Princess Margaret ‘left with fetal alcohol syndrome after Queen Mother’s drinking’

Princess Margaret suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome brought on by the Queen Mother’s drinking, a new biography has claimed.

The syndrome is caused by a developing baby’s exposure to alcohol in the womb and can give the child distinctive facial features and cause difficulties with learning, impulse control and managing emotions.

Princess Margaret a month before her 25th birthday in 1955.Credit: Getty Images

Meryle Secrest, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated biographer, has re-examined the princess’s personality and personal struggles in light of greater knowledge about the condition.

Princess Margaret and the Curse, Secrest’s forthcoming unofficial biography, speculates that the princess, who died in 2002 aged 72, suffered from an “invisible disability” brought on by fetal alcohol syndrome.

While the book states that Margaret lacked the alcohol syndrome’s tell-tale smooth lip philtrum and small eyes, she did display characteristic mood swings, stunted growth, difficulties learning how to write and painful migraines.

It cites accounts of the Queen Mother’s drinking in later life, when it was claimed by a former equerry that she would enjoy gin and Dubonnet: two parts pink vermouth to one part gin, wine and port until the 6pm “magic hour” when martinis would be prepared.

Fetal alcohol syndrome was not well understood until the 1970s, the book states, and it is likely the young Queen Mother would not have been advised to avoid alcohol during her pregnancy with Margaret.

An undated photo of Margaret (right) with her father, King George VI, sister Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen), and her mother. Credit: Marcus Adams

But the book says that in the Queen Mother’s letters from the time of her pregnancy with Elizabeth, she writes that she could not bear the thought of wine, suggesting that she may have drunk less when expecting the future queen.

A 1925 letter to her husband, the future King George VI, said: “The sight of wine simply turns me up! Isn’t it extraordinary! It will be a tragedy if I never recover my drinking powers.”

The book puts forward no claim that the late Queen suffered from any condition.

Secrest, who was awarded a medal for her work in 2006 by former US president George W. Bush, has looked at Margaret’s life and compared it to typical cases of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Now 95, the biographer notes that children with the syndrome may typically misbehave and have difficulty regulating their behaviour and emotions.

The biography states that Margaret’s family and her nurses found her to be “naughty” and “mischievous and provocative”, at one point sinking a boat during a rowing lesson by removing the plug in the hull.

Margaret attends Wimbledon in 1965.Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

She was also impulsive and would “blurt out the truth”, it is claimed, as can be common among those with fetal alcohol syndrome. The princess suffered a nervous breakdown in 1974.

Her later private life would also raise eyebrows. Her marriage to Lord Snowden ended in divorce after both partners had extramarital affairs.

The book states that fetal alcohol syndrome sufferers often have stunted growth, and notes that Margaret appeared to stop growing when she reached 152 centimetres.

Additionally, it is claimed she had a poor awareness of physical danger, another effect, citing her apparent indifference to setting her hair on fire during a family get-together.

Secrest has cited the work of Dr Kenneth Jones, a leading expert in fetal alcohol syndrome, who first properly identified the issue in 1973. In the book, she writes that Jones “had a great many behaviours and physical characteristics in common with other afflicted children”.

Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth with King George VI in 1947.Credit: AP

There is no firm evidence that Margaret suffered from an alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, and the new biography has been written by comparing Margaret’s life, as attested in pre-existing written sources, to those who have suffered from the condition.

The Telegraph, London

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