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When Prince Harry sat down with CBS’s Anderson Cooper for an interview about his new book, there was a little-known and unusual bond between the pair.
Despite the fact that their families were born thousands of kilometers apart and on different sides of the Atlantic, the interview was not the first time they had crossed paths.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Cooper’s great-aunt Thelma Furness had an affair with the Duke’s great-great-uncle, Edward VIII.
And in a twist of fate, it was Lady Furness who ended up introducing the then-Prince of Wales to his future wife, Wallis Simpson.
Thelma Furness, pictured with Edward VIII, the then Prince of Wales, during their affair in 1932
Prince Harry, pictured, sat down for an interview with Anderson Cooper about his new book.
It is unknown if the Duke of Sussex or the American television personality knew of the link before they met as part of Harry’s publicity blitz ahead of the release of his autobiography, Spare, next week.
However, information about the link between their families has long been in the public domain.
The Prince, who was reputed to be a clingy and needy man, had his fair share of romantic liaisons, including with a courtesan who murdered her husband.
He had originally met Lady Furness at an agricultural fair in 1926.
The couple entered into an affair despite the fact that she was married to Marmaduke Furness, who was 20 years her senior and owned a shipbuilding company.
Edward had moved to Lady Furness despite being in love with Freda Ward, the wife of Parliamentarian William Dudley Ward.
Their passionate romance was derailed when Freda embarked on another affair with an American polo player in an attempt to get the Prince to move on.
It did so in the form of Lady Furness, with the pair trading Harrods teddy bears to remember each other while apart.
Edward’s association with Lady Furness also facilitated his introduction to his future wife, Wallis Simpson.
A chance meeting between the pair at one of Lady Furness’s parties at her home in Melton Mowbry soon turned into a close friendship, it reports. The press of history.
Wallis and her second husband, Ernest Simpson, had only been invited to the party after another married couple pulled out at the last minute.
Only after Wallis divorced her second husband, Ernest Simpson, would Edward enter into a relationship with her, sparking a royal crisis that ended with his abdication and Harry’s great-grandfather George’s ascension to the throne.
In her book ‘Before Wallis: Edward VIII’s Other Women’, author Rachel Threthewey commented that although the relationship did not last, one of the teddy bears was found at the bottom of Lady Furness’s bag when she died of a fit. to the heart in 1970.
Towards the end of his life, when asked if he had any regrets, he said, “I would do it all over again.” The one thing she wouldn’t do again is introduce Wallis Simpson to the Prince of Wales.
It’s unclear if Harry or Cooper, pictured, were aware of the link between their two families.
Lady Furness and her twin sister Gloria Vanderbilt pictured together. Gloria was the grandmother of CBS’s Anderson Cooper
Lady Furness later said she was sorry she had introduced Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson, pictured together in 1942.
Lady Furness’s twin sister, Gloria, had also married into high society in the form of the Vanderbilts, one of the wealthiest families in America.
At the age of 18, she married Reginald Vanderbilt, an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune who was 24 years her senior.
They would have a daughter, who was also named Gloria, before he died and would later become the subject of a highly publicized custody battle between Mrs. Vanderbilt and her sister-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
Later, young Gloria would give birth to Anderson Cooper, the youngest of her seven children, with her fourth. husband, author Wyatt Emory Cooper in 1967.
MailOnline has contacted representatives of Prince Harry for comment.
A trailer for his interview with Cooper was released on Monday, as well as a separate quiz from ITV’s Tom Bradby.
In the announcement of his CBS interview, Harry was asked why he had not shared his complaints with the rest of his family in private.
“Every time I have tried to do it in private, there have been briefings, leaks and seeding of stories against me and my wife.
“The family motto is never complain and never explain, it’s just a motto.”
And he adds: ‘They [Buckingham Palace] you’ll feed or have a conversation with a correspondent, and that correspondent will literally spoon up information and write the story, and at the end, they’ll say they contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