{"id":269319,"date":"2025-07-17T12:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269319\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:41:10","slug":"david-armstrong-jones-2nd-earl-of-snowdon-is-the-spitting-image-of-his-father-as-he-represents-king-charles-in-a-deeply-personal-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269319\/","title":{"rendered":"David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, is the spitting image of his father as he represents King Charles in a deeply personal engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Princess Margaret with her son David, then Viscount Linley, 1989<\/p>\n

Slim Aarons\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As an infant, David Armstrong-Jones, then styled Viscount Linley, reportedly skipped the traditional first words of \u2018mama\u2019 and \u2018dada\u2019 and went for something rather more high-brow: \u2018chandelier\u2019. The tidbit was revealed by Gyles Brandreth, the former MP, author and royal expert, in conversation with Dame Judi Dench on the first episode of his new podcast, Rosebud. The broadcaster recounts how Princess Margaret reportedly shared the insight with Laurence Olivier and his wife, Joan, when they joined her for lunch.<\/p>\n

Brandreth says: \u2018Lady Olivier said to Princess Margaret, \u201cWe are very excited because Richard [Olivier\u2019s son] has spoken his first word and it\u2019s such a relief because it was \u2018Dada\u2019 and Larry is so happy\u201d. And Princess Margaret said, \u201cWell, as it happens, David has just spoken his first word too… David\u2019s first word was \u2018chandelier\u2019.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

Brandreth explains that the then Viscount Linley was apparently inspired by the chandelier that was hung above his crib in Kensington Palace<\/a>. It was, he said, the royal nannies who would gesture at the dazzling light fitting as if it were a mobile. No wonder, then, that he pursued a taste for the finer things in life, more often than not crafting them himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Princess Margaret with her son David, then Viscount Linley, 1989 Slim Aarons\/Getty Images As an infant, David Armstrong-Jones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,12,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-269319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-royal-families","14":"tag-royal-family","15":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114868629698298368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}