FAMILY ties

THE QUEEN WAS ALSO ESPECIALLY CLOSE TO HER MOTHER AND SISTER

They were known as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, but to each other they were simply Lilibet and Margot. In fact, it’s been said that when the Queen Mother gave birth to the younger sibling on August 21, 1930, a 4-year-old Elizabeth was told that her new baby sister would be called Margaret Rose, to which she replied, “I shall call her Bud. She isn’t really a rose yet. She’s only a bud.”

SISTER ACT

In wartime broadcast with Margaret on October 13, 1940, Elizabeth said, “My sister is by my side and we are both going to say goodnight to you. Come on, Margaret. Goodnight, children. Goodnight and good luck to you all.”

Despite Netflix’s The Crown portraying their relationship as a power struggle, royal insiders say the sisters were, in fact, unconditionally devoted to each other – something their mother and father took great pride in. Royal biographer Hugo Vickers told how Margaret was, “the companion of her childhood, and she was younger than the Queen. They did talk a lot, more or less every day, and she was a very, very constant presence in her life”.