Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson: Royal Love, Abdication, and the Nazi Shadows

“After a long time, I can finally and sincerely speak for myself. I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to carry out the tasks that are my duty as a king without the help and support of the woman I love.”

These were the stunning words of the only King in British history to step down voluntarily from the throne. Edward VIII uttered them in the most astonishing royal radio broadcast of all time on 11 December 1936.

The British people, who had only just learned of Edward VIII’s love affair with the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, were beside themselves. Their King wanted more than anything to marry Wallis, but was prevented from doing so by both the British government and his own family, who considered that this double divorcee and, to top it all, a foreigner, was morally and socially unsuitable for a future queen.

Thus his father’s unsparing prediction that ‘his son would be destroyed within 12 months’ came true. Unwilling to sacrifice the love of his life for his duty to the Empire, the Empire was thrown into a severe constitutional crisis, and Edward and Wallis were at the centre of a sensational story that still stirs the minds of many today.

One of the most media-exposed couples of the 20th century, it was not only Edward’s unprecedented resignation after an unprecedented 326 days of rule, one of the shortest in British history, but above all their much-vaunted lifelong, deeply romantic love. It was so strong that they were willing to give up everything – her personal reputation, her freedom and her second husband, and he one of the most powerful and prestigious positions of the time, his country and his family. But was this supposed love really as genuine and reciprocal as the romance-hungry public would like to perceive it?

Edward, or David as he was called by those close to him, had a fairly typical youth of a heir to the throne, marked perhaps most of all by a lack of emotional closeness with his parents and a rebellion against the tedious customs of protocol and courtly obligations. Apart from his attractive looks and his obsession with keeping his weight down, he was not a standout among his peers. On the contrary, the academically mediocre, academically gifted and disinterested in wider society and politics prince was interested in little besides golf, partying and women.

He was far more concerned with his looks and his mistresses than with preparing for his future role as king as heir to the throne of the world’s largest empire. He did not understand the turbulent political events of the war and the inter-war years and was quick to console himself that he did not have a particularly high intelligence quotient.

He met Wallis Simpson, a married American, and her husband in 1931. They were no longer young, she was then 35 and he 37. Three years passed before they officially became a couple, during which Wallis’s husband patiently looked the other way as his wife seemingly innocently amused herself with the Prince.

Always immaculately groomed from head to toe, she was no classic beauty. But the handsome prince was never distracted by the angular face, the prominent jaw, the rough voice, the large hands or the slender, boyish body. He saw in her the perfect woman, the one and only one for whom he was willing to give up his throne and give himself completely to her in everything. Not only did he fall in love with her so much that he even threatened suicide if she did not marry him, he subordinated all his interests to her, fulfilled all her wishes, let her guide him in all his decisions and even abused her mentally.

A long-time friend of his said: “I don’t know anyone who is so completely obsessed with someone else’s personality. It’s as if you completely lose your individuality in their presence.”

But who was this femme fatale who, more than any other, shook the foundations of centuries of British monarchy? Was she the remarkable woman who unwittingly captivated the Prince and, because of his unquestioning entanglement, was unable to extricate herself from his grasp? Or was she just a no-longer-growing young acquisitive calculating woman who cared about money and position, as the royal family tried to portray her?

Opinions are still clashing today, when another story of a prince and his American wife is at the forefront of the public debate surrounding relations within the British royal family. Just as the duplicity of relations within the House of Windsor was exposed by Edward and Wallis, it is being exposed today by Harry and Meghan. They, too, are publicly pointing out the mistrust and contempt that Harry’s unconventional chosen one is said to have received. The tension between public duties and private desires thus remains an important issue in the Royal Family.

And since the price that Edward and Wallis paid for their relationship was so high, it also raises the question of whether their marriage had to endure at all costs in order to prove to the public and to themselves that it was worth it. Behind the façade of a love story, what was their relationship really like? Love may have faded, or at least never existed on her side, but they were caught in a noose from which there was no escape. So they tried to distract themselves in other ways and, having no meaningful interests, no sense of social mission, solidarity or empathy for others, they thought obsessively only of themselves, their appearance and public image.

During the Second World War they lived in the Bahamas, where the former King was Governor of the colony, and after the war they settled permanently in France, as they were not welcome in Britain. They threw the most elaborate and elaborately thought-out parties and dinners every day, their home was a box, and so were they. They became true fashion icons – she was looked after from morning till night by a troop of fashion consultants, designers, hairdressers, beauticians and maids, and he was even the most photographed person in the world. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor – a title they were given after abdication – were among the most prominent and interesting on the international celebrity scene for decades.

