New York Post

SEPARATE LIVES

Harry and Meghan should study the exile of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII — if they want to avoid the same fate

- ANDREW LOWNIE

THE Duke of Windsor died in May 1972 — little more than 50 years ago — after almost 40 years spent in exile from the Royal Family. It’s an exile that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should perhaps study — because the parallels between the marital lives of the two couples is uncanny.

The future Edward Vlll was a good-looking, popular, charismati­c young man who made no secret of his wish to modernize the monarchy. But his desire to marry Wallis Simpson — like Meghan Markle, a divorced American — cost him his throne and led to him being cut off from friends and family, as I write about in my new book, “Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor” (Pegasus Books).

In 1936, he withdrew from Royal duties to live abroad — but he never quite reconciled himself to his loss of status, and the ensuing years were to be marked by a series of disputes with his family.

The first was over security, which Buckingham Palace felt the Duke of Windsor should pay for himself. Despite the squabbling, he ultimately enjoyed police protection until his death — a privilege only accorded to the Sussexes when in Britain.

The second was over finances. Like Prince Harry, the Duke of Windsor had inherited considerab­le wealth — as well as savings made from the Duchy of Cornwall Estates — but it did not stop him complainin­g, like Harry, that he had been cut off financiall­y. Both issues contribute­d to a breakdown of trust and lingering tensions and suspicions with both the Duke and Harry complainin­g of poor parenting, fallouts between siblings and sisters-in-law — King George Vl’s wife Elizabeth could only refer to Wallis as “That Woman” — and accusation­s that the “rogue royal” was trying to upstage the dutiful one. In Windsor’s case, this involved a series of embarrassi­ng speeches or visits, including one to Nazi Germany in 1937. With the Sussexes and Cambridges, William and Kate, this competitiv­eness has been displayed in social media announceme­nts. It was felt that the ambitious, clever and manipulati­ve Wallis was shaping the views of her weak, stupid and vulnerable husband, a similar accusation now being made with regard to Harry’s newly adopted woke views.

Windsor continued until his death in 1972 to complain that Wallis had wrongly been denied the title of HRH — it was largely because it was felt that the marriage would not last — which is paralleled by the concerns raised in interviews by the Sussexes that their children would not have titles.

Both couples used the media to advance their cases with interviews which were not always “helpful” — the Sussexes with Oprah Winfrey, and the Windsors, notably with Kenneth Harris and a series of articles by Wallis in McCall’s Magazine, a mix of tips on entertaini­ng interspers­ed with comments about the royal family.

In June 1960 the Duke was persuaded by an adviser not to sign a contract for a TV series in which the Duke would re-enact the abdication speech. Shortly afterwards he did just that in a documentar­y which supposedly netted him the equivalent of $3 million now. One wonders what Harry and Meghan may still have in store as part of their reported $25 million Netflix deal.

Both couples have tried to shape the media narrative, either through cooperatio­n with tame biographer­s or suing the press — the Windsors each produced lucrative memoirs whilst the Sussexes cooperated with biographer Omid Scobie, and Harry has a book out later this year.

Just as the Sussexes have taken legal action against various newspapers, the Windsors have also sued the press, most notably the author Geoffrey

Dennis for suggesting they had slept together before marriage. It was true, but the Duke still won his case.

Then there are the allegation­s about Meghan’s treatment of staff. The Windsors were also said to have treated their staff in an entitled and unforgivin­g manner. Their ghost writer, Charles Murphy, remembered: “A dropped plate, a careless intrusion, a slip in attentiven­ess could be counted upon to bring a swift dressing down, followed often by peremptory sacking.”

The Windsors were frozen out by the Royal Family. It will be interestin­g to see if the same strategy is deployed against the Sussexes.

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 ?? ?? Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal exit draws irresistib­le pitfall parallels to the Duke of Windsor wedding a US socialite of his own, Wallis Simpson (right, returning from exile in 1967 and circled, in 1936.)
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal exit draws irresistib­le pitfall parallels to the Duke of Windsor wedding a US socialite of his own, Wallis Simpson (right, returning from exile in 1967 and circled, in 1936.)
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 ?? ?? Andrew Lownie is the author of “The Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor” (Pegasus Books).
Andrew Lownie is the author of “The Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor” (Pegasus Books).

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