The Crown: Who was Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis Thatcher?

Husband of England's first female prime minister features in the Netflix show's fourth season

Throughout each season of The Crown, viewers have been given a glimpse at the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and some of the 14 prime ministers who have passed through 10 Downing Street during her reign, from Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan to Edward Heath.

The latest season introduces fans of the show to one of England’s most notorious leaders, Margaret Thatcher (played by Gillian Anderson), the conservative British prime minister who held the post from 1979 to 1990, and became the first woman to be sworn in for the role in the country's history.

While much of the focus in the new season lies on Thatcher’s complicated relationship with the Queen (played by Olivia Colman), giving viewers an indication as to what their private conversations might have looked like, it also explores the former prime minister’s private life.

Denis Thatcher (played by Stephen Boxer), the husband of England's first female prime minister, is just one of the many new characters introduced in the show's latest offering. But, who was he and what was their marriage really like? Here’s everything you need to know.

Who was Denis Thatcher?

Denis was born just after the start of the first world war on May 10, 1915, in Lewisham, south London.

The businessman became best known as the steadfast husband of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. He was often celebrated for the charm and ease he displayed as the first male consort to Britain's first female PM and once described himself as the ''most shadowy husband of all time”.

Lady Thatcher once described him as the “golden thread” that ran through her life and frequently acknowledged the debt she owed her husband. ''I could never have been prime minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side,'' she wrote in her autobiography The Downing Street Years.

''He was a fund of shrewd advice and penetrating comment. And he very sensibly saved these for me rather than the outside world.''

In 1990, the Queen granted Denis Thatcher the baronetcy, earning him the title Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent. It was the first and only baronetcy granted since 1964.

Did Denis have his own career?

Denis was a decorated war veteran, having served in World War II, rising the ranks from second lieutenant to temporary major. In 1945, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire and was twice mentioned in dispatches, which is when the name of a member of the armed forces appears in an official report sent to high command that details valiant actions against the enemy. In 1965, he retired from the Territorial Army reserve of officers with the honorary rank of major.

He was also a wealthy businessman. After returning from the war in 1946, he took over his father's paint and chemical business, which he grew into a lucrative 200-employee firm and expanded overseas.

This enabled him to pay for Margaret's barrister training, along with a home in Chelsea and a country house in Kent. He sold the firm in 1965 to automotive lubricant brand Castrol, and took on various director jobs and board seats in the years that followed.

When did Margaret and Denis meet?

Before meeting former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Denis had already been married. He met his first wife – also named Margaret – in 1942 and they were together for six years but, because he was serving in the war at the time, they never lived together. During his time abroad, Margaret met someone else and, in 1946, asked for a divorce.

Denis met his second wife, then Margaret Roberts, at a function in Kent, England, in the winter of 1949. She was working as a chemist at the time and had just become the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Dartford.

The former prime minister is said to have described Denis as “not a very attractive creature...very reserved, but quite nice.” Nonetheless, the couple married in December 1951 in London and went on to have two children, twins Mark and Carol, in 1953.

“I have been married to one of the greatest women the world has ever produced,” Denis once boasted. “All I could produce, small as it may be, was love and loyalty.”

Did they ever split up?

While Denis and Margaret never officially separated, they did come close. In 1964, Denis reportedly experienced a nervous breakdown. He moved to South Africa for two months to recover. Margaret's biographer, David Cannadine, called it the greatest crisis of their marriage.

Denis remained a loyal and supportive husband for the rest of his life and almost never gave interviews or made speeches but when he did, he was known to refer to his wife as “the Boss.”

John Whittingdale, Margaret's former political secretary, once said of their relationship: “Margaret Thatcher wasn't just the first woman prime minister, he was also the first prime minister's husband, which in many ways was as difficult a job, which he did terribly well.

“He was always there to give support, but he was always happy to remain two or three paces behind her.”

What was his relationship with the press like?

Although Denis never gave interviews, he enjoyed the camaraderie of reporters and when he did speak, he did so without tiptoeing.

Asked once the secret to his slim figure, he replied” ''Gin and cigarettes.'' And, on the day he became a baronet, he accepted congratulations, saying: ''Thanks. But more important than that, I have just been elected a member of Sunningdale golf club.''

Because of his jokes, Denis was often caricatured in the British press as gin swilling, cigarette smoking and golf obsessed. He was most famously lampooned in the satirical weekly magazine Private Eye, which ran a series of ''Dear Bill'' letters from Sir Denis addressed to his friend and golf partner in real life, Lord Deedes, the former editor of The Daily Telegraph.

However, Denis took any form of ridicule or satire directed at him from the British press in his stride. In his obituary upon his death in 2003, the New York Times called him “a steadfast husband...who embraced his role as second fiddle with aplomb and humour.”

When did he die?

Margaret and Denis were married for 51 years, until his death in 2003.

In January 2003, Denis was admitted to hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. He received heart bypass surgery but six months later, he became unwell again and it was discovered he had terminal pancreatic cancer.

He died on 26 June and his ashes were buried outside the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.

At the time, a spokesperson for the family said: “It is with deep sadness that we have to announce that Sir Denis Thatcher passed away peacefully this morning in the Lister Hospital after a short illness.

”His family were with him at his bedside when he died.“

A decade later, on 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke. Her ashes are buried next to her husband's.