But Edward and Wallis had a much bigger skeleton in their closet than their status as spoilt celebrities and speculation about the truth about their (un)true love. Their darkest side, which was much less publicised than it should have been, was their Nazi sympathies and their close relations with the Nazi top brass. It is true that the Duke was politically inept and inept, but cronyism with the Nazis and a visit to Hitler shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War are not excusable.

For official documents have come to light which make it clear that, in the event of a peace treaty between Great Britain and Germany, which Edward had been campaigning for, Nazi Germany would help him to return to the throne. How very different, then, would history have been had it not been for the accidental entrance into his life of a haughty but charismatic and self-important American at a garden party.

Young Edward

Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David (hereafter Edward or David), the first-born of the future King George V, had a youth quite typical of princes and noblemen of high birth. There was no love between his parents and they were distant and indifferent towards their children.

George, who became king at the age of David’s fourteenth birthday and was generally mild-tempered, was feared by all his four children even as adults. He was demanding and tyrannical, even violent, and never satisfied with anything. As for his mother, with whom he had longed for a closer relationship all his life, he later said: “She was a cold woman who had never experienced true love. That is why she did not understand my relationship with Wallis.”

During the First World War, as befitted a heir to the throne, he served in the British army, but far from the front lines, which made him feel useless, and he kept offering himself for more useful posts. But as soon as any military action came anywhere near the Prince, he was moved to safety far inland, for his own safety.

He was therefore left with no choice but to fend for himself. But this was not intellectual or academic work, despite his attendance at Oxford, nor was it an interest in international politics, literature, art or culture. It was the constant pursuit of sport and the excessive care of the body. He almost certainly suffered from anorexia, because he had a real phobia of being overweight and was very careful about everything he used. Then he would immediately go back to one sport or another, preferably as vigorous as possible. He also took up dancing as a way of keeping fit, and his fellow dancers were often amazed by his fierce and continuous spinning.

Social events such as dances were also opportunities to run after women’s skirts. The young Edvard was a true womaniser, although rumours of his bisexuality began to circulate at an early age. Edvard’s sexual orientation was always a source of gossip, and numerous testimonies have survived from his alleged lovers, those who allegedly met him at gay parties, and even police records.

Despite the distinctly boyish physique he retained throughout his life, the fair-haired, blue-eyed prince was very handsome and desirable to the female sex. He was particularly interested in married and more experienced women, one of whom was his mistress for sixteen years. Unlike the other members of the rigid royal dynasty, he liked to keep up with the times and was an increasingly popular public figure. He enjoyed the enthusiasm of the cheering crowds as he took on more and more of his father’s duties in preparation for his future kingship.

He travelled throughout the British Empire, attracting worldwide media attention. He also spent a great deal of time with his German relatives in Germany and was fluent in German. He was, of course, German by birth, and he said on several occasions that he did not feel entirely at home in Britain.

But it was the United States of America that attracted him the most. And so, when he met the attractive American Wallis Simpson at a party in 1931, his interest in her grew, partly because of her roots and the confident attitude typical of upper-middle-class Americans at the time.

At first, they met only occasionally and in pairs, but their friendship grew closer and closer, increasingly to the exclusion of Wallis’s husband Ernest. Although he was not at first defensive about the Prince’s attentions, he too began to jump the fence regularly.

Three years after their first meeting, Wallis Simpson became the only woman in Edward’s life.

Who was Wallis Simpson?

Bessie Wallis Warfield was born in 1896, two years after Edward, into an established American family in Maryland. Her father died shortly after she was born and she and her mother were cared for by wealthy relatives. She was financially supported and paid for a reputable school, mainly by her uncle, who was a strict rich single man with no understanding of the wants and needs of a young girl.

Bessie – she did not start using the name Wallis until later – was extremely bright, ambitious and determined and, as her classmates reported, always achieved and got what she put her mind to.

She loved to hang out with the heiresses of rich American families and quickly became their equal, even though she and her mother often barely made it through the month. Wallis was a girl with style from a young age and always perfectly groomed, taking care of every detail of her appearance. Petite and slender, resourceful, vivacious and trim, with deep penetrating eyes and beautiful black hair, she was not a classic beauty, but all these things were the reasons why she always had legions of admirers.

