The Love Affair That Almost Destroyed Britain | Wallis Simpson: The Secret Letters | Timeline

I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility this is a love story but it is not the love story we've always thought it was Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor was a sensation to some The Scarlet woman who lured Edward the eighth from his throne to others one half of the 20th century's greatest romance a woman and a man who sacrificed everything for each other but hidden away in an English attic an extraordinary and revelatory cache of secret letters and diaries has been discovered that transforms the story of Wallace and her loves I wake up in the night sometime and hear your footsteps coming down the passage of the flat and there you are with the Evening Standard under your arm this startling find shows that just before Edward's abdication Wallace Simpson was desperate to avoid marrying him and plan to escape I've decided to go away perhaps forever I cannot tell eat Jim it proves that the divorce which allowed Edward finally to marry Wallace was an illegal collusion I am letting Wallace divorce me of course please destroy this and it reveals that Wallace ended up spending her life with the wrong man and cast adrift from the man she truly loved to whom she was still writing secret letters of love two years after she married Edward what can I say when I'm standing beside the grave of everything that was us I can only cry as I say farewell and press your hand very tightly and pray to God Wallace [Music] this long buried treasure trove of documents newly discovered by Wallace Simpson's latest biographer and Sieber contains one incomparable find 15 intimate letters written by Wallace herself around the time of the event that sent shockwaves through Britain December the 10th 1936 one of the most momentous days in the history of England a few hours ago i discharged my last duty as king and Emperor this bundle of 15 letters took my breath away when I first read them the fact that they've been written at all was extraordinary it was truly mind-blowing the first of the new Wallace letters was written 46 days before the abdication okay so this says Felixstowe on the postmark 25th of October so that's two days before she was due to appear at Ipswich Assizes for her divorce from Ernest Simpson Sunday October the 25th 1936 a middle-aged woman returns to a house she's renting in Felixstowe not far from Ipswich in a car belonging to Edward the eighth she's been the King's mistress for the past two years she should be savoring the prospect of divorce from her husband and marriage to the king who so desperately loves her but she's not Wallis Simpson is frightened and lonely and would do anything to get out of it at this moment she picks up her pen and chooses the unlikeliest possible shoulder to cry on and here she is writing to Ernest Simpson the man she's divorcing I really can't concentrate I really can't concentrate on anything at the moment my dear I've had so much trouble and complications with everyone also I'm terrified of the court etc I feel small and licked by it all I can't think what sort of mess I'm leaving for I'm sorry for myself I'm sorry for the king I hate stuffy British minds and last but not least I don't understand myself which is the cause of all the misery give me courage 2:15 Tuesday love Wallis I'm so lonely goodness me her loneliness just shouts out to me because of course she was terrified and who does she turn to in all this she turns to Ernest the man she's trying to divorce of course she's not meant to be communicating with the man she's meant to hate because of his adultery two days later at 2:15 p.m. Wallace Simpson arrived at Ipswich Assizes for the divorce hearing she was so afraid of [Music] the divorce was splashed across American and European newspapers the British press was staying silent but those in the know felt sensation in the air Edward it seemed was on the road to marrying an American divorcee I was seven years old my father and my mother were very much involved in the whole application affair you know and so I mean it was just a constant conversation from morning till night as as I remember [Music] the day after the divorce hearing Wallace returned to London to the house the King had rented for her from there she could only watch as events counted down at a bewildering pace [Music] on November the 3rd Edward still to his people the dashing young monarch just ten months into his reign performed the State Opening of Parliament but all he could think about was marrying Wallace was just frankly besotted I don't think anything was going through his mind except how wonderful she was how beautiful she was how much he loved her and how much he was perfectly sure all the British people would love her the moment they got to knew her his dream was that he should be crowned with Wallis Simpson by his side as the Queen but to Edwards Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin the prospect of Queen Wallace was abhorrent she was a twice-divorced American interloper Baldwin knew that from the point of view of the British people she was our acceptable so he saw this was going for quite impossible and one way or another it had to be stopped the Prime