Margaret first gained prominence in the 1970s when she dated Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father and prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984. The duo married in 1971, when he was 51 and she was 22. They were nicknamed the “royal couple,” Canada’s History magazine noted in 2011.

Married in 1971, the relationship began to fall apart a few years later. Margaret was captured by the press as a frequenter of New York’s Studio 54 dance club. When Pierre lost his majority government in 1979, Margaret was reported as far from his side, partying with the Rolling Stones (as she discussed in a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar and Mick Jagger mentioned in the New York Post in 2024).

The couple divorced in 1982, after having three sons, including Justin, Alexandre “Sacha” and Michel (who was killed in an avalanche in 1998).

After splitting from Pierre, she had a series of high profile liaisons with celebrities such as rock star Mick Jagger, actor Jack Nicholson and U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, described in her first book, Consequences.