Catching up on previous seasons of The Crown before diving into season five? If you're curious about the real life Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, read on for our story from 2019:
Season three of The Crown is not subtle in its depiction of the deterioration of Princess Margaret's marriage. Both she and her husband had affairs, and Lord Snowdon would eventually go on to marry Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, a woman with whom he started a romantic relationship while he was still married to the Queen sister.
In addition to her depiction on-screen, here's what you need to know about Lindsay-Hogg.
Prior to her relationship with Lord Snowdon, Lucy was married to Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a British film, TV, and theater director.
Then-known as Lucy Mary Davies, she married Lindsay-Hogg in 1967. They divorced just a few years later in 1971.
Lucy and Snowdon met at a party, and then later on, she served as one of his assistants.
They had a romantic relationship for several years while he was still married to Princess Margaret. The Queen's sister's marriage was notoriously tempestuous, with infidelity on both sides.
According to Snowdon's biographer Anne de Courcy, Margaret did indeed call Lucy "the thing" as she does in the series.
Margaret's close friend Lady Glenconner says it was Lindsay-Hogg's pregnancy that prompted the royal couple to officially get a divorce.
"Tony pushed her into a divorce when his mistress, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, became pregnant in 1978 with their first child," Glenconner writes in her memoir Lady in Waiting. "Princess Margaret was devastated that her marriage had failed, but it was impossible for her to do anything about it."
Margaret and Snowdon divorced in 1978, marking the first royal major divorce since King Henry VIII's in 1540.
Lindsay-Hogg and Snowdon married in 1978 just a few months after his divorced from Margaret was finalized.
They tied the knot at the Kensington register office. They would go on to have one child together, Lady Frances Armstrong-Jones.
Frances now runs the style and culture publication Luncheon. Earlier this year, she posted about her parents' relationship on Instagram, writing
"My beautiful mother who has always put herself in the shadows so it’s up to me to shine a light on her which she would hate but she doesn’t own an iPhone or a computer so she’ll never know! Here she is with my father who she loved and devoted herself to for over forty years until the moment he died. She is an amazing mother and grandmother to our children, I would not be able to do my work without her unwavering support. Happy Mother’s Day.
It's unclear if Snowdon and Lindsay-Hogg ever divorced.
While several outlets have reported that the couple divorced in 2000, following the revelation that Snowdon had fathered a son out of wedlock with the journalist Melanie Cable-Alexander, in 2006 the Sunday Times reported that the couple had separated in 1998, but had never divorced, in a story about their daughter's marriage to Rodolphe von Hofmannsthal.
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