Minister and King were on collision course for the first time abdication loomed on the last day of November the Crystal Palace home of the triumphal Great Exhibition of 1851 burnt down perhaps in deference to the coming self-immolation of a king that same day the new documents reveal a second astonishing letter from Wallace Simpson to Ernest the husband she'd just been to court to divorce it shows she was planning to escape from the Kings clutches it's Wallace writing with the Wallace signature on the side Monday Ernest dear I shan't be able to see you after all for which I'm very sorry but I've decided to go away sometime this week I cannot tell a gem I'm going because I know what would happen so I'm really simply telling him the old search for hats story I shall stay safely away until after the coronation or perhaps forever one cannot tell so she is desperate to get away and get out of it and she knows that the King won't let her so she's going to tell him that she's just going to go to Paris to buy some more hats hoping that he'll swallow that old story she's obviously used that one before please rest assured that the things in the house will all be returned to you the house she's referring to is a house that the king had rented for her which had become a nightmare prison for her because the photographers the US press were camped outside and she couldn't even go out to have her hair done or her nails the sort of routine that had become hers had been denied her now see what a mess she had landed herself in the next day before she could make her getaway the story of Wallace and Edwards affair finally broke in the British press the British people recoiled double divorcee who's got involved with the cake with the king and the Kings going to try to marry I mean absolutely unbelievable horror Wallis was the rabbit in the headlights [Music] Edward rushed her to his retreat in Windsor Park and arranged for her to be driven to France he assigned one of his staff to guard her Wallace had wanted to get away herself but now she was in the Kings hands she'd lost control of her end situation she couldn't choose any longer where she could go so it was a terrible time the king was absolutely beside himself losing Wallace there were tears in his eyes as he said goodbye to her it was his last very emotional dinner and I poured it a mad one has to sympathize for there he was with the woman he loved going out of his life only temporarily as he was certain but still leaving about leaving him abandoned surrounded by his enemies as he saw it in a hostile nation it was for him a very black moment [Music] it was a hair-raising journey the King not only lent his Buick but also his chauffeur and the chauffeur realized very soon that he was actually being followed Wallace was cowering him in the back with a blanket over her head hoping she wouldn't be recognized I'm in in 1936 we don't think of paparazzi but that's exactly what happened two days later December the 6th Wallace arrived at the Villa Lu yay in the hills above kin in letters and phone calls she pleaded with Edward to remain King and not to abdicate just to marry her he refused to listen he had to have her to know that he had died nobody was gonna keep her and the only way of ensuring out in his mind was to get married but Wallace was more desperate than ever to avoid marrying Edward she made a last-ditch attempt to escape the hangman drafting a note to the British government which simply read with a deepest personal sorrow mrs. Simpson wishes to announce that she has abandoned any intention of marrying his majesty she tried very genuinely to get out of this situation but it was too late the king was never going to let her to the outside world Wallace had got her man but for her the abdication was a disaster she was facing a life sentence with Edward and even more unbearably during these weeks of turmoil she'd begun to understand that the one man she truly did love was the man she was divorcing her husband Ernest how on earth had Wallace made such a monumental error now we all have the new King on December the 10th 1936 King Edward the eighth mistress Wallis Simpson who is now taking refuge in the South of France listened to his abdication speech she wept not for him but for herself for the next four months she and Edward could not be together as that could be seen under 1930s law as evidence that they'd illegally colluded in Wallace's divorce Edward now the Duke of Windsor took refuge in Austria pursued by the world's press Wallace was isolated and frightened and as her newly discovered letters reveal the person she chose to seek comfort in was the man she was divorcing and the person she blamed for her predicament was the man she was now fated to marry Saturday loo VA Ernest none of this mess and waking emptiness is of my own making it's the new Peter Pan plan Peter Pan of course is the reference to the king that she and Ernest had between them and obviously they had many times discussed how the king was this child who would never grow up I miss you and worry about you oh dear wasn't life lovely sweet and simple Wallace [Music] as wallace sat trapped in her french villa there was plenty of time to reflect on an extraordinary eight-year partnership with the