Daily Mail - 19.08.2019

Page 22

Helena

joins tHe

House of

twindsor

... or why, as she stars as

The Crown’s Princess Margaret,

it’s the role Bonham Carter

was born to play

QQQ Daily Mail, Monday, August 19, 2019

Screen siblings: Helena as Princess Margaret

and Olivia Colman as the Queen in The Crown

heartbreaks. ALISON BOSHOFF has

the story of the ties that bind...

DOOMED LOVE FOR

MARRIED MEN
Princess Margaret’s heart-
break over group captain Peter
townsend — the married equerry
whose love she had to renounce —
is well known.
Helena Bonham carter has also
had cause to bitterly regret her
entanglement in her 20s with a
married man, actor Kenneth
Branagh. Branagh divorced wife
emma thompson after he and
Helena fell for each other on the
set of the film Mary shelley’s
Frankenstein in 1994, but the
romance was fraught and compli-
cated, and came to an end in 1999.
emma thompson, who married
actor greg Wise in 2003, said that
she had drawn on the heartbreak
of the situation when playing the
famous scene in Love actually
where she discovers her husband
has cheated on her.
she said: ‘that scene where my
character is standing by the bed
crying is so well known because it’s
something everyone’s been
through. i had my heart very badly

broken by Ken. so i knew what it

was like to find the necklace that

wasn’t meant for me.’

in another interview she said she

had made peace with Helena. she

said: ‘You can’t hold on to any-

thing like that. it’s pointless. i

haven’t got the energy for it.

Helena and i made our peace years

and years ago.’

in 1953, Peter townsend

divorced his first wife and asked

Princess Margaret, then only 22, to

marry him. she accepted — but the

Queen asked her to wait a year

so that she could complete a

post-coronation tour of the

commonwealth.

For two years, the scandal

dragged on with Prime Minister

Winston churchill arguing that

Margaret should be removed from

the line of succession.

a proposal was produced to this

effect which would have allowed

her to keep her royal title, duties

and civil list allowance.

But shortly afterwards, in Octo-

ber 1955, Margaret — who died in

2002, aged 71 — issued a statement

which ran: ‘i would like it to be

known that i have decided not to

marry group captain Peter

townsend. i have been aware that,

subject to my renouncing my rights

of succession, it might have been

possible for me to contract a civil

marriage. But mindful of the

church’s teachings that christian

marriage is indissoluble, and con-

scious of my duty to the common-

wealth, i have resolved to put these

considerations before others.

‘i have reached this decision

entirely alone,

and in doing so

i have been

strengthened by the

unfailing support

and devotion of group

captain townsend.’

A PENCHANT

FOR TOY BOYS

tHe Princess scandalised the

world by taking handsome

landscape gardener roddy

Llewellyn, 17 years her junior, as a

lover in the mid-seventies.

the Princess was introduced to

roddy in 1973 on Mustique by

colin tennant. in 1976 a picture of

the pair in their swimsuits was

published and soon after she and

her husband Lord snowdon

acknowledged their marriage was

over. they were divorced in 1978.

Helena Bonham carter is dating

a Danish writer, rye Dag Holmboe,

who is 21 years younger than she is.

the two of them are thought to

have met at a mutual friend’s

wedding over the summer of

2018 and have been an item since

last October. this May they were

P

rincess Margaret is

surely the role Helena

Bonham carter was born to

play. and soon she will be on

screen as the Queen’s sister

in the crown.

Pictures released last week by netflix

show Helena, 53, looking fully at ease under a

replica tiara, opposite Oscar-winner Olivia

colman as the Queen.

Helena replaces Vanessa Kirby in the series,

which will cover events from 1964 to 1977, and be

screened from november.

What unites well-connected Bonham carter with

her royal doppelganger? superficially, there is so

much — a handspan waist, skin as pale as cream, and

eyes which radiate a dangerous mischief.

Party-loving Princess Margaret — for decades the

showbiz wing of the House of Windsor — was just

5ft 1in, and Bonham carter is a mere half inch taller

(she sighs over her short legs in interviews).

Both developed a quirky personal style which is

sometimes celebrated and sometimes derided. they

share a love of hats, gloves, dark glasses and diamonds

— and big hair. More significantly, both have suffered

a succession of failed love affairs, and bitter

FROM DIOR TO WESTWOOD

AND A STYLE ALL THEIR OWN

Young lovers: Margaret with Roddy, left, and Helena with Rye

It’s a wrap: Furry stoles and flowery hats, right

Page 22

Screensiblings:HelenaasPrincessMargaret

Margaret was an inter-

nationally celebrated beauty

as a young woman, and wore

a fantastic cream christian

Dior gown for her 21st

birthday. she loved Dior’s

new Look with nipped in

waists and full skirts and

was a Dior client almost

until the end of her life.

Her 21st birthday dress is

on loan to the V&a for their

Dior exhibition. there was a

previous exhibition at the

V&a in 2007 where modern

British designers such

as Vivienne Westwood

presented contemporary

fashion inspired by Princess

Margaret’s style.

Westwood is the designer

most favoured by Helena for

her red carpet looks. Off

duty, however, she favours

eclectic, often floral layers

which, like Margaret’s

kaftans and turbans, aren’t

everyone’s cup of tea.

she’s even been seen wear-

ing bloomers to the gym.

asked what designer she

was planning to wear to the

Oscars, Bonham carter said

that she hadn’t yet decided

but promised, jokingly: ‘it’s

going to be catastrophic.’