LONDON (REUTERS) - Lord Snowdon, the photographer former husband of Queen Elizabeth's late younger sister Princess Margaret has died aged 86, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Friday (Dec 13).

"The Queen has been informed," a palace spokeswoman said.

A family spokesman said Snowdon, who was born Antony Armstrong-Jones, had died peacefully at home.

Snowdon had a long and successful career as a society photographer and married Margaret at Westminster Abbey in 1960. They had two children but he had difficulty in adjusting from his previous bohemian lifestyle to the restrictions of public life.

The couple divorced in a glare of publicity in 1978, the first such royal split since the days of Henry VIII four centuries earlier.

A month later, Snowdon married divorcee Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, a television researcher.

Snowdon remained on good terms with his former wife and royal in-laws, taking many photographs for Buckingham Palace, but friends said he became a much happier man with the freedom to go where he pleased and say what he thought.

He once said of his talents behind the lens: "One only became a photographer because one drew badly."