Latest news with #PrincessMargaret
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Princess Margaret's wild Monty Python night at the aristocrats' party revealed by BBC presenter
A 'very drunk' Princess Margaret once played a Monty Python song at an aristocratic gathering in the Scottish Borders, a former BBC presenter has revealed. The Queen's sister was described as being 'incredibly sloshed' as musicians danced around, according to former BBC presenter Steve Blacknell. The event was hosted by Colin Tennant, later 3rd Baron Glenconner, at his family's Glen House estate. His wife Lady Anne Coke was Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting. At the time Blacknell was living with Scottish psychedelic folk band The Incredible String Band who were invited to the dinner. Speaking on the Time Capsule podcast, the 72 year old said: 'So there I am living with my heroes, one day the door opens in my little cabin and the drummer Jack [Ingram] comes in and he says 'we're off to have tea with some people so put your shoes on we're leaving in 10 minutes'. 'The row where they lived was in a place called Innerleithen in Peeblesshire, beautiful rolling hills and stuff, so about three quarters of a mile away was a castle which was owned by Colin Tennant. 'Now Colin Tennant was the guy who bought Mustique, the island, and was just an incredibly rich guy and he had this huge mansion thing. 'So we all traipse up there, we walk in and I can't believe I'm doing this with these people I adore so much and we can hear a piano playing so we get nearer and nearer and there plinking away on the piano, cigarette hanging out of her gob, is a very very very drunk Princess Margaret. 'So there she is with Roddy Llewellyn and they're all completely drunk... you're thinking what the hell is going on, I was only 21 or something. 'She starts playing on the piano, rather badly, 'I've got a ferret sticking up my nose' which is the Monty Python song and she said 'well come on then dance'. 'So just like dancing around a maypole me and these heroes of mine are dancing around an incredibly sloshed Princess Margret, to this day I still can't believe it.' Blacknell is best known for being an MTV Video Jockey as well as working in PR for several record labels, he is currently the CEO of the Central London School of TV and Media Training.
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Myleene Klass sets pulses racing as she strips off to recreate Princess Margaret's famous steamy bathtub snap to commemorate her MBE honour
Myleene Klass channelled the late Princess Margaret on Thursday as she shared a steamy bathtub photo to celebrate receiving her MBE. The presenter, 47, was honoured for her services to women's health, miscarriage awareness and charity at an investiture ceremony on Wednesday. And after being presented with the medal by King Charles at Windsor Castle, Myleene took to her Instagram to mark her achievement in a very racy way. She stripped down to pose in her lavish clawfoot tub, wearing nothing but a sparkling tiara on her head - in a mirror image of Princess Margaret's iconic bath snap. The younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II was famously photographed by her then-husband Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1962, wearing the dazzling Poltimore tiara while soaking in the tub. Captioning her recreation snap, Myleene quipped: 'Morning! Rinse and reign.' Following Wednesday's investiture ceremony, she took to her Instagram to admit she was 'utterly overjoyed and humbled' to receive the honour. The former Hear'Say star was joined by her fiancé Simon Motson, their five-year-old son Apollo, and her two daughters, Ava, 17, and Hero, 13, who she shares with ex-husband Graham Quinn. Myleene has campaigned for paid bereavement leave to be extended to those who experience a miscarriage. The mother-of-three suffered four miscarriages and has spoken openly about the psychological effects of baby loss on women. She is an ambassador for the pregnancy and baby charity Tommy's and fronted the Bafta-nominated documentary Myleene Klass: Miscarriage And Me in 2021, in which she met women around the UK to hear their experiences. Sharing a slew of photos from Windsor Castle, Myleene wrote: 'Having my family there and our rainbow baby boy was extra magical in what has at times been a very dark journey for us all.' While she concluded her post: 'Before this and my (bafta nominated) documentary Myleene Klass: Miscarriage and Me, it did feel like no one really mentioned the dark secret of Miscarriage, the shame, the taboo, now, it's said loudly in the walls of the Palace and around Westminster. Sharing a slew of photos from Windsor Castle, Myleene wrote: 'Having my family there and our rainbow baby boy was extra magical in what has at times been a very dark journey for us all' 'For the voices that were never heard, i promise you, this is just the beginning…..' Talking to the BBC earlier this year, Myleene said she is 'so proud' of how far she has come and reflected on how she had battled back 'from a very dark place'. She said: 'When I think back to how all of this started, it all came from a very dark place, and I certainly didn't have it in mind to become a campaigner at the time. 