Who was Princess Margaret's husband Antony Armstrong-Jones?

If you've been watching The Crown, you'll no doubt be fascinated by Tony

On December 8, Netflix dropped the sophomore season of its hit show The Crown, which follows Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne in series 1.

One of the stand-out storylines is the evolving relationship between Princess Margaret and Antony ‘Tony’ Armstrong-Jones , who are brilliantly portrayed by Vanessa Kirby and Matthew Goode.

Without giving too much away (it is based on historical fact after all), Princess Margaret falls in love with and ultimately marries Tony – a photographer and a ‘commoner’.

In the show, Tony is portrayed as a libertine and while dating Margaret has many other sexual partners including a couple – alluding to real-life rumours that Tony was bisexual.

Princess Margaret - In pictures

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But what was Tony’s life actually like?

Antony Armstrong-Jones was born on March 7, 1930 at Eaton Terrace, Belgravia, in London. His parents divorced when he was five years old and as a schoolboy, he contracted polio while on holiday in Wales and subsequently spent six months in a Liverpool hospital recovering.

Tony attended Eton College where his great-nephews Prince William and Prince Harry would go nearly half a century later.

Tony then went onto study architecture at Cambridge but didn't pass his second-year exams. After leaving, he started to forge a career in photography, particularly in the areas of fashion, design and theatre.

Margaret and Tony met through London’s social scene – which they were both active members of. They began to spend time together in 1958 and by then he already knew the Royal Family as he had taken portraits of the Queen and her family in the grounds of Buckingham Palace in 1957.

Vanessa Kirby and Matthew Goode in The Crown - in pictures

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The Crown also alludes to Tony making another woman pregnant, Camilla Fry, at the same time as he and Margaret announce their engagement. Camilla Fry gave birth to her daughter Polly in May 1960 and in 2004 Polly herself wrote in the Daily Mail that she'd taken a DNA test which revealed Lord Snowdon was her father.

While The Crown leads us to believe that portrait he took of Margaret was taken before they started dating, the portrait was given to the press in 1967 – seven years after the couple married at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 1960.

Margaret and Tony were married for 18 years before divorcing in 1978. In that time they had two children, Sarah and David, and were permanent fixtures on the Swinging Sixties social scene. He was created Earl of Snowdon and Viscount Linley, of Nymans in the County of Sussex on October 6, 1961.

After their divorce, Tony remarried the same year. He married Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg and the couple had one daughter, Frances. They split up in 2000 after reports revealed Tony had had an affair and fathered another woman’s child.

Throughout his life, Tony’s career grew from strength to strength from photographing the band Queen to a documentary he produced, Don't Count the Candles, which won him two Emmys.

Now, more than 100 of his photographs are in permanent collections at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Tony passed away in his sleep on January 13, 2017 aged 86.

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