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CNN Sunday Morning

Britain Mourns the Death of a Princess

Aired February 10, 2002 - 08:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Britain is mourning the death of a princess. Queen Elizabeth's younger sister, Princess Margaret, died yesterday morning in London after suffering the latest in a series of strokes. CNN's Hala Gorani joins us live now from London -- Kensington Gardens, to be specific, for the latest -- Hala.

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, a rather understated, a rather subdued reaction to the death of Queen Elizabeth's younger sister at 71 years old. You mentioned that she died yesterday morning after suffering a stroke. She had been dogged (ph) by ill health for the last few years. She was a heavy smoker up until a few years ago. Again, still smoking up to 60 cigarettes a day. She had suffered a series of strokes and had suffered some paralysis to her body. She was seen lately wheelchair-bound, wearing dark heavy glasses.

Some say that perhaps she had even gone partially blind as a result of the strokes that she suffered. This is the image that we have in our minds now, because for the last few years, Princess Margaret has only rarely been seen in public. And when she has been seen in public, she's been rather ill. But you have to remember that in her heyday, in the 50s and in the 60s, Princess Margaret was really the center of social life. She was a party lover. She was a partygoer, she was fun-loving. She grabbed headlines as much for her party lifestyle as for her love life.

She fell in love with group Captain Peter Townsend (ph) when she was young. The only problem was he was almost twice her age and a divorcee, so she had to renounce that romance and ended up getting married in 1960 and divorced in the 70s. Then she engaged in a relationship with somebody 17 years her junior. So you can see that she did have quite a colorful life, and in her time grabbed many headlines.

However, at this point, she's of another generation. She is not producing the kind of reaction, for instance, that Princess Diana produced. That spontaneous outpouring of grief that immediately followed her death back in 1997 -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. Thanks for that live report.

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