By Marisa Laudadio
12:00pm PST, Dec 16, 2023
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When stars from two worlds collide, it can be electric. And when those worlds are Hollywood and the British royal family, it's even more exciting.
Now — 70 years after a famous singer and a beautiful princess hooked up in London — the musician's former wife is sharing all the details: According to Terry Richard, who was late singer-actor Eddie Fisher's fourth wife, the crooner and Princess Margaret had a steamy one-night affair in 1953.
Terry, a former Miss Louisiana, told the story of her late ex-husband's one-night encounter with a glamorous royal to DailyMail.com in October 2023 while promoting her memoir, "Beauty Queen Dreams."
Terry said she hopes sharing Eddie's story might make people look at Margaret — the younger sister of the late Queen Elizabeth II — in a different light and "change the narrative around her," Terry explained. "For years, shows like 'The Crown' have portrayed [Margaret] as a pathetic character who turned to drink because she couldn't marry Peter Townsend" — the royal equerry 16 years her senior with whom she was in love — because he was divorced.
"But Eddie always said [Margaret] was a woman ahead of her time. She wanted him and she went for it," Terry said, adding of the singer's night with the princess, "I hope it made her happy. It certainly made him happy."
Keep reading for all the thrilling details…
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Before Eddie Fisher's fourth ex-wife, Terry Richard — who's seen here with the singer-actor days after their 1975 wedding — shared the story of the singer's fling with Princess Margaret with DailyMail.com, Eddie's daughter Carrie Fisher spilled the beans, though she left out the details.
"My father had sex with Princess Margaret. In a beautiful way they made love," the late "Star Wars" actress — whose mother was Eddie's first wife, Debbie Reynolds — revealed on "The Jonathan Ross Show" in 2016, adding "I'm going to get into a lot of trouble for this." Carrie declined to say more.
But with the door cracked open, Terry felt it was OK to open it wider. "I would never have told the Princess Margaret story because it was something Eddie never shared with the public, but when Carrie came out and said it on the TV show, then I figured it was fine to put the details out there," Terry told DailyMail.com in October 2023 while promoting her memoir, "Beauty Queen Dreams."
"In a weird way Eddie used [his Margaret story] as a seduction technique. He would talk about it as a precursor to sex. It was a memory that turned him on," she recalled of Eddie, who died in 2010 at 82. (Margaret died in 2002 at 71.) "He was a Jewish boy from Philadelphia and sleeping with her was his own real-life fairy tale," Terry explained.
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According to Eddie Fisher's fourth ex-wife, Terry Richard, "Eddie never talked about Princess Margaret in public — he respected her too much — but he told me about their encounter many, many times during our marriage," the former Miss Louisiana told DailyMail.com. "He looked back on it with great affection."
Eddie had a reputation as one of Hollywood's great Lotharios. He was married five times — including to America's sweetheart Debbie Reynolds. He famously cheated on Debbie with Elizabeth Taylor, who later became ex-wife No. 2. Another star, Connie Stevens, was ex-wife No. 3.
When Eddie arrived in Britain in May 1953, however, he was a single man of 24 with a series of hit songs under his belt. Eddie was slated to perform concerts in the U.K. and take the stage at the Red, White and Blue charity ball at London's Dorchester Hotel, and Margaret, then 22, was set to attend.
"He'd already had 17 No. 1 records on both sides of the Atlantic and was in London because his song 'Outside of Heaven' was at the top of the charts and he was playing a series of shows at the London Palladium," Terry explained to DailyMail.com in October 2023.
"He was a massive star, a teenybopper idol. I guess you could call him the Harry Styles of his day," she added. "Princess Margaret was a big fan of his and she had a friend, the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Britain, bring all his records over from the States before they were released in the U.K."
Keep reading to find out how Margaret first signaled her interest in Eddie…
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After Eddie Fisher's plane landed in the U.K. in May 1953, he "received a note from [Princess Margaret] telling him how much she was looking forward to meeting him at the [Red, White and Blue charity] ball, which Queen Elizabeth [II] and the Queen Mother were attending," Eddie's fourth ex-wife, former Miss Louisiana Terry Richard, explained to DailyMail.com 70 years later.
She said Eddie "treasured" the note, which read: "We will not make as much noise as they do at the Palladium, but will be loving it just the same. I'll be leading the applause."
Keep reading for Eddie's first impressions of Margaret…
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"Eddie was smitten with her the first time he saw her," Eddie Fisher's fourth ex-wife, Terry Richard, told DailyMail.com while promoting her memoir in October 2023. "He told me she was tiny with the most beautiful piercing blue eyes. He sang for 45 minutes at the [Red, White and Blue charity] ball and directed all his love songs straight at Margaret. When Eddie turned on the charm, he really turned it on."
According to Terry, Margaret at the time was in a clandestine relationship with equerry Peter Townsend — they were said to be secretly engaged at the time, though she was not allowed to marry him since he was divorced.
