![]() ![]() ![]() He accompanied the couple to the Dolomites in Italy afterwards for a short stay.Īccording to Noel Botham’s 2002 book Margaret: The Last Real Princess, the royal had supposedly flirted with Catholicism. In fact, in 2003’s Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography, Dazzle is mentioned after he organised a trip for the revered British actor and his wife Merula to meet the Pope in 1994. The clergyman was born in 1946 and started out life as a civil servant at the Department of the Environment before finding his higher calling from god.ĭazzle had decided to take Holy Orders in 1984 and left behind his work in the civil service, much to the surprise of his friends.ĭazzle embarked on training in Rome, Italy before coming back to England and serving as a priest in Camden and Chiswick, later serving as a Chaplain at King’s College London.Īlong with Princess Margaret, Dazzle was friends with Star Wars actor Alec Guinness as well as fellow priest and The Communards Reverend Richard Coles, according to the Radio Times. With the help of priest Derek “Dazzle” Jennings (Tom Burke), Princess Margaret discovered her cousins were very much alive and still living at the Royal Earlswood Hospital.ĭazzle was indeed a real Catholic priest with whom Princess Margaret had a close relationship following the end of her messy romance with Roddy Llewellyn (Harry Treadaway). Was Dazzle Jennings from The Crown a real person? To make matters worse, in the show it was suggested her relatives’ deaths were also fabricated and they were essentially written out of history. Princess Margaret (Helen Bonham Carter) was left shocked when she found out the truth about cousins on her mother’s side of the family. Season four of The Crown recounted the tragic story of Queen Elizabeth II’s (played by Olivia Colman) forgotten cousins Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon. ![]() Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights. Reverend Richard Coles, a friend of Dazzle's, wrote in his 2014 memoir that Margaret was among the visitors who saw Dazzle just before his death.We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Margaret ultimately didn't convert, but the two remained friends, unlike they do in The Crown. "She used any excuse to place herself near him, and used a variety of unsubtle ploys to let him know how impressed with him she was." But "for various reasons, which of course she well understood, he felt unable to respond to her in that way." “He was a great comfort to Princess Margaret but she was clearly attracted to him in other ways, too," he wrote. Jennings said Margaret described the night she met Hume as "one of the most rewarding, fascinating and satisfying nights of her life," according to The Catholic Leader.Īuthor Noel Botham also claims in his 2012 book, Margaret: The Last Real Princess, that Margaret was quite infatuated with Dazzle. Dazzle was the one who encouraged her to make the switch, going so far as to arrange a meeting between Margaret and the Catholic Cardinal George Basil Hume at a 1988 dinner party. By that time, he'd already befriended Princess Margaret: Irish art historian Homan Potterton wrote in his memoir Who Do You Think I Am? that Jennings "dazzled" the Princess.Īccording to author Noel Botham's book, Margaret: The Last Real Princess, Margaret actually wanted to convert to Catholicism but did not due so out of loyalty to Elizabeth. However, he later converted to Catholicism and became so enamored with his new faith that he decided to enroll in the priesthood. Jennings was raised in the Church of England and worked as a civil servant in the British Government’s Department of the Environment. So Henry decided to become the head of his own religion - the Church of England - of which Queen Elizabeth II is now the de facto leader. The family broke away from the Roman church in the 16th Century because King Henry VIII wanted to annul his marriage and marry someone else, but the Pope at the time refused to grant one. There's plenty of evidence that the two were close friends, but it seems Jennings' interest in the Princess may have been more spiritual than physical, as he had hoped to convert her to Roman Catholicism.įor context, the British Royal Family are adherents to the Church of England, which has a lot in common with Catholicism but does not recognize the Pope as having any authority. In real life, Jennings did become a priest, but it's unclear if he ever had a fling with Princess Margaret before doing so. Among the many tangled relationships featured in The Crown Season 4 is the one between Princess Margaret and Derek Jennings, aka Dazzle, who begins Episode 7 by informing her he's joining the priesthood. ![]()
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