A royal insider has described how Princess Margaret possessed a ‘slightly sadistic streak’, which led her to be ‘extremely demanding’ and ‘bad-tempered’ with palace staff.

Palace staff are a staple of royal life, helping members of the family with their day-to-day activities.

Nonetheless, the nature of their roles has shifted over recent decades, transitioning from a calling— where staff were at the perpetual service of the Royals— to more of a standard day job equipped with the benefits of a contemporary workplace setting.

For the members of the Royal Family who lived through this transition it proved difficult to adapt – as one senior member of the firm discovered.

Tom Quinn, in his royal biography Yes Ma’am, wrote that Princess Margaret, who would be 95 today, ‘never really quite accepted that she needed to change her approach towards her staff’.

Royal staff members who worked for Margaret told Quinn that the princess had a reputation for being ‘extremely demanding and bad-tempered’.

Quinn recounts how Margaret, upon returning from evening events, would rush to her television to check if it was still warm, signifying that the staff had been watching it. If warm, it would send her into a ‘rage’.

‘Additionally, she despised when any of her personal items were moved without her consent and would scold a servant in front of others, which could be particularly humiliating.

‘She didn’t care because she had, I think, a slightly sadistic streak or maybe wanted to hurt people because she had been hurt,’ a former staff member told Quinn.

The princess also had a tendency to berate her staff if they witnessed an argument between Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon, often telling them to ‘Shoo! Shoo!’ or ‘Go on, bugger off!’.

Other members of staff mentioned Margaret’s kinder side.

‘When she heard I was getting divorced, she insisted I take extra time off if I needed it – she gave me two weeks and said if it wasn’t enough, I was to take more. She was really sweet about it,’ one former servant told Quinn.

According to Quinn, the complex contradictions in how Margaret treated her staff were influenced by the changing attitudes of the period.

He wrote: ‘Margaret’s treatment of her staff has a transitional feel to it. She had a great deal of her ancestors’ tendency to treat staff as objects, at the same time occasionally seeing and responding to their humanity. 

‘When she got angry with her staff, it was often because she was angry with her life and especially with her relationship with her husband, Lord Snowdon.’

Margaret’s outbursts were not reserved for just members of staff, with the princess also regularly berating her sister Queen Elizabeth II.

According to Andrew Morton, Margaret’s attitude sometimes revealed ‘a resentment and indifference that seemed almost ill-mannered’.

The bestselling author writes in his book, Elizabeth & Margaret: ‘She could and would say things to the Queen and, for that matter, the Queen Mother that had even long-serving courtiers shaking their heads.

‘In turn, her sister and mother rarely reacted with anything other than calm equanimity.

‘They had seen and heard it all before – and then some.’ 

Morton describes Margaret’s questionable behaviour at a state banquet in 1957.

During the event, a government minister complimented the Queen on her evening dress, prompting Margaret to remark: ‘Darling, that does show your bosom too much.’

On another occasion, while at a barbecue at Balmoral, Margaret threw a wet dishcloth at the Queen’s face. However, her sister simply ducked and continued clearing up.

‘She had learnt not to show too much concern as it merely pandered to Margaret’s dramatic nature,’ Morton writes.

Similarly, during an afternoon tea visit, the Queen found Margaret in a ‘curmudgeonly mood,’ despite the presence of her lady-in-waiting, Lady Glenconner.

Margaret insisted on listening to The Archers and silenced the Queen whenever she tried to speak, saying, ‘shhhh’.

Morton explains: ‘It was just like the old days in the nursery, though this time, rather than Crawfie, Lady Glenconner took control, firmly telling Margaret, “Ma’am, the Queen is here, and she can’t stay all that long. Would you like me to help pour the tea?”‘

Lady Glenconner then switched off the radio, poured the tea, and left the room.

Margaret was known for her lively social life, but as her health declined, she withdrew from socialising.

‘Now dependent on others to help her with the simplest tasks, she felt embarrassed and undignified,’ Morton pens.

‘As her cousin Margaret Rhodes put it: “All her life she has been the sparkling one, but since her [first] stroke three years ago, she has lost that particular facility to sparkle.”‘

Margaret made a rare public appearance for her mother’s 101st birthday celebrations at Clarence House.

According to Morton: ‘Both the Queen and QM tried to dissuade her from attending, as they felt that she would be upset by the reaction of people to her appearance’.

She insisted, however, on being there, although ‘she looked a sad, pathetic shell of the glamorous, vibrant woman she once was’.

Seated in a wheelchair and wearing dark glasses to shield her eyes, Margaret seemed to take great joy in the occasion.

She was ‘happy to support her mother on her big day for what turned out to be the last time’.

On February 8, 2002, Margaret suffered another stroke and passed away the following morning at King Edward VIII’s Hospital, with her children by her side.