The details of Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend's relationship existed in whispers and accounts from friends for many years, but in 1978, he released his autobiography and detailed some of the intimate moments in his relationship with the princess. Of the first time they admitted their feelings for one another, Townsend wrote: "It was then that we made the mutual discovery of how much we meant to one another. She listened, without uttering a word, as I told her, very quietly, of my feelings. Then she simply said: 'That is exactly how I feel, too'" (via Today).
Still, other moments detailed in the book weren't as touching as the moment the couple realized their love for each other. As aforementioned, some reports suggested that it was Townsend who ended his engagement to Margaret, not the other way around as her official statement indicated in 1955. The king's former equerry addressed the dissolving of their relationship in his book, noting that he couldn't let Margaret sacrifice her entire life for him.
"She could have married me only if she had been prepared to give up everything — her position, her prestige, her privy purse," Townsend admitted (via People). "I simply hadn't the weight, I knew it, to counterbalance all she would have lost."
