The 90-year-old socialite was lady-in-waiting to the late Princess Margaret – who died in 2002 at the age of 71 – and was a maid of honour at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 but admitted that even though she had “completely fallen” for Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner, she ended up having an affair when the marriage became difficult.
She told Fox News Digital: “[Colin] was attractive, he was funny. He was full of wonderful ideas and just made me see that my life could be different. It could be a great adventure. And I completely fell for him. He was also a great friend of Princess Margaret. He was one of the young men she went out with. And I was always rather amazed that he chose me, that he actually wanted to marry me. And a lot of the time we were very happy. I had seen him lose his temper before we got married.
“He always said, ‘The minute we’re married, I won’t need to lose my temper.’ Which, of course, I believed. But he lost his temper on our honeymoon. His promise of not to lose his temper didn’t last long.”
Glenconner said she lost her trust in men. She said Tennant had many mistresses, and to cope, she turned to the companionship of a close friend, resulting in the 34-year affair.
“We saw each other once a week. We had lunch and the occasional weekend. But he gave me back [my trust]. And I realised that men can be wonderful, that men could be kind, and all that. He made so much difference in my life.”
The baroness – who remained married to Colin until he died in 2010 at the age of 83 following a battle with prostate cancer – claimed that the mystery man’s wife was aware of the affair but alleged that she was possibly guilty of adultery too as she insisted that being unfaithful was how marriages were kept “together” in those days as an “alternative” to divorce.
She added: “She sent me a memento after he died… I think she probably had some [affairs] of her own. That’s what people used to do in marriages. That’s how they kept marriages together, really. People had affairs. And yet, we carried on. It was an alternative to divorce.”
