LONDON (AFP).- British photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, the former husband of Queen Elizabeth II's late sister Princess Margaret, has died at the age of 86, the photographic agency where he worked said on Friday.

"Camera Press is very sad to announce the death of royal photographer Lord Snowdon," his agency said.

Buckingham Palace said the queen had been informed of her former brother-in-law's death but did not comment further.

Armstrong-Jones, better known by his aristocratic title Lord Snowdon, led a hedonistic lifestyle of Caribbean holidays and celebrity parties with Margaret that epitomised the "Swinging Sixties".

They married in Westminster Abbey in 1960 after Margaret was persuaded to break off her relationship with RAF pilot Peter Townsend, who was divorced.

Their union was a turbulent one from the start, with both engaging in extramarital affairs.

It was revealed in 2004 that Snowdon had fathered a daughter shortly before marrying Margaret.

They eventually divorced in 1978 after Margaret embarked on a relationship with Roddy Llewellyn, a landscape gardener and playboy 18 years her junior.

Margaret died in 2002 after a lifetime of heavy smoking and drinking. Her mother the Queen Mother passed away a few weeks later at the age of 101.

Snowdon became famous for his celebrity portraits, including of Barbara Cartland, Laurence Olivier and J.R.R. Tolkien.

He was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001.


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