The Countess of Snowdon | |
---|---|
Born | Serena Alleyne Stanhope 1 March 1970 Limerick, Ireland |
Noble family |
Stanhope (by birth) Windsor (by marriage) |
Spouse(s) | |
Issue |
|
Parents |
|
Education | St Mary's School, Wantage |
Serena Alleyne Armstrong-Jones, Countess of Snowdon ( née Stanhope; born 1 March 1970) is the wife of David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon.
She was born The Honourable Serena Alleyne Stanhope [1] in Limerick, Ireland, the daughter of the then Viscount Petersham and his wife Virginia Freeman-Jackson, a socialite. Her parents divorced when she was 13 years old. She has one older brother. Through her father, she is a descendant of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England. [2]
She spent most of her childhood between Chelsea with her father and her father's girlfriend (and later wife) Anita Howard, Countess of Suffolk, and Monaco with her mother. [3] She went to St Mary's School, Wantage, where she was described as being "more interested in lacrosse than Latin". [3] After leaving St Mary's School, she went on to study art in Italy. She also attended a finishing school in Switzerland. [4]
In 1989, she joined Sotheby's as a trainee. She then worked as a publicist for Giorgio Armani until August 1993, two months before her wedding. [4] She subsequently had her own shop called 'Serena Linley Provence'. [5] The store closed in 2014.
On 8 October 1993, she married David Armstrong-Jones (then known as Viscount Linley), [6] the only son of Princess Margaret a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II, and first cousin of King Charles III, at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. They had met when her father commissioned Linley to design a walnut dining table for his Chelsea house. [3]
There were 650 guests in attendance at the wedding, including Elton John, Jerry Hall, the Aga Khan, and Constantine II of Greece. [7] In addition, there were an estimated 5,000 spectators in the streets. [3] She wore a $9,000 dress designed by Bruce Robbins, noted for its resemblance to Princess Margaret's 1960 Norman Hartnell wedding dress, and the 'Lotus Tiara', which was on loan from her mother-in-law, Princess Margaret. [8] Her going-away outfit was designed by Robinson Valentine. [9]
They have two children together:
When Viscount Linley became the Earl of Snowdon on the death of his father in 2017, she became the Countess of Snowdon. [11]
In February 2020, she and the Earl of Snowdon separated, and a spokesperson confirmed they will be getting a divorce. [12]
He married the Hon. Serena Stanhope, the daughter of the landowner Viscount Petersham, in 1993