'Anyone who has experienced baby loss will know how personal and difficult it is to vocalise this level of trauma.' She has championed changes to the Women's Health Strategy, advocating for earlier support for women rather than waiting until they have experienced three miscarriages. Her efforts have focused on improving miscarriage care and raising awareness about the emotional and heartbreaking toll of baby loss. The musician has used her platform to push for government reforms and has played a key role in ensuring baby loss is addressed as a critical health issue. She added: 'If you suffered three heart attacks, you wouldn't only be offered support after the third one, and so it shouldn't be the same with baby loss'. The singer's work has been widely praised for its impact on breaking the silence around miscarriage and offering hope and support to other women. Myleene has been working with MP Sarah Owen, MP Olivia Blake, Miscarriage Association, and Tommys for a law to be introduced so that women and their partners would be able to take leave. In March, the star fought back the tears on Loose Women as they congratulated her on her MBE. Myleene explained: 'It's for my services to miscarriage. So it feels really important, but because it is that subject matter, all that work understandably feels really sad and really heavy.' While she admitted she was close to tears, as host Christine Lampard then praised her highly for all she's achieved, gushing: 'Your work has been amazing. To hear all of these big names, including The King, seeing the word miscarriage and know it something you're working on and that we're dealing with. It's fantastic'.
News.com.au
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Who is the best royal of the 21st century - and where do we begin with Harry?
Windsor Castle. June 21, 2000. It was hailed as THE party of the century. Hordes of the upper crust, hot and cold running grandees, titled Europeans and old fox hunting muckers gathered for the 'Dance of the Decades', a combined celebration of the Queen Mother's 100th birthday, Princess Margaret's 70th, Princess Anne's 50th, Prince Andrew's 40th and Prince William's 18th. The royal family that gathered on that night looked profoundly, nearly unthinkably, different from the one of today. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were still gathering for a lunchtime voddy. Prince William looked like a Disney dreamboat with a luxuriant full head of wavy blonde hair. And Queen Elizabeth had barely recovered from the greatest disaster of her 48 years on the throne. Our 25@25 series will finally put to bed the debates you've been having at the pub and around dinner tables for years – and some that are just too much fun not to include. The monarchy had just - and only just - been pulled back from the precipice after Buckingham Palace's stony-faced handling of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Stunned by her shocking end in Paris and the Palace's frigid response, the people had turned on the crown with a shockingly un-British degree of emotion and on that night in 2000, the shadow of the princess' death still hung over The Firm. And in Bucklebury, Berkshire, a hockey-loving gel was packing her hipster jeans as she prepared for her gap year, without a clue what fate had in store for her - a crown rather than a lifetime of driving a Volvo station wagon to Asda. If you zipped back in a time machine to that June night in 2000 and told Queen Elizabeth on her third glass of Pol Roger how the royal family circa 2025 looked, you would have been liable to be sectioned: The next Queen is a middle-class art history graduate, William needs beanies and flat caps to keep the chill out, and Prince Harry now occasionally does bits on late night TV shows, cut irrevocably adrift from his family and doomed to a lifetime of gluten-free mimosa brunches with Kris Jenner. So, who is your favourite royal from the past 25 years? Queen Elizabeth II It would take years, decades, after the turn of the millennium for the late Queen to shake off the perception of her as the cold fish, icily distant monarch who had struggled to connect with her nation at a moment of crisis. One did occasionally smile and chuckle in public but One was largely known as the monarch whose spectacularly out-of-touch response to Diana's death had taken the monarchy to the brink. Slowly, the ship began to right itself and it would take the arrival of one fresh-faced Kate Middleton to usher in a new royal chapter. A key turning point came on July 27, 2012 when billions around the world watched, delegated agog, as she 'met' 007 at the