husband she was leaving and all too late realizing she loved she first met Ernest Simpson 10 years before in New York he was half American half English and had fought for Britain in the First World War he become to every inch the officer and gentleman still fondly remembered by his family well he was just a nice person to us as his great nephews he was an extremely nice kind uncle so as we were concerned he was almost they thought Harry Godfather for Wallace the fairy godfather arrived at just the right time she was separated from her first husband wind Spencer an American naval aviator whom she'd married when she was just 19 marriage had seemed the escape from her childhood home in Baltimore where life had been hard her father died when she was a baby she and her mother were left dependent on rich in-laws later in life Wallace's mother became a pays hostess at a club it was really a very tough life and she was absolutely determined that she was going to have security and that for a woman in Wallace's position and time of course had to come through a man Ernest too was married but Wallace used her Wiles to get him she focused on somebody she made it her business to listen it's the eye contact partly it's making a man feel that he's the most special person in the world Ernest and Wallace divorced their respective spouses and in 1928 married Wallace wrote to her mother I'm very fond of him and he's kind I can't go on wandering for the rest of my life in earnest Wallace had found the security she so craved they moved to London bought a flat number five Bryanston court and set out to climb society's ranks through a mutual friend Wallace got to know a guaranteed ladder to the very top lady Thelma Furness the mistress of Edward Prince of Wales Edward was still in the popular view a heroic figure he was a dashing young prince he was handsome he was supremely well cut out to be the monarch everyone assumed that even one day get married settle down and have children and show succession he was perfect in January 1931 Wallace and Ernest were invited by Thelma sister to a country house party in Leicestershire there awaiting was the world's most dashing and desirable bachelor he was completely different to any of the rest of the family before him I mean George v for example his father was you know abs absolutely stiff regal all this and here's a boy wearing a peach cap smoking winking you know which was fine until the mid 30s but then you know by this time certain he wasn't quite as young as he had been and the winks didn't come off quite as easily as they used to by this time those people closest to him were getting a bit more doubtful it was fairly clear to them but he was frivolous irresponsible not really prepared to do a serious job of work Edward took a liking to Wallace and Cheyenne Ernest became frequent guests at his weekend retreat Fort Belvedere in Windsor Park then in January 1934 Thelma Furness had to go to America Wallace had made herself very friendly with Velma Furness they often had lunch at the Ritz and talked about all sorts of things and one of these lunches Ferber Furness so what rashly suggested to her friend one is Simpson will you look after the little man as he was known and she kept a very good eye on him indeed and of course she writes to her on Bessie about this because it's very exciting to have the Prince of Wales drop by at Branston Court I think I do amuse him I'm the comedy relief but I always have ernest hanging around my neck so all is safe and when Thelma came back and there was another lunch together she suddenly saw the Prince of Wales pick a lettuce leaf off his plate and playfully busy Simpson sauce slapped his hand and everything was different Thelma picked that up immediately with this one gesture had her eyes met mrs. Simpsons and clearly Wallace had become the princess girl that summer Edward invited Wallace to join his holiday party in the south of France one guests observed that he followed her around like a dog when the whirlwind of Wallace hit him he was completely without defenses he had nothing to fall back on inside himself at all at the end of that summer holiday the Prince slipped a velvet Cartier pouch into Wallace's hand containing a diamond and sapphire charm ad over the years she accumulated an astonishing fortune in precious stones and elegant objects which he laid as her feet as a tribute to her supernatural powers my mother and I think like so many other people in society it did think that she was a little girl digger [Music] Ernest Simpson left behind in the London flat was delighted with Wallace's royal for a he joked that she had been into the realm of Peter Pan's Neverland he was also doing nicely from the royal connection story is that the Prince of Wales had some tweed specially woven for him out of which he had mermaid Innova caved and my great uncle Ernest Simpson he said to her very much admired it and Prince well said my dear chap you know there is some tweed left over you may have it and and it's dead he had never gave made up with which you could have a look at in due course which is exactly the same as one that went to Wales war and there is of course lightly rude analyst Horace saying that he actually swapped his wife Renee became rather