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The Queen and Princess Margaret - the big difference between their grandchildren

The late Princess sadly died in 2002

the queen grandchildren
Diane Shipley
Senior Online Writer
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The Queen is a doting grandparent to eight grandchildren, including, of course, heir to the throne Prince William and his brother, Prince Harry.

Like her sister, the late Princess Margaret also had children, although she divorced her husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, in 1978 after 18 years of marriage.

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The pair welcomed a son and a daughter, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon and Lady Sarah Chatto, both of whom had children of their own.

But while the Queen has four granddaughters, Princess Margaret had just one: David's daughter Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones, who recently marked her 20th birthday.

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Sadly, though, the Queen's sister never met her only granddaughter, as she died three months before Margarita was born.

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The monarch has been fortunate enough to see all of her granddaughters grow up, and three of the four of them now have children of their own.

queen margaret 1946© Photo: Getty Images

The royal siblings in 1946

Zara Tindall, 41, shares three kids with her husband Mike: Mia, eight, Lena, three, and Lucas, one. Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank share one-year-old son August, and Princess Beatrice, who married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020, welcomed daughter Siena in September last year.

The Queen's youngest granddaughter, Lady Louise Windsor, the Earl and Countess of Wessex's eldest child, is just 18 years old.

She was known to have a close bond with the late Prince Philip, with whom she shared a passion for the sport of carriage riding, with the late Prince bequeathing her his carriage in his will.

lady margarita family© Photo: Getty Images

Margarita with brother Charles and her parents in 2017

The Queen's other grandchildren are Zara's brother Peter Phillips, 44, and Louise's brother James, Viscount Severn, who is 14.

Princess Margaret's three grandsons are Sarah's grown-up children Samuel, 25, and Arthur, 23 and David's son Charles, Viscount Linley, 22.

At the time of the late royal's death, the Queen released a statement confirming the tragic news of her sister's stroke, and revealing that her children were by her side as she died "peacefully in her sleep".

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