She, too, had been obsessed with thinness all her life and, although she had become a connoisseur of the most exquisite and exclusive cuisine, her meals were modest and she mostly just pushed food back and forth on her plate. Some of her biographers are convinced that Wallis was intersex, as her boyish figure, large hands and prominent jawline suggest, and that she was infertile and menstruating. To emphasise her femininity, she remained painfully thin. Although there is no evidence to support these claims, Wallis had health problems with her internal female organs throughout her life.

She married for the first time in 1927, partly to escape the scrutiny of an unscrupulous uncle and partly because it was customary. But her husband, a navy pilot, was a heavy drinker and often got on her badly when he was drunk. They broke up several times, but still tried to reconcile, as Wallis was under pressure from a society that did not tolerate divorce very well, especially when the wife left.

Once, when she visited him while he was serving in China, his rudeness exceeded all limits and she left him for good. He even abused her to the point where she had to accompany him to brothels and watch him with prostitutes.

She escaped with the help of her friends and then decided to extend her stay in China and take advantage of her new adventures. Later, British Intelligence wrote a so-called ‘China dossier’ on her year-long trip, consisting of allegedly infamous evidence of her perverse activities in China.

It was there that she allegedly learned special exotic sexual techniques which she later used to ensnare the Prince of Wales, claiming that she was the only one who knew how to satisfy him sexually. But there is no real evidence of this, so the most likely scenario is that the British government ‘commissioned’ the dossier to smear her and ruin her reputation. She is also said to have had several affairs, including one with Mussolini’s son-in-law.

After returning to the USA, she first finalised her divorce in 1927, and then, mainly out of fear of being left alone, the following year married Ernest Simpson, a wealthy businessman from an Anglo-American shipbuilding family. Ernest was perfect at first sight, offering her love, security and financial stability. His job brought them to London and Wallis set about decorating and furnishing her new home with great enthusiasm. They became increasingly involved in fashion and high society, and it was at a fateful garden party, to which she was not even invited at first, that she met Prince Edward.

Although she did not particularly impress him at first, they gradually became close friends. Until their friendship became romantic intimacy and she became his mistress. She remained married and her husband tolerated the union, since he too enjoyed the privileges, access to the Prince’s inner social circle and the many material benefits.

Wallis was convinced that Edward would be forced to leave her behind when he took the throne and marry one of the princesses of the European courts. But this was a no-merchant account. While Wallis enjoyed the Prince’s attentions and the lavish life he financed, he fell head over heels in love with her. So much so that he was willing to give up his throne just so Wallis could stand by his side, not only as his mistress, but also as his wife.

He liked her in every way, because she was completely different from the blue-blooded women he was used to. Her turbulent life made her fascinating but mysterious at the same time.

Love to the grave

And then what the Prince, the British government and the monarchy feared happened. In January 1936, King George V died and was succeeded as King Edward VIII. By then the Wallis affair was already public, and the question was what to do with it. Breaking up the union was not an option for him at all, and she finally realised that she was trapped in a no-win situation.

The Prince Charming had no intention of ever leaving, even if she did not really love him. She suggested that they go their separate ways and left him letters. But he was determined to marry her any way he could and even threatened suicide.

But not only was she American and would never have been accepted as Queen by the British, the strict Anglican Church did not recognise divorce if the former partner was still alive. But because she was not of British descent, after a protracted legal battle, her request for a divorce from Ernest was granted. For members of the Royal Family, the problem was not only that she had been twice divorced, but that they had long been concerned about her unsuitability to be Queen, not least because of her pro-German views, ex-lovers, numerous affairs and generally controversial past.

Edward was prepared to compromise, whereby their marriage would be morganatic – he would be King, she would not have the title of Queen, nor could their children succeed him on the throne. But this option was rejected by the government and Edward was left with three options: to forget the marriage, to marry against the wishes of his family and the government, or to abdicate. He chose the third.

On 10 December 1936, after less than a year on the throne, he addressed the nation and abdicated the crown before he had even been officially crowned. He felt liberated, as the responsibilities and duties of kingship had never crossed his mind. Moreover, he was aware that he lacked both the ability to rule and the perseverance, diligence and self-discipline.

But when, after the abdication, he had to wait in isolation for several months for the divorce to be finalised and he withdrew to Austria while Wallis was in France, he slowly began to realise what his new status actually meant. No more enthusiastic crowds and a life in exile, as they were no longer welcome on home soil.

