King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson (Duke and Duchess of Windsor)

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. Wallis was the passive party here. She was a foreigner in England being advised by the King and did what was best. He was the motivating force to marry Wallis, who I think would have been just as happy being the girl friend of the King. A position not unlike Camilla Parker Bowles, but without a Diana Spencer...

If you saw the movie "the King's Speech" you would see how it was the Queen Mother who made the decisions. I think David & Wallis had a case for Elizabeth, but maybe not against Queen Mary. She who in later years "hoped that David will come back to live in England". I was surprised to read that in the Queen Mum's official bio. In that book, The Queen Mum stated that she "knew" she would be blamed for the treatment of the Windsors.

[Gerta]

I don't think Wallis had the capacity to love.  (Maybe this was due to her abusive 1st marriage.)  To me she always looked rather brittle and hard and this was several years before the abdication crisis and after.  She was stuck with an emotionally stunted man-child and she just didn't have the capacity to give him the love and care he needed.  Honestly, I think she showed more love to her dogs than she did to him,  When they got on in years it seemed she had the attitude of "I'm bored, amuse me!"  Even in some of the newsreel clips I have seen of them, when he would touch her hand she looked grimacing.  Really, I pity them both.

[grandduchessella]

I think by their middle years of marriage--when she looked so brittle--you could see the weight of not only dealing with a difficult, fawning husband (who I think based on what I've read but others may disagree) she often had trouble respecting but also carrying the weight of an infamous romance. It can be hard to live a real life when you are expected to bear the share of being a legend. By her later years, living alone,  I think she found comfort in the very same legend and lived in a romanticized past.

[LadyTudorRose]

I don't think Wallis had the capacity to love.  (Maybe this was due to her abusive 1st marriage.)  To me she always looked rather brittle and hard and this was several years before the abdication crisis and after.  She was stuck with an emotionally stunted man-child and she just didn't have the capacity to give him the love and care he needed.  Honestly, I think she showed more love to her dogs than she did to him,  When they got on in years it seemed she had the attitude of "I'm bored, amuse me!"  Even in some of the newsreel clips I have seen of them, when he would touch her hand she looked grimacing.  Really, I pity them both.

I've seen most of the interviews and footage of them and I've never gotten that impression. She wasn't all over him, but usually she looked very happy and comfortable with him. It's also worth noting whenever they did big public shows of affection they were criticized for seeking attention. If she had been constantly kissing him and touching him people would have said she was being inappropiate and only doing it for attention. Yet if she didn't constantly act like she was madly in love it must mean she didn't love him at all. I feel like people have read way too much into things trying to prove their marriage was unhappy. Like the tabloids would claim they were getting divorced if they were ever apart for even a few days. If you read her memoirs Wallis mentions she was never really comfortable being the center of attention and tended to get nervous in front of people.

The Windsors were constantly together. Wallis rarely left the house without David, and when she did it was often because he didn't feel like going clubbing or shoe shopping or whatever. They had two houses yet always stayed together. There were never any affairs, or at least not any that caused a major rift. I've read all their letters from when they were married and not once is there any trace of conflict or unhappiness in the relationship. For the life of me I will never understand this obsession with the idea that they were so unhappy.

[Alixz]

We have to remember that the 1930s was a completely different time and the moral values were completely different.

The 1960s hadn't happened yet and the idea of "free" love and divorce and single parenting was very far in in the future.
 
I can see why the general public would look at Wallis the way they did.  We know that her first marriage was abusive and her second was not all fireworks, but the general public at the time did not know this.  Also, she did look like a social climber or "adventuress" as she was called.  It looked like she was marrying up the social ladder, as it were.

And from what I read, she did offer David the kind of support and love that he needed.  Her brittleness came from how thin she was not necessarily what her personality was like.

[Gerta]

Toward the end of their lives, did they have many close friends?  I know Wallis had some french aristos but did the Duke have many male friends?

[Alixz]

I haven't gotten to the end of Greg's book, yet, but when I do I'll let you know.

Greg, by the way, dedicated the book to Diana, Princess of Wales.  The day she died, she and Dodie had toured the Windsor's country house as an option for Diana to buy.  How strange life can be.

[Robert_Hall]

Gerta, I think, by that time, they were fairly isolated. The friends of their generation were dieing off and ill health prohibited the socialising they were know for in the past.  Wallis controlled who the Duke met, and eventually, Mairte Blum controlled who SHE  met.
 Everyone here are making posts that they can support,  I think a fairly pro-con treatment.  However, I tend to agree with Eddie's take on the relationship.