more usefully Edward opened the door for Ernest to join his Masonic Lodge with it entree to his rich friends Wallace and Ernest were playing as a team for their own enjoyment and profit the game of royal mistress had a clear set of rules which required Ernests participation eft alright have affairs with the gentlemen have affairs with married ladies not girls only married ladies see Wallace wouldn't been asked by herself to I don't think she would always have had to have her husband with people knew there was an affair with somebody going on you know they will put them at next door room since there was a country house weekends and that sort of thing that was fine but it was just the way things looked it was the outside show that counted and appearances had to be maintained I imagine people did exactly the same with Camilla Wallace understood the nature of the game better than anyone she reassured her aunt bessie everything will go on just the same as before namely the three of us being the best of friends i shall try and be clever enough to keep them both she was utterly convinced but a newer younger model would come along and the prince would tire of her and then she would need ernest as her safety net and ernest was quite happy to play along with this in the meantime wallace and ernest were going to make hay royalty opening up undreamt of treats among the cache of new documents found by wallace simpson's biographer and Sieber is a revealing collection of letters written by ernest to his mother back in america recording the good times April the 16th 1935 my dearest one and only mother the Prince took to other married couples and ourselves to the Grand National steeplechase near Liverpool he had a special car on the train and we were met by a fleet of motors we lunched in state with Lord Sefton the owner of the course had a splendid view from his private stand it was great fun much much love in which wallace joins and a big hug affectionately earnest but around this time a tiny shadow began to hover over the happy triangle Edward was showing an intensity of passion that was alarming he started writing Wallace extraordinary love letters couched in a private childlike language most of us if our early love letters were revealed to the public would be sadly embarrassed this was an exceptionally virulent case it was sickening the infantile babyish nation of the correspondence he talks about a boy and a girl he talks about them in the third person a boy loves a girl more and more he talks about when we will be one we being their initials Wallace and Edward and of course there's a pun on the Royal we involved in that as well Wallace although she responds and she writes as if she's in love it's not the same sort of passionate outpouring as you see in his letters to her Edwards obsession with Wallace had become overwhelming why has long been a mystery love I mean nobody's ever explained love you fall in love he did in spades you can talk about love being mad love was an obsession for him and he became blinded by this love he thought she was Helen of Troy nobody else did I mean she had a face like an old boot we thought and a very very austere and Lampton George and even at the age of 23 when it didn't turn much to turn me on she didn't she was always said to have picked up one or two little tricks in some while she was in China which um greased the wheels rather spectacularly but she didn't awake his virility I mean he he'd had lots of girlfriends before she was funny she was far more intelligent he was she was extremely witty was a sort of the American wisecrack remarks you know I think what really appealed was that she preached him with a disrespect almost a contempt which no English girl could possibly have done however independent might have a strong-minded he was still the future King mrs. Simpson didn't give a damn about the fact that he was a future king she was absurd and Akron ISM and she treated him like dirt and he deserved it it was almost as if the worst she behaved the more he needed her and she could sense that so this gave her a sort of license to behave really badly but he wanted her more and more I suppose if one's looking to explain this there's something in their relationship that he craved forgiveness so that the moment of forgiveness was actually sublime [Music] this relationship was easily visible when in 1935 Edward again invited Wallace to join him on summer holiday in the south of France she only had to lift a finger and he'd do exactly what she said you know it was too easy boy Wallace run the house organized the menus and sent bossy little notes to Edward or David as she and his family called him he lapped it up David I didn't see a green vegetable on the menu sorry to bother you but I like everyone to think you do things well perhaps I'm quite fond of you David I think it would be nice to have the choice of drinks on the porch outside the drawing-room I also think you're a very nice boy [Music] this summer holiday was Wallace's longest period of separation yet from her husband Ernest he went to America on business and visited Wallace's aren't Bessie Wallace wrote ahead to her aunt Ernest will give you an outline of our life in London since royalty arrived he thinks at all a great