Susannah Constantine says Princess Margaret was like a "mother figure" to her.
Susannah Constantine on her relationship with the late Princess Margaret
The 60-year-old TV presenter had known the late royal - who died in 2002 at the age of 71 and was the sister of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth - when she dated her son David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon during a time when her own mother was facing a battle with alcoholism but cut off contact when he got engaged to Serena, Countess of Snowdon in 1993.
She said: "She was in my life at a time when my mum was seriously unravelling. She was like a mother figure, and you still need that, even in your early twenties. I felt it wasn’t appropriate [to stay in contact] when David got engaged to [his now ex-wife] Serena."
However, the former 'What Not to Wear' host - who went on to marry entrepreneur Sten Bertelsen and now has Cece, 18, Esme, 21, and Joe, 23 with him - explained that Princess Margaret had thrown a dinner party to celebrate her engagement to Sten and became "mischievous" by telling her fiance how in "love" Susannah had been wither her son.
She told The Sunday Times: "I got a call saying, ‘Princess Margaret would like to give a dinner for you and Sten to celebrate your engagement.’ Part of it was nosiness on her part, but also to make sure that I was going to be in safe hands. And it was lovely. She stirred her wooden spoon in a mischievous way, telling poor Sten how in love David and I had been!"