He passed the time playing golf, watching Mickey Mouse cartoons, playing board games, shopping and sightseeing. Most of all, he spent hours on the phone with his beloved wife-to-be. He had pictures of her all around his bed, like on an altar. He kept up this creepy habit for the rest of his life. On his pillow were embroidered the letters WS.

When her second divorce was final and they could officially become a couple, he immediately set off from Austria to her house in a car, with seventeen suitcases and a bunch of planis. Nine days later, they listened together to the broadcast of the coronation of Edward’s younger brother Bertie, who became George VI.

They married soon afterwards, but it was a bittersweet wedding. Instead of the pomp and pageantry to which they were accustomed, it was modest and with few guests. Not a single member of the royal family attended, thus laying the foundations for an icy relationship with the newlyweds. They wanted nothing to do with them as a couple, which hurt Edward all his life. Even friends and former advisers were ‘warmly’ advised not to attend the wedding and in the end there were only seven guests from the UK.

They were no longer welcome there, so they settled in France. After the wedding, they were given the title of Duke and Duchess of Windsor and, by special measure, the title of Royal Highness was also conferred or restored to them.

Another bone of contention arose when Wallis was not entitled to a similar title, a point to which Edward objected throughout his life. She, in turn, developed a real dislike, if not disgust, for his family. Since she could not directly take on them, she took on him. From morning till night she criticised the royal family, insulted them and reproached him for the way they treated her, even though he had spent his life trying to be accepted and respected.

The new King George VI tried to be understanding towards his elder brother and his wife, but it was his wife and his mother who hated her above all. Wallis called George’s wife ‘Cookie’ because of her curves, and she called her ‘That woman’ disparagingly. Relations only deteriorated over time, not helped by Edward’s insistence on high financial compensation and concealment of his already vast fortune.

He remained in regular contact only with his sister Mary, and was also severely affected by the death of his younger brother in a plane crash in 1937.

A cage without a door

Overall, the relationship between Wallis and Edward was interesting to say the least. Everyone who knew them spoke of her domineering and cunning, and of his submissiveness and obedience. It was as if he needed someone to boss him around and direct him in everything. He confessed to a former lover: “I think I am the kind of man who needs a certain amount of cruelty to keep him from becoming too spoilt and too soft.”

He was obviously used to bullying from childhood and perhaps even enjoyed it in a perverse way. As their surviving correspondence suggested, it was similar with regard to sexuality. They exchanged many dirty sexual jokes and went into role-plays in which he was the baby and she was the mother.

The Duchess was aloof and strict, often vicious, and treated him with contempt and as a child who needed to be constantly disciplined. But he wanted it and he adored her more and more, even though he also feared her. He watched her every movement, listened attentively to her every word and reacted to every change in her voice.

He felt that nothing was good enough for her. Even Winston Churchill remarked that “the Duke enjoyed his wife’s presence and needed her like the air he breathed. /…/ He was perfected by her presence.” Edward’s dependence on his wife remained as strong until his death.

She, in turn, became increasingly aware of the cage in which she found herself. When the excitement of the wedding had passed and life had resumed its normal course, she said, “My heart sank. I was with someone whose life had been taken care of and now suddenly I was the one who had to take on the role of the whole British Government and the British Royal Family and think about how I was going to fill his days with all sorts of activities.”

Years later, in an interview, she said: “I remember the morning after the wedding as if it were yesterday. When I woke up, the Duke was standing next to me with an innocent smile on his face and he said, ‘Well, what are we going to do now?'”

One of her friends was convinced that he bored her senseless and that she was bored and irritated with him. Wallis felt sorry for her because she had to maintain the myth of a love she did not feel and had no way out of. Every morning she had to face a middle-aged man who had no other purpose in life than a possessive passion for her.

She and her ex-husband Ernest, with whom she remained in good contact – sometimes even writing to him about the deep feelings she still had for him – called Edward Peter Pan, because he was like a boy who never grew up.

Their main activity became entertainment. They entertained themselves not only by going out, to plays, the theatre, the opera, dinners, dances and to friends’ houses, but more and more they entertained guests in their own homes. They became consummate hosts and went above and beyond to perfect details such as the preparation of menus, invitations, decorations, serving dishes and cutlery, silverware, china, flowers and so on. Matches and toothpicks were wrapped in special paper, cigarettes were in gold boxes.