joke and so it is but unknown to Wallace for Ernest the joke was beginning to wear thin earlier in the year Wallace had invited an old school friend Mary Kirk to London to keep Ernest company while she cavorted with Edward Mary's marriage was falling apart and she was at a loose end so Wallace thinks I know I'll ask Mary over Muriel entertain Ernest that'll keep Ernest happy Mary and Ernest had got on well now in New York they met up again and began an affair Wallace knew nothing of it Ernest remained mr. dependable just before his return from America she wrote to Aunt Bessie I shall be glad to see that angelic Ernest again everything the same here and too many invitations appear what a bump I'll get when a young beauty appears and plucks the prints from me anyway I am prepared but storm clouds were gathering over Wallace in a way she could never have foreseen it was not just the entry of Mary there was about to be a seismic change in Edwards life just before midnight on January the 20th 1936 George v died Edward Prince of Wales was now King Edward the eighth he was also head of the Church of England which not only disapproved of divorce but would not allowed divorcees to remarry in church he knew what he must marry what his Simpson he knew what he was destined to be king he hadn't quite brought those two things together suddenly his father has died he was on the throne ever two things were together he had got to make up his mind how to play it and to take immediate action on something which up till then had been deferred to further deferred Edward's mistress Wallis Simpson assumed that his duties and status as monarch would soon eclipse their relationship she couldn't have been more wrong amazingly his need for Wallace increases Wallace finds it a suffocating need actually he's almost paralyzed as king almost unable to do anything without her there from the very first he even as a newsreel camera accidentally caught Wallace and Edward together watching his Proclamation as King he wanted her at his side she wrote to aren't busy I've had to be at the new King's beck and call he's lonely it needs companionship and affection otherwise he goes wrong Ernest has of course been marvellous about it here's the makeup of a saint and much too good for the likes of me by spring 1936 Edward was more obsessed than ever with Wallace and determined to marry her his adoration put Wallace at the very peak of society the hostesses believe as is indeed the case that if they get Wallace they have access to the king so this is a very exciting moment for her at the same time Wallace's husband Ernest Simpson was tiring of being the Wallflower he asked Edward man-to-man if he intended to marry Wallis Edward replied do you really think I would be crowned without Wallace at my side that evening earnest agreed to make way for Edward and divorce Wallace then in May 1936 Mary Kirk Wallace's oldest friend with whom Ernest had begun an affair invited herself to stay at Branston court matters came to a head there was an ugly scene in the Simpson flat Wallace was absolutely furious and accused Mary of seducing Ernest I mean that is rich since she had set this whole thing up and Mary immediately packs her bags leaves Branson square and never speaks to Wallace again that's the end of it at this moment Wallace made her fateful decision she would submit to Edwards demand that she divorce Ernest and take the biggest gamble of her life you see I am 40 and I feel I must follow my own instincts as regards my life and I'm quite prepared to pay for a mistake she very much believes this is her last chance to achieve something and maybe just maybe she could be queen Wallace and that actually everyone would pay attention to her and life would be fantastic and she would have achieved the unthinkable Ernest agreed to the customary way of securing a divorce he would be caught staying at a hotel with another woman to produce evidence of adultery ever since that woman has been known as a miss buttercup Kennedy but among the cache of new documents is a secret diary by Mary Kirk which shows it was her Mary wrote that she was Wallace's scapegoat Wallace really did manipulator and reading Mary Kirk's diary it's clear that Wallace now was on a slippery slope this is the Faustian pact that Wallace had made she was really using people she did things like invite Mary to the Opera and then at the last minute Wallace didn't turn up and she would say to people you see mayor is having an affair with my husband she goes to the Opera with him and I can't go so she was really not only manipulating people but she was treading on people she was absolutely using them for her own ends though Mary blamed everything on Wallis earnest in one of the newly discovered letters to his mother made it clear that Edward not Wallace had destroyed their marriage it is a great pity as we were really so frightfully congenial and never had an unhappy moment together until the mess started I am letting Wallace divorce me of course and the case will probably be heard in October Wallace of course is not asking for any alimony please destroy this there was every reason to destroy the letter it would have proved that those involved had colluded in the divorce which was illegal there was a