THE Queen was hit by another divorce in her family tonight after Princess Margaret’s son the Earl of Snowdon and his wife Serena decided to split.
Her nephew, who was known as Viscount Linley until the death of his father three years ago, and Serena, the Countess of Snowdon, have both filed divorce papers after 26 years of marriage.
It comes only a week after the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, and his wife Autumn announced they had separated and were planning to divorce.
The 93-year-old monarch, who admitted in her Christmas broadcast that 2019 had been a “bumpy” year after a series of family traumas, is understood to be upset by the latest crisis to envelop her extended family.
She has always been close to her nephew, David Armstrong-Jones, 58, and Serena, 49, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat whose father, Charles Stanhope, is the Earl of Harrington.
The couple who have two children, Charles, 20, and Margarita, 17, spent Christmas with the Queen at Sandringham and walked to church with other members of the Royal Family in front of the cameras and hundreds of well-wishers.
In a statement, a spokesman for the couple said:“The Earl and Countess of Snowdon have amicably agreed that their marriage has come to an end and that they shall be divorced.
They ask that the press respect their privacy and that of their family.”
Their divorce is expected to be finalised later this year, making 2020 an already equally difficult year for the Royal Family after its woes in 2019.
A source added: “David and Serena have agreed that their marriage has broken down, they have in effect been living separate lives for some time.
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