Everything had to be perfect and their numerous staff lived in constant fear of the wrath of the Duchess, who was a perfectionist and noticed the smallest detail. Every lettuce leaf had to be the same size and they never offered just one type of bread, but at least six. At dinner she always had a gold notebook in which she wrote down everything that went wrong or that could be improved.

They were used to luxury and had their home immaculately decorated in the latest and most expensive trends and in the colours of Buckingham Palace – white, red and gold. Apart from their dogs, pugs and Cairn terriers, it was their only joint project, and the one they spent the most time on, alongside socialising with friends, fun and sport.

They spent a lot of money on furnishings, and Wallis knew all the antique shops and second-hand shops. They had cleverly bought everything tax-free, having secured diplomatic status. With no other commitments, they did trivial things, like collecting designs for Christmas cards together, and their initials were on bed linen, luggage and even crockery.

All the staff, from the chauffeur to the many chefs, had special clothes for formal and informal occasions, decorated with their personal logos. A hairdresser visited them every day, a manicurist twice a week and the Duchess had two maids just to iron the linen and sheets.

They were very demanding, but at the same time stingy employers. They harassed their employees for every little thing and never expressed their gratitude, and their wages were below average. They should be grateful to them just because they were able to work for them. They had to treat them – just like guests – like royalty, bowing to them, never showing their backs, never speaking in front of them and addressing them as ‘Your Royal Highness’.

When they travelled, they had a whole troop of staff with them, secretaries, lackeys, personal servants, they were transported in special cars and planes, they had shopping expeditions everywhere they went, and they were accompanied by their beloved dogs and their vets. All this bordered on debauchery, and although they were still magnets for people, their egocentricity and wastefulness were increasingly resented as the Second World War approached.

Once, when they were in New York, they booked a whole floor in the famous Waldorf Tower. More and more media coverage revolved around the amount of their luggage and the astronomical bills, most of which they did not even pay themselves. They lived off other people’s money and left the shops after shopping without even thinking about paying.

Wallis bought hundreds of dresses a year, along with countless hats, pairs of gloves and other accessories, making her a fashion icon who set the trends in dress.

But all this did not satisfy them, and they drank even more and took up more sport and weight. Wallis’ motto, emblazoned on her pillows, became: “You can never be too rich or too thin.”

Controversial friendships

Wallis and Edvard were not only friends with famous entertainers and rich people, but also with politicians. But their choice could not have been more unfortunate. Edward made no secret of his pro-German sympathies, and the Germans made no secret of their delight when he took the throne. They were convinced that this would make British foreign policy more favourable to them.

Edward’s great wish was that there should never again be a war between Germany and Britain – not only because of his origins, he considered himself practically German, but also because of the horrors he had witnessed during the First World War. That is why he wanted to negotiate with the German Government in every way, even if it was Nazi and it was clear from the time of his rule where its territorial appetites were leading it.

It is true that most of the British establishment was in favour of calming the passions between France, Britain, Italy and Germany, but Edward was the most committed. And because he was also an advocate of a strong central government, he did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

But that was not all. He publicly praised Hitler, saying that it was good to have dictators and that England might need one in the near future. He also associated himself with the British Fascist Union of the infamous Oswald Mosley, and made no attempt to hide his anti-Semitic views.

National Socialism was all the closer to him because of his morbid fear of Communism, caused by the brutal murder of his Russian relatives, Tsar Nicholas II and his family, by the Bolsheviks. In his view, communism posed an existential threat to the British Empire.

On the day before Edward’s abdication speech, hundreds of Nazi supporters gathered outside Buckingham Palace, chanting “We want Edward!”. The next day, several thousand attended a mass meeting addressed by Oswald Mosley, demanding that the issue of abdication be put before the people. Hitler himself was disappointed by Edvard’s resignation, but continued to insist on contact with him.

Ribbentrop gave the German agent Walter Schellenberg the task of persuading the Duke and Duchess to cooperate with the Germans, for which he was given 50 million Swiss francs.

Doubts about the couple’s loyalty deepened over time, and both American and British intelligence agencies were on their heels. Edward was said to have shared with the Germans all the military secrets to which he had access, and he kept nothing from Wallis. During their many social meetings and dinners, her tongue was often loosened and secret information flowed out in all directions.

Their circle of friends included many Nazi sympathisers, such as Charles Bedaux, an alleged German spy who worked closely with companies such as Krups, Mercedes and Opel, and was close to key people in the Nazi elite.