genuine risk that somebody would try to bring forward evidence of complicity which would in fact far for disallowed of a divorce Wallace was away on her third summer holiday with Edward cruising along the Dalmatian coast but the fun was almost over the Nollan cruise would have a devastating twist on the way home Wallace stopped over in Paris waiting for her were sensational American press cuttings and photographs sent by aren't Bessie showing her intimacy with the king it suddenly came to her just what she was letting yourself in for how enormous was Catlin was going to be and how her whole life was going to be changed and she then writes to Edward a very articulate letter I must really return to earnest for a great many reasons which please be patient and read the first being that were so awfully congenial and understand getting on together very well which is really an art in marriage I'm sure you and I would only create disaster together I want you to be happy I feel sure I can't make you so and I honestly don't think you can me [Music] goodbye we all say Wallace the effect on Edward ates was dramatic he responded by threatening to slit his throat if Wallace left him he made it quite clear that he could not contemplate from instant possibility of separation he said he would kill himself well of course Wallace recognized that there was no way she could have blood on her hands there was no going back [Music] in october wallace moved to her rented house in Felixstowe to await her divorce hearing ernest moved out of their flat in Branston court and went to live in the guards Club in Mayfair from there he wrote Wallace a letter which despite his affair with Mary showed where his heart still really lay I think something in me quietly died when I closed the door of the flat for the last time this evening I have no tears left to shed I know that somewhere in your heart there is a small flame burning for me guarded carefully my darling and don't let it go out if only in memory of the sacred lovely things that have been some day I pray God will fan it into a blaze again and bring you back to me from Felixstowe Wallace wrote back with the divorce hearing flashing in front of her like a knife give me courage 2:15 Tuesday love Wallace I'm so lonely Wallace was trapped the countdown to abdication and a lifetime saddled to Edward was underway and to discharge my duties as King Edward the eighth had abdicated but there were still months to go before the decree absolute for wallace simpson's divorce could come through and they could be together wallace was hiding out in the south of france but as her newly discovered letters show it was not her future husband Edward she wanted to be with but Ernest the husband she was divorcing I miss you and worry about you Wallace while Wallace was so missing Ernest Ernest was now coming to terms with their separation he wrote to Wallace that she'd gone too far with Edward to turn back I want you to believe but I do believe that you did everything in your power to prevent the final catastrophe and you may rest assured that no one has felt more deeply for you than I have and would your life ever have been the same if you had broken it off I mean could you possibly have settled down to the old life and forgotten the fairyland through which you had passed my child I do not think so Ernest more than anyone understood Wallace's turmoil and the empty future she faced with the exiled king he wrote to his mother I cannot see much happiness ahead for those two poor people who have made this mess what will their life be while Wallace awaited that future life she wrote again to Ernest it is perhaps the most poignant letter of all first their February the 16th Ernest dear Ernest dear life here is one colossal bore I don't go places and I think it more dignified to be quiet one hopes to keep the name from the papers but even doing nothing is no protection from there in ten I wake up in the night sometime and think I must be lying on that strange J's long and hear your footsteps coming down the passage of the flat and there you are Evening Standard under your arm I can't believe such a thing could have happened to do people who got along so well at least it never should have been like it is now write me some times please and above all make your life again with care you are so good and sweet my dearest love to you Wallace but for Ernest it was over he knew that a completion of the divorce was the only answer and as he told his mother it couldn't come too soon frankly I'm in no way anxious to see the divorce upset I don't see how I could ever live with Wallace again all the nice things are spoiled and I don't want to be tied for life to someone I cannot live with just two days later news came through that the decree nisi for Wallace and Ernests divorce would be granted Wallace moved from kin to a new base the Chateau de coeur de Nile Valley Edward was allowed at last to join on May the 12th 1937 came the coronation not of Edward the eighth but of George the sixth on this great day from her place of exile the man Wallace chose to write to was Ernest dear Ernest how exciting London must be today if only one was starting with two brushes in a pail Wallace three weeks later on June the 3rd Edward