LONDON, Jan. 10 -- Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, was admitted to the hospital Wednesday 10 days after palace sources announced she had apparently suffered a stroke.
Buckingham Palace announced the 70-year-old princess was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital suffering from severe weight loss caused by a loss of appetite following the stroke.
Officials said the princess was taken by car to the hospital from Sandringham, the royal family's home in Norfolk, where she was being looked after by doctors following the stroke.
Buckingham Palace said the royal family agreed to the transfer on doctors' advice to allow for a closer monitoring of her condition.
"One of the consequences of her recent apparent stroke has been a severe loss of appetite," a palace statement said. "There was some hope at the end of last week that the Princess might be responding to treatment and extra nursing care at Sandringham. However, this improvement has not been maintained and her condition remains a cause for concern."
Princess Margaret was last seen in public when she attended a performance by the Royal Ballet at London's Covent Garden late last year.
The princess suffered serious burns on her legs and feet from scalding water in an incident in March 1999, which took her out of official engagements for most of that year. In February 1998, she had a stroke while on vacation at Mustique in the Caribbean.
In previous years she was dogged by a series of health problems. She was known to be recovering slowly from a nervous breakdown she suffered in 1974, just two years before her marriage to photographer Lord Snowdon came to an end. They had been together for 16 years. In the mid-1980s, the media reported persistently on her social activities as she smoked as many as 60 cigarettes a day and had to be operated upon in January 1985 for the removal of a section of her lung.
The younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret was born at Glamis, the Scottish home of her grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, in August 1930. As was the royal tradition, she was educated at home with her sister and became involved with the royals' public activities at an early age. She is currently patron or president of more than 80 organizations, many which are involved with fund-raising for charitable causes.