Even the Nazi propaganda mastermind Joseph Goebbels wrote about Edvard, describing him as someone open to Nazi ideas and “it is a great pity that he is no longer King, for we would undoubtedly have made a deal with him”.

Edward even said in an interview that he would be prepared to become British President in the event of a German victory over Britain and the fall of the monarchy. But if it held on, he would be happy to sit back on the throne with German help.

That they were a growing security risk was clear when, in 1937, despite government opposition, they embarked on a tour of Germany under the auspices of the Nazi top brass itself. Edward was naively convinced that he could help prevent war, while at the same time they enjoyed attention they did not receive at home. The Nazis opportunistically exploited their need for visibility and their frustration with the behaviour of the royal family.

There was a lot of publicity during the visit and they thrived on being accepted everywhere as a royal couple. The German media followed them every step of the way and even recorded Edward’s Nazi salute during a visit to a school for Hitler’s personal guards. The highlight of the visit was, of course, the audience with Hitler at his famous mountain residence, the Eagle’s Nest, not far from Berchtesgaden.

Wallis, who was briefly entertained by Eva Braun and Rudolf Hess, was reported by the New York Times to have been impressed by Hitler’s personality. The reaction to the visit was negative on both sides of the Atlantic, and they had to cancel their planned visit to the USA, where they were no longer welcome, at least temporarily.

Under instructions from the British Crown and the new King, they were not to be invited to any embassy, any official visit or any meeting with ministers.

Bahamas

After the outbreak of the war and the German invasion of France, Edward and Wallis fled to Spain, which was virtually a German protectorate and where there was the greatest concentration of German intelligence activity outside Berlin. General Franco owed his victory in the Civil War to German support.

The English were nervous that Edward had stayed too long in Madrid and could be exploited further by the Germans. They urgently needed a plan for what to do with the restless and unpredictable former king. Since he was anxious to represent the monarchy in one way or another, Churchill came up with the idea of offering him a governorship in one of the British colonies. Preferably as far away from the European continent as possible.

Despite the Royal Family’s disapproval, Edward was offered a governorship in the Bahamas, which was considered a third-rate colony because of its small size and distance from the metropolis. For someone who until recently had ruled half the world, this was a real humiliation. So he and Wallis first hesitated, then decided to take the challenge anyway.

It was the first time in history that a member of the royal family had served as governor of a colony. But the Germans wanted to keep him around and were pressing hard on Portugal, where the couple were staying before they left, to prevent them from doing so.

Eventually, however, they left and settled in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. The Governor’s Palace was one of the most beautiful colonial buildings in the archipelago, but it was cramped for a couple used to grandeur and luxury. Again, they thought only of themselves and their own comfort, even though World War II was raging at the time. Wallis compared their situation to Napoleon’s exile on Elba.

Until the US entry into the war, Edward continued to try to help the US mediate with Germany and avoid entering the war. “America will help Britain more if it does not interfere in the conflict, but is the cornerstone for a new post-war world order.”

When this failed to materialise and the US sided with Britain in the war, Edward finally abandoned his efforts and nevertheless began to focus more seriously on the development of the Bahamas. He undertook a number of reforms to improve working conditions and labour laws, raise wages and reduce unemployment. Wallis also threw himself into work for the first time in his life, volunteering to alleviate the effects of the war.

Their hitherto aimless lives were finally given meaning.

But they were not happy, and health problems began to mount up for both of them, and the Bahamian climate certainly did not help. The Duke was still lamenting his political impotence and bored. He was drinking more and no longer hiding it in public.

They began to negotiate the next step with the new British Labour government. Edward wanted a more important ambassadorial post, for example in the US, but was offered at best Ceylon, which was similar to the Bahamas, so they refused. Returning to the UK was still unacceptable, even if they had returned there as ordinary citizens. If they wanted to leave the Bahamas, they had to promise not to return home. So they settled in France and stayed there for the rest of their days.

Immediately after the end of the war, however, a new controversy was on the horizon, linked to their delicate pre-war relations with the Nazis.

Controversies, affairs and life

On 12 April 1945, an American officer came across an abandoned German vehicle in the mountains of northern Germany, with a pile of documents scattered around it. As soon as he noticed that one of them bore Ribbentrop’s signature, he became alert, and soon afterwards the almost complete archives of the German Foreign Office were found in nearby castles.

