linley, in 1961 and Lady Sarah in 1964. By the mid-60s, the Snowdons were drifting apart and cheating on each other, and their relationship turned bitter. They divorced in 1978. Tony remarried only months later, but Margaret, despite having a string of partners, never remarried.