When the Queen and Princess Margaret were children, Margaret couldn’t help but shine. The younger sister was “spoiled terribly” by their father King George, according to The Telegraph. “She was his pet… she was always allowed to stay up to dinner at the age of 13 and to grow up too quickly.”

“We really are trying to separate them a bit because Princess Margaret does draw all the attention and Elizabeth lets her do that,” Marion Crawford, governess to the sisters once said. Elizabeth’s response, when Margaret began to command the spotlight, was to laugh. “Oh, Margo!” Elizabeth would say, as per Crawford’s recollections. “It’s so much easier when Margaret’s there,” Elizabeth added. “Everybody laughs at what Margaret says.”

Rumours of jealousy between the sisters was fuelled by certain tense moments between the pair, though. There was the fact that the Queen forbade the marriage between her sister and Group Captain Peter Townsend, on the grounds that he was divorced (and a great deal older). According to The Telegraph, the Queen once spent an entire afternoon walking her dogs at Balmoral to avoid Margaret, knowing that she had sought her out there to discuss the matter of her marriage to Townsend. Margaret, on her part, had a tendency to skip key events thrown by her sister, like the 10th wedding anniversary for the Queen and Prince Philip thrown at Balmoral.

Season three of The Crown really digs into the rumours of jealousy between the sisters. At one point in episode two, the Queen watches a television news report proclaiming her sister’s tour of America a “great success”.

The Crown season 3: how close were the Queen and Princess Margaret in real life?