"Margaret was still very much with Peter Townsend when she met Eddie," Terry told DailyMail.com. "In some ways the fact she slept with Eddie goes against the narrative that she was this poor girl who was doomed to be unhappy because she couldn't marry the man she loved. Eddie told me she was a girl who knew exactly what she wanted and on the night of the ball she wanted him."
Keep reading to find out how Margaret made her move…
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After Eddie Fisher performed at the Red, White and Blue charity ball in May 1953, Princess Margaret invited him to her place, according to the late singer's former wife Terry Richard.
"She propositioned him, asking him if he wanted to come over to Clarence House later that night," Terry told DailyMail.com in October 2023, sharing the story Eddie told her many times when he was still alive.
"You have to admire her. Her mother and her sister, the queen, were at the event and she had the courage to whisper in Eddie's ear and proposition him for sex," Terry marveled.
"After the ball he went back to his hotel and Margaret's lady-in-waiting called him and said there was a car on the way to pick him up. Eddie went downstairs and there was a very formal-looking man, who drove him to Clarence House. They drove past the guards and he was taken to a side entrance."
Keep reading to find out what happened once he went inside…
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When Eddie Fisher stepped inside Clarence House, he was met by Iris Peake, who was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. She took him through a sitting room with a baby grand piano in it to a back corridor with a staircase that led to Margaret's bedroom, DailyMail.com reported.
"Eddie remembered tiny details, even years later," former wife Terry Richard told the outlet in October 2023. "He said the stair railings had beautiful crosses in the ironwork and Margaret met him at the [bedroom] door wearing a see-through negligee with lace embellishments. The bedroom smelled of cigarettes and expensive perfume."
She offered him a gin and tonic but he hardly needed to imbibe, Terry said, because he was already flying: At that time in his life, he always kept a physician known as Dr. Feelgood around and earlier that night had been injected with multiple drugs.
"Eddie pretended he was getting vitamin injections but in reality, he was getting shot up with a mixture of amphetamines, steroids, painkillers and animal hormones," terry told Dailymail.com. "He didn't want his performance in the bedroom to be affected so he drank Malvern water from a crystal tumbler."
Keep reading to hear how things went…
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Eddie Fisher told his fourth ex-wife, Terry Richard, all about his incredible night with Princess Margaret — and he was generous with details.
"He told me the sex was explosive. Margaret wasn't a virgin. She was uninhibited in bed. It went on for ages and they were both satisfied, multiple times," Terry told DailyMail.com in October 2023. "Eddie told me they 'fit perfectly' and she cried out 'Eddie! Oh, Eddie!' over and over."
According to Terry, Eddie was surprised by Margaret's bathroom because it was small by American standards. "He washed himself in the bathtub and Margaret joked she'd bathed her dogs in there earlier that day," Terry said. "After the sex, they both drank double whiskies and laughed and joked around. You have to remember they were the biggest stars on the planet at the time. It was a month before [Queen Elizabeth II's] coronation and Margaret was probably relieved to be able to let off steam."
Terry said Eddie "remembered every detail for years afterwards," such as how there was a chandelier above the bed, how the room was decorated in shades of pink and how the pillows were made of silk. He also remembered every detail about the princess. "He said Margaret had the most perfect breasts of any woman he had ever slept with — and he slept with a lot of women, including Liz Taylor," Terry added.
Keep reading to find out what happened when Eddie left Clarence House…
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Eddie Fisher and Princess Margaret finished their whiskies at the end of their intimate night together and called the royal's lady-in-waiting, Iris Peake (pictured), who escorted the American singer-actor out the same way he'd come into Clarence House, Eddie's former wife Terry Richard told DailyMail.com.
Though Eddie never shared specifics, he told Terry he also slept with Iris! "He never went into the detail of it but she obviously knew where he was staying and he'd joke about discovering what the lady-in-waiting was waiting for," Terry said. "He would say Margaret was very passionate but Iris was prim and proper on the outside. But once she was in bed, she was wild. He was pretty proud of himself for sleeping with the princess and her lady-in-waiting. I have no idea if Princess Margaret knew he slept with Iris."
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According to DailyMail.com, Eddie Fisher saw Princess Margaret again four years later at a private party. He was married to his first wife, "Singin' in the Rain" actress Debbie Reynolds, by then.
The year after that encounter, 1958, the princess met her future ex-husband, photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones — who later became the 1st Earl of Snowdon. She married him in 1960. They confirmed their separation in 1976 after years of extramarital affairs.
Eddie went on to leave Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor, whom he married in 1959 (pictured) and divorced in 1964. Actress Connie Stevens was wife No. 3; they divorced in 1969. Former Miss Louisiana Terry Richard became Eddie's fourth wife in 1975, and Betty Lin became his fifth and final wife in the '90s.
