For the ages
love Harry, and we did Edward. Adoring crowds turned out in 1920 for his triumphant royal tour, although we had no idea how much he hated it all.
He was petulant about his royal duties (‘‘I am so, so sick of my bloody job!’’ he wrote to one lover) and endlessly self-pitying. He disliked the ‘‘shrieking people and schoolchildren’’ here. ‘‘Half the men are overflowing with Scotch,’’ he complained. The ladies of Wellington were ‘‘ham-faced’’. ‘‘The women get on my nerves and none of them can dance for nuts’’, he whined.
In 1920 and much of the rest of the time, Edward kept a married lover. He preferred the company of married women, something Wallis knew. By 1931 she was barely tolerating her marriage to expat American Ernest Simpson in freezing, foggy London, instead devoting her energy to slogging her way up the social ladder.
Like Harry and Meghan, Wallis and Edward were introduced by inner circle friends (in Meghan’s GETTY IMAGE case, her connections paved the way. It’s claimed the date at Soho House was set up by Violet von Westenholz, PR for Ralph Lauren whose brand Markle was promoting, and Markus Anderson, a representative of the Soho Group).
Wallis had carefully cultivated the trust of Lady Furness, a married American who was Edward’s longterm mistress. She’d been practising her wit for months and was fascinated by his royal mystique. If she made it into the trusted royal circle she and Ernest would have it made, socially and professionally, so she absolutely had to impress right off the bat.
It seems she rose to the occasion, as did Meghan (‘‘I was beautifully surprised when I walked in that room and saw her,’’ Harry later admitted. ‘‘I thought I’m really going to have to up my game’’).
But where Harry readily embraces his royal duties, considering Meghan a member of the royal ‘‘team’’ and an equal partner in life and work, Edward did not. He was needy and co- dependent: his lovers had to flatter and support him.
Wallis was ready to do both – she stuck to him throughout their early affair, assuming a wifely role in private, organising his menu, even reportedly instructing his servants. She was lavished with jewels, holidays and clothes. Edward leaned on her so heavily that soon, he couldn’t live without her.
Her husband stepped aside and divorce was arranged, but she couldn’t imagine how vastly her life would change for the worse. Yes, there would be jewels and fine houses but banishment too, and a life lived on the fringes of high society. Many refused to recognise her, address her as Edward expected, or even to curtsy. Their legendary affair was tainted by rejection.
Meghan, too, has given up her independence for Harry and a future she cannot predict. Biographer Andrew Morton estimates her personal net worth as $US5 million (NZ$7.2m) at the time of her engagement, able to command up to US$20,000 for a public appearance. She has denied that leaving Hollywood behind her is a sacrifice, saying this is simply ‘‘a new chapter’’ of her life which she can dedicate to good works.
She converted her faith and will ultimately relinquish her American citizenship. Early signs, too, imply that she will pay an additional personal price, living more distantly from friends and relatives less willing to adapt their behaviour. This week her father appeared to be a casualty of this new quality of her fame.
It could be that both women were surprised by how hard and quickly the royal princes fell. Harry knew his feelings straight away, whisking Meghan off to glamp in Africa after only two dates. Theirs has been a whirlwind relationship, many months of it spent long-distance.
Morton theorises in his new biography Wallis in Love that she was horrified by how obsessive Prince Edward became about her, never intending that he renounce the throne and feeling forced into marrying him when he did.
Edward was a reluctant king, says Morton, and Wallis was a neat solution to the burden of his duty. Instead of marrying her without bestowing her a queenly title – a morganatic marriage, as Prince Charles has with Camilla – he refused this option and abdicated, condemning them both to listless, if luxurious, exile in the Bahamas and
‘ I want you to know that the decision I have made has been mine and mine alone.’ KING EDWARD VIII ABDICATION SPEECH, DECEMBER 1936
France.
Their wedding pictures say it all. Ramrod straight, with a tight smile, Wallis and the former king stand uncomfortably for a handful of cameramen outside a French chateau in 1937. No royal guests, no crowds, just a handful of witnesses.
In contrast, last night’s wedding was attended by crowned heads, celebrated in the streets and watched by millions. For the Windsors the ceremony represented not the loss of possibility, as it did 81 years ago, but the promise of something better. And on a wedding day, royal or otherwise, that’s all a loving heart can wish for.