Members of the Royal Family are forced to live out their entire lives in the public eye. As a result, a plethora of stories and news reports often emerge when a royal has allegedly been exhibiting strange or concerning behavior. According to a former celebrity editor, he had no idea what would happen when he invited one particular member of the Royal Family to a dinner party.
Former Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, wrote about his encounter with Princess Margaret in his memoir, When the Going Was Good. Having asked his friend Reinaldo Herrera to host a dinner party for the royal, Carter extensively prepared for Margaret's arrival.
"Reinaldo went through a number of advance items that Margaret would require for the night," Carter wrote in his memoir (via the Daily Mail). "These included bottles of Famous Grouse whiskey, Highland Spring mineral water, and barley water."
Graydon revealed that Princess Margaret was "accompanied by Anne Glenconner, her lady-in-waiting, and Anne's husband, Colin Tennant, who had developed Mustique in the 1950s."
Carter was "exhaustively instructed" about the important aspects of royal protocol, and wrote in his memoir, "The evening was choreographed in a manner that would have made the master of the New York City Ballet tip his hat." For instance, the guests weren't allowed to sit down for dinner before Princess Margaret, and they also had to wait for her to "leave the apartment before" they were allowed to do so, which ultimately proved to be problematic.
"Margaret just stayed," Carter explained. "And stayed. She wasn't being particularly festive. She wasn't being particularly un-festive. She was just staying. And smoking and drinking." The later Margaret stayed at the dinner party, the more "people were starting to panic," the editor explained. "Margaret finally got up from the dinner table and we made our way the short distance to the living room. We were all waiting for her to start making her way toward the exit."
Unfortunately, the night only got more disastrous when one of the guests "leaned over in a half curtsy to Princess Margaret, who was sitting on the sofa, and as she leaned forward I guess she nicked her gently in the shin, whereupon Princess Margaret shrieked, 'You've wounded me. You've wounded me!'"
When Queen Elizabeth's sister eventually left the dinner party, sometime after midnight, the remaining guests felt like "survivors of a difficult airplane landing...as they step onto the tarmac," Carter wrote.
For whatever reason, Princess Margaret's attendance at Carter's New York dinner party was far from smooth—but it was certainly memorable.