One set of documents found at Marburg was entitled ‘German-British relations’ and contained the entire file on Edvard. It contained, for example, top-secret cables between Ribbentrop and other senior Nazi officials concerning the approach and friendship with the Duke and his openness to cooperate with the Nazis, including Hitler’s offer to Edward to settle him in France, Spain, Switzerland or Germany, to take care of his personal safety and to provide him with a generous annuity.

The Marburg dossier became a bone of contention between the Americans and the British. The latter, immediately aware of the damage that disclosure of such a dossier could do to the British monarchy, demanded that the Americans destroy it or hand it over. All they got was a promise from their allies to inform them before any release of the documents.

So, eventually, enough details were leaked to the public that there was no longer any doubt about Edward’s sympathies with the wrong side of history. Even though everyone, including the British government, vehemently claimed that it was all a lie.

Meanwhile, Edvard and Wallis were on their way back to Europe. During their first visit to Britain together after the beginning of their exile, they were again making headlines. Not only were they travelling with three truckloads of luggage, but the Duchess had most of her valuable jewellery stolen. When the public learned that the total value of the collection was several million pounds (at today’s prices), they were outraged.

Ordinary people did not mind when their exile continued and they remained unwelcome on home soil. But they were simply blinded by their status and convinced for the rest of their lives that everything they had earned or acquired belonged to them.

Edward never lost hope that his mother would one day officially meet Wallis. But the relationship between mother and son never improved, not at the death of his brother, not at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, an event attended by 2200 guests and where only Edward and Wallis were missing from the immediate family. They watched the coronation on television in France with friends.

They had just accepted that they would never return to the UK and bought their first property near Paris. They continued their pre-World War II lifestyle, throwing parties, decorating and redecorating their home, shopping, keeping up appearances, starving and drinking. He maintained a youthful appearance at first sight, but spent a lot of time maintaining it. Not to mention her. From morning to night she took care of herself, which included regular face lifts, which were becoming unnaturally inflexible.

Edward remained obsessed with her, looking anxiously at his watch whenever she was not around. But she, tired of the routine, began to have a brief fling with younger men, without even hiding it from her husband.

Thus, her long-time lover became Jimmy Donahue, a gigolo twenty years her junior and heir to a rich American dynasty. Jimmy was gay, but he also liked to satisfy Wallis Simpson’s wishes in every possible way, in plain sight. He was the opposite of Edward, a carefree showman, generous, funny and unpredictable.

He was invigorating to be around and, after many years, it was Wallis who was entertained, rather than he who entertained. She was tired of the emotional support she had given Edward over the years, so she took an almost sadistic pleasure in torturing her husband as she retreated to the bedroom with Jimmy in front of his eyes.

Edward again toyed with the idea of suicide, but the affair ended just in time. Other, more discreet affairs followed.

In the last years of their life together, they both wrote memoirs, which brought them enough money to continue living lavishly and extravagantly. Their lifestyle continued to stir spirits – for example, Wallis invited 90 journalists to the launch of her autobiography ‘The Heart Has Its Reasons’ and treated them to caviar, mussels and pink champagne. They have been the subject of books, TV series and films, including the acclaimed ‘The Woman I Love’, starring Richard Chamberlain and Faye Dunaway.

Edward died in 1972 of throat cancer, a disease caused by his excessive smoking. While he was dying, Wallis was said to have left him alone most of the time, and he would pathetically exclaim over and over again: ‘Wallis, Wallis, Wallis, Wallis! Darling, darling, darling, darling!” “Like a lamb calling for its mother,” wrote the nurse who eventually looked after him.

It was only at Edward’s funeral that his relatives showed a little more emotion and compassion for Wallis, who was by then increasingly helpless herself. She was showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and after her husband’s death she continued to decline for a full fourteen years.

When she could no longer entertain and entertain guests, the sick, elderly and demented Wallis Simpson closed herself off from the world. She was fed intravenously and weighed not even forty kilograms. When she broke her legs and ribs in a fall, she was confined to a wheelchair. They had to sell off her possessions to cover her medical expenses.

In 1986, at the age of 90, she died alone of heart failure. In accordance with her husband’s last wishes, she was buried beside him in a family grave near Windsor Castle, far from her husband’s more popular, accepted and respected relatives.

Their Paris home was bought by the father of Dodi Al Fayed, Princess Diana‘s lover. It was there that they were heading on the fateful evening of her tragic death. This is a significant end to the story of two outcasts of the British Royal Family, which to this day does not accept women who do not behave in accordance with its expectations.