Lady Anne Glenconner, 94, has revealed a shocking moment from her years as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, when the royal spontaneously dismantled a chandelier without any apparent plan to reassemble it.
Speaking to Hello!, Lady Anne recalled the incident, which occurred while she was serving the late Queen's younger sister, who died in 2002 at the age of 71. Although Margaret could be serious, there were also moments of extreme levity.
A Spontaneous Royal Decision
Lady Anne recounted: "She loved cleaning my car and she had a huge pair of yellow Marigold gloves. I had a chandelier and, to my horror, she managed to get that down."
"I don't know how she did it. She started taking off bits, and I Said, 'Well, ma'am, how do you know how to put it back together again?' and she was a bit taken aback, because she'd rather forgotten about that," she added.
Other Surprising Royal Gestures
This is not the first time Lady Anne has spoken about surprising actions by senior royals. Last year, in her book Manners and Mischief: An A-Z of a Life Lived Well, she described a gesture by King Charles that stunned her.
In another interview with Hello!, Lady Anne discussed attending Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 Coronation and said she was surprised to be invited to a second event.
She recalled: "He could only invite 120 or so close friends, so I was very honoured to be asked. And of course, it was wonderful, because I could relax. I had dinner with him three days later. I went in and he said: 'How was it Anne?' And I said 'Magnificent!'".
Life at 93
During the interview, published last year when Lady Anne was 93, she expressed appreciation for her life, adding: "How could I not be having the time of my life? Here I am, at 93, and the other day I went to Vienna. I did a talk and went to the wonderful opera."
"And then I went to Chatsworth for the Queen's Reading Room Festival, where I was sitting next to Jilly Cooper. I had the most wonderful dinner with her, with lots of champagne. I couldn't believe that just a few days later she died," she concluded.