Palace and then 'skydived' into the London Olympics' opening ceremony. It was a brief, wonderful moment of levity and cheekiness for a woman defined by a certain Easter Island-like blankness and stoicism in public. As the years passed, the ghost of Diana receded and as the 21st century got under way the late Queen morphed into a genuinely beloved figure, hailed for her implacable, unwavering devotion to duty, her signature Launer handbag in the crook of her arm as she Got On With It. Her late Majesty represented a certain dignity, a poise, a steadfastness and a chin-up-chaps-ness in the face of adversity, family crisis and having to have the fluorescent Mr Trump around for tea. Finally, the world came to respect what she had been doing all along. Paddington Bear said it best in 2022, doffing his red felt cap during her Platinum Jubilee: 'Thank you, for everything' Prince Philip And by Queen Elizabeth's side for 73 years was, of course, her 'strength and stay' Prince Philip. He was an unlikely choice for the young princess back in the 1940s, the penniless son of the deposed Greek King who had grown up being shunted around tiled relatives' houses in Europe and toughened up in a remote Scottish boarding school. However, from the first moment the young Princess Elizabeth clapped eyes on him, he was the only man ever for her. He had a valiant, courageous war battling the Germans sea and then in 1946 gave up smoking on his wedding day to devote his life to 'Lilibet' and shaking the hands of quaking Lord Lieutenants. Philip was most famous for his incurable case of foot-in-mouth-itis, managing to wheel out racially offensive quips from Glasgow to the Northern Territory to China, perpetually unperturbed by the diplomatic havoc he left in his wake. Again, today, Philip's image is one defined by devotion, to his wife and to doing his bit. It was only in 2017 - aged 95-years-old - he retired from royal work, saying 'the world's most experienced plaque-unveiler'. King Charles On September 8, 2022 the third Carolean age began when Charles Philip Arthur George acceded to the throne to finally fulfil his lifelong destiny to wear a crown and to install composting bins at the Palace. But in 2000 he was still the Prince of Wales, a man who was still slowly inching back from the greatest disaster of his personal and royal life, the death of Diana. It is hard to give anyone not alive at the time the palpable, visceral public tsunami of grief that followed, for years, after the princess' death, that was followed by anger towards Crown Inc and Charles. Anger at the palace for years of cold-blooded treatment of her and anger at Charles for rejecting her in favour of his frowzy lifelong paramour Camilla. (It was, of course, much more complicated than that.) Back then, Charles' views on the environment were perceived as fringe and a bit of a doolally indulgence while his Prince's Trust charity (now the King's Trust) quietly changed young Britons lives without anyone quite noticing. He was seen as something of a busted flush, and there was a genuine, ongoing conversation about whether the crown should skip a generation and go straight to William. Like his mother, the last 25 years have seen Charles work tirelessly to shake off that image and to replace it with one of widespread respect. Today, the King is a man hailed for his lifelong, dogged commitment to climate action and relentlessly turning lights off, whose nearly 60 years of hard work, public service and dedication are finally being recognised and valued. Just don't give the man a fountain pen. Queen Camilla The King's greatest, formerly unthinkable achievement: Bringing Camilla in from the cold. The story is not true but telling nonetheless - in the 90s it was claimed that such was public hatred towards Camilla that someone had chucked a bread roll at her in the supermarket. In 2000, the UK and the world was truly buffeddled - how could Charles have chucked over dazzling, orphan-hugging Diana for Camilla, a woman who permanently looks like she had just come in from doing the horses or field dressing a pheasant? Diana's labels said 'Versace'; Camilla's said, '100 per cent viscose'. Back then, the idea that this woman would one day be Queen and crowned alongside Charles at Westminster Abbey would have been ludicrous. However, Camilla has shown us all. Since marrying Charles in 2005, the Queen's main charitable focus has been on fighting domestic and sexual violence, doing everything from persistently giving speeches, filming a moving documentary and spearheading a campaign to provide toiletry bags to rape victims in hospitals. She is the first royal patron in history of a rape crisis centre. Also, finally the world is appreciating that she and Charles are a great love story. Their chemistry, the fizz, their devotion to and adoration of one another is abundantly clear. Prince William Adios Eton, hello world. In 2000 the prince finished high school and