and Wallace were married not one member of the royal family attended he thought at least his brothers will come he thought at least Lord Mountbatten would come the best man and one by one it became clear and none of them were coming and saddest Blair wore when even his his closest friend a man who had escorted Mississip sighs to France long Brando said that he at last realized it was incompatible with his role as not enough tenants to come and so in the end he was left with a handful of her family in considerable hangers-on and I'm a dismal little ceremony it was a sad moment for somebody who had only a few months or for being king of England Wallace had always hoped that there would be an element of an alternative coronation but it wasn't like that at all Constance spry had come out to do amazing flowers far too amazing for the small number of people that were there cecil beaton had taken some beautiful photographs but there's a chilling emptiness about the whole wedding yes Wallace looked beautiful in her man Boucher Wallace blew outfit impossibly slim hips this sort of halo like hat that's the defining image of this great romance but there's a coldness about the whole thing with only a few people there a handful of people there in November 1937 Ernest married Mary Wallace continued to miss him well over two years after the marriage to Edward she wrote again to him admitting that her pride as she put it had pushed her over the cliff anyway I shot write about it again it is painful and it is too late wherever you are you can be sure that never a day goes by without some hours thought of you and for you and again in my enum prayers at night with love Wallace and this seems to be the last letter in the series and there really isn't another letter after this in 1938 where Wallace writes to him in this vain she is closing this chapter Ernest and Wallace were embarked on their new and separate lives Ernests would bring early sadness Mary was diagnosed with cancer and died aged 45 Ernest married again this his fourth marriage lasted happily till his death Wallace and Edwards marriage lasted till Edward's death in 1972 she made the best of it projecting an image of her and Edward as the happiest couple in the world she was good guide you sat next to her which I did much much later in my life several times in Paris after the war she was good company if you find yourself sitting next to him which thank God I very seldom did it was a nightmare he had absolutely no conversation and he he just an incredibly credibly bored life he sacrificed so much that he must from time to time have wonder about our sacrifice and as he trailed wistfully around behind her three feet behind him rather disconsolate while she went from shop to shop I would think thoroughly bored well dad did seem a pretty Garson life but I think even though it was a pretty Garces life his life without her would have been a cigar stare and what he was happy in his kind of slavery in a way which would have seemed inconceivable to anyone who knew the road he could still be playing in London Wallace lived on till the age of 89 much was talked of duty in the story of Wallace and Edward in the end it would failed to do his duty to his nation but Wallace in sticking with him till the day he died did hers I think it's a lesson in be careful what you wish for I think what is recognized that this was a situation she would have to live with and for the next 36 years she did live with it with some nobility one can admire her for that twenty years later he was totally doted on and dependent on her if she was at a dinner table and got ever walked out he would within two minutes he'd be rushing after to find out what was going on he was obsessed by her Wallace was never obsessed by him she did have a love in her life but it was not Edward I think what the new letters show is that what for so long has been perceived as the greatest most romantic love story of the century is actually not the love story we think it is the real love story which is revealed from these letters is Wallace's love for earnest a man who could really offer her not just security but security and happiness and well-being which ultimately she realized was a quieter and deeper sort of love and worth much more than the empty life the boredom albeit the excitement briefly of jewels and fabulous clothes but having to live with a man whom she privately ridiculed Saturday October 30th earnest dear what can I say when I'm standing beside the grave of everything that was us only oh my very dear dear Ernest I can only cry as I say farewell and press your hand very tightly and pray to God Wallace [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Rating: 4.6006136 out of 5

Keywords: wallis simpson, wallis simpson documentary, royal family, edward viii, king edward viii, british royal family, duchess of windsor, british history, british monarchy, the crown, royal family documentary, wallis and edward, history documentary, king edward, ernest simpson, the queen, edward vlll, george vi, duke of windsor, timeline documentary, royal documentary, edward and wallis, edward viii documentary, edward and mrs simpson, the royal family

Id: Swd3ISRF_wY

Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018