[feodorovna]

It has always been my contention that Wallis was not in love with David. I don't think it ever occured to him and I'm not certain it would have mattered-that he was determined to have her was his only consideration. I believe that what started life as a game in which Wallis and Ernest colluded, ran hopelessly out of control because Wallis didn't understand the rules, NOT because she was American, but because she WASN'T English. It made it possible for David to convince her that he was ALLpowerful. It looks certain that he and Ernest "arranged "her divorce between them, thus removing, what for her, had been a very effective safety barrier. I feel there came a point at which she was desperate to extricate herself from the Royal "clutches" but he countered it by promising to find her wherever she tried to hide and threatening suicide, which may have been, in part, about his own desperation to escape a throne he'd never wanted. IMO, of course!!!

[Eddie_uk]

Personally, I don't think Wallies was ever backwards in coming forwards! I think she was self centered & could be quite ruthless, if Wallis really wanted to get out of the situation I believe she would have, without a thought for anyone elses feelings (look at the letters she sent to the Duke at the time of the abdication, telling him exactly what to do!).  I have the impression that what Wallis wanted Wallis got!  I'm sure she loved the Duke in her own way...

However, as always, I will stand corrected!

[Eric_Lowe]

Everybody has it own personal take on Wallis, but I think judging from her own experience, she wasn't that bad. Grew up in poverty and unlucky in love, she tend to be the more practical person. I don't think that made her the villain here. All the sons of George V needed a strong woman to guide them. Wallis was that person for David.

[grandduchessella]

Personally, I don't think Wallies was ever backwards in coming forwards! I think she was self centered & could be quite ruthless, if Wallis really wanted to get out of the situation I believe she would have, without a thought for anyone elses feelings (look at the letters she sent to the Duke at the time of the abdication, telling him exactly what to do!).  I have the impression that what Wallis wanted Wallis got!  I'm sure she loved the Duke in her own way...

However, as always, I will stand corrected!

I think she got what she wanted up to a point and then lost control. It must have been terrible glamorous to come from what she had (from childhood up through her two marriages) to serving as the King's hostess to all sorts of important people at Ft Belvedere, to accompany him on vacations to beautiful places (like the Riviera), to be showered with beautiful jewelry and so on. In the meantime, as her letters attest, she still had the safety and security of Ernest Simpson. It was almost the best of both worlds and not unlike what women such as Alice Keppel had managed decades before. I think then things spun wildly out of control. Having no one else to lean on in the tabloid frenzy and rather frivolous existence that was their lives for so many  years, I don't doubt they leaned heavily on each other--though I think she was definitely the stronger of the two. (The only time David showed any real 'strenght' in my opinion was when he forced the relationship through onto the Abdication) After so many years, and given the circumstances of their existence, it would be only natural for them to have a very strong bond and I don't doubt that she grieved him sincerely and greatly when he passed.

[Petr]

I think with Wallis people are willing to believe the worst (from a hooker in Shanghai to being a man really !).

What about the story that Scotland Yard alleged that she was having an affair with someone else while seeing the Prince of Wales. Any truth to that? I'm sorry I just don't find her appealing although sending Charles to see her in Paris to get back some family jewels after the Duke died I also found rather tacky.

[grandduchessella]

Daily Mail article on Madonna's new WE movie:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2032188/It-looks-sumptuous-script-dreadful-On-eve-W-E-premiere-review-Madonnas-Wallis-Simpson-film-debut.html

"'The film depicts real characters but often places them in fictional situations. The most ludicrous historical untruth in the film happens when King Edward VIII spots some of his fellow partygoers falling asleep and spikes their drinks with Benzodiazepine. "

"'Just when you thought the whole thing couldn’t get more bizarre, Mohamed Al Fayed pops up in the film and is portrayed as a white knight for allowing Wally to read Wallis Simpson’s letters [which Fayed owns] when she goes to Paris."

She apparently over-romantacizings, over-dramatizings David's famous "something must be done" trip to the Welsh mines. She she only paints Wallis & David as heroic, I'm sure there's nothing in there about how his 'stuffy', 'backwards-looking' 'old fashioned' parents actually had the better social conscious and dealt well with Labour ministers--often as well or better than Tory's. It doesn't fit her 'poor, maligned David, if only he could've had Wallis and remained King the world would be so much better' narrative.

"The film segues between Edward and Wallis Simpson scandalising society and the exploits of a modern-day lonely woman Wally played by Australian actress Abby Cornish who develops an obsession with Wallis. Wally leaves her abusive husband and embarks on a torrid affair with Evgeni, a Russian security guard at Sotheby’s which is auctioning Wallis Simpson’s estate in 1998."

The movie does get props for the clothing and accessories. I guess it's fitting that Galliano helped with the clothes!

[Gerta]

Gerta, I think, by that time, they were fairly isolated. The friends of their generation were dieing off and ill health prohibited the socialising they were know for in the past.  Wallis controlled who the Duke met, and eventually, Mairte Blum controlled who SHE  met.
 Everyone here are making posts that they can support,  I think a fairly pro-con treatment.  However, I tend to agree with Eddie's take on the relationship.

Just out of curiosity, is Suzanne Blume still alive and is there anything left of Wallis estate?