trundled off to enjoy a gap year that included training with the Welsh Guards in Belize, scrubbing toilets in a remote village in Chile while teaching English and 4am starts helping out a British dairy farm. In 2001 he would finally go to university, at St Andrews in Scotland, and there not only managed to get a very average degree but to woo the woman who has, and will, save the monarchy from themselves and those recessive Hapsburgh genes. As the world watched William grow up, he proceeded to do the unthinkable and actually get a paying job, piloting a search and rescue chopper and then later an air ambulance, responding to unthinkable accidents and quite literally saving lives. Over the last decade he and Kate, The Princess of Wales, have quietly done away with the nearly century-long model of royalling - of ribbon cuttings and tree-plantings and their presence simply being seen as enough - to replace that with highly dynamic and forward-looking doing. William is currently in the midst of his decades-long handing out of nearly $100 million to fund innovative solutions to the climate crisis and has relentlessly worked on destigmatising mental health, especially for men. Kate, The Princess of Wales It does not bear thinking about: where the royal family would be today if William had ended up with the sort of aristo gal he had dated in his teens who could trace her lineage back to the Norman Conquest and had never eaten a Tesco sausage roll. Thank god. There have been plenty of bumps on the road to this point, like Kate's years of being harassed by the press and paparazzi, perpetually mocked as 'Waity Katie' and more recently was alleged to have been the 'royal racist' who commented on her unborn nephew's skin colour. Still she persisted and the Princess of Wales has evolved into a widely adored figure who, like William, has locked onto her legacy issue and is indefatigably plugging away, fundamentally changing early childhood in the UK in the hope of dramatically moving the dial on mental health and addiction for future generations. The Kate of 2025 is a woman who has, like the late Queen, just gotten on with it and in doing so has overturned all scepticism about how a girl pejoratively labelled as 'normal' would do having to carry the weight of a thousand-plus years of royal history on her shoulders. Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex Oh Harry. Where do we even begin? If you plotted his story in a novel it would seem too outlandish - the two tours on the frontline in Afghanistan, the naked billiards, the troubled, sozzled lost boy made good who found love with a stunning American with, of all outrageous things, a career, only to chuck it in and burn every bridge in exchange for psychologically unburdening himself and big fat pay cheques. Has any figure in the 982 years since William the Conqueror ditched Normandy to go to the UK and to boot out the Anglo-Saxons ever had such a precipitous and stunning change in public opinion as Aitch? The most recent stats show that 27 per cent of Brits have a positive view of him - and 63 per cent negative. The figure the Duke of Sussex cuts in 2025 is a man unmoored from his former job, identity and homeland as he fumbles around trying to build a new one. Photos shared by his wife Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex show a man whose personal life is filled with the joy of fatherhood and family but how will he fill the next 50 or 60 years of his life? Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex Imagine going back to the Dance of the Decades in 2000 and telling the Queen Mother and Margaret that Harry would marry a divorced actress from Los Angeles who had never heard of the Windsor Horse Show. But the story of the royal family is one indelibly shaped and changed by the Sussexes' love story. In 2016 she and Harry were set up on a blind date and only 18 months later, giddily, the couple announced their engagement to the world. It was all so fairytale and it was all over so fast. The stardust barely lasted two years and by January 2020, the Sussexes were out, done with following the long established script and playing ball and off to borrow a private jet to point towards California. It is hard to think of a more lightning rod figure than Meghan, a woman who attracts such vehemence of opinion there is a PhD thesis in unpicking it all. The Duchess of Sussex is a woman who, for better or worse, must be hailed for always following her own star and charting her own path, one that has taken her back to her home state and is unlikely to ever see the Clarence House drinks trolley again. More Coverage Meghan and Harry cut staff to 'save cash' 'Big illusion': Meghan's brand shattered In 2025, the duchess is a woman busy making her own mark and trying to convince the world of the life changing power of flower sprinkles as her entrepreneurial push with her As Ever brand continues. Next up, the launch of a rosé.
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lady Glenconner's Picnic Papers - Butlers and avocado soup: how the posh picnic
Lady Glenconner's Picnic Papers by Anne Glenconner (Bedford Square £10.99, 304pp) You might expect a picnic with a princess to be a glittering affair where you wash down caviar sandwiches with glass after glass of champagne, all in the shade of some great palace. However, if your royal hostess was Princess Margaret, you were more likely to find yourself wincing as you politely tried to swallow her picnic favourite: avocado soup. Lady Glenconner, former lady in waiting to the princess and self-described 'dedicated picnicker', has compiled this delightful book celebrating the very British obsession with picnicking. The contributors, all friends stretching from royalty to TV stars, each share a picnic tale, and the occasional recipe to add to Lady Glenconner's hamper. Lady Glenconner's life, as revealed in her fabulous memoir Lady In Waiting, has been stuffed with enough glamour, grandeur and tragedy to rival even the most dramatic episode of Downton Abbey. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that she has collected such an extraordinary list of friends in her 92 years. Most of the picnicdotes are a far cry from the rest of us eating pork pies and drinking warm prosecco in one's local park. Colin Tennant, husband of Lady Glenconner, also shared his wife's fanaticism for al fresco dining. Once at Glen (their Scottish country estate) he arranged a picnic at the loch for his eccentric uncle, Stephan Tennant, who thought the colour of heather vulgar. The only solution for such a problem was, of course, to organise hundreds of blue paper flowers to be stuck on the hill to mask the offending purple. 'So much better, darling boy' was the thanks from his uncle. Princess Margaret wouldn't picnic without her butler and, even then, thought that a proper picnic should be eaten indoors while seated at a chair. I would have thought this was called 'eating a meal' but who am I to question her royal highness? Peculiar tastes are rife in the upper echelons and Lady Glenconner shows that the greatest way to understand the eccentricities of the upper class is by glimpsing into their hampers. A staple feature of picnics provided by Princess Margaret's friend Angela Huth? Strawberry and chicken soup. No thanks! However, it's not just titled folk who share their picnic secrets with us. Graham Norton reveals that he too remembers picnics as an indoors affair, albeit sat in a car in Ireland rather than the Banqueting House of Hampton Court. His father would say all that was needed was a patch of blue sky 'big enough for a pair of sailor's trousers' and if you could see at least one tree, your meal would be transformed into a picnic. There are tips on picnicking while airborne, what to do when eating with a maharajah and how to wash up your dishes (all good picnics are served on china plates) if you find yourself stuck in the Sahara. From Hampton Court to the Himalayas and from Mick Jagger to Winston Churchill, this book is a movable feast of delightful anecdotes. If you want to discover what the great and the good are like at their most relaxed, then look no further than the Picnic Papers. Essential for every picnic hamper this summer.
Rhyl Journal
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Rhyl Journal
Staya swoops late for Dragon Stakes prize
A winner on her Yarmouth debut, the Havana Grey filly was then beaten less than two lengths into fifth place in the Queen Mary Stakes and was a 5-4 favourite for this Listed event on the strength of that form. Given plenty of time to find her feet by Callum Shepherd, she was delivered with her challenge widest of all inside the last of five furlongs and knuckled down when needed to get the better of a brief tussle with Military Code by a head. Thrilling finish! Grey filly Staya gets the better of Military Code to strike for Listed honours in the 50 Years Together @Coral Dragon Stakes for @GScottracing, @CallumSheppy and @KHK_Racing — Sandown Park (@Sandownpark) July 4, 2025 Scott said: 'I'm really pleased with her and I thought Callum negated the draw (stall two) well and kept her out of trouble. 'I think you can probably upgrade her performance as she had to take back and back and back and come with one staying run. 'She hit the line very well and booked herself a step back up in grade and will maybe go another furlong next time as well.' Having seen his exciting juvenile filly pick up some winning black type, the Newmarket handler has big-race plans for the rest of the campaign. 'To be honest I was never going to go five furlongs again after Ascot, but with her being a precocious, strong two-year-old filly I wanted to bank that stakes race with her,' he added. 'We'll go for the Princess Margaret at Ascot next and in a dream world you'd be thinking Princess Margaret, the Lowther at York and then the Cheveley Park at Newmarket. That's really what I've got in my mind for her, but obviously a lot can change along the line. 'She'll be kept busy as she's a very durable filly with a good mind, typical of the stallion, so she'll have a busy campaign if she keeps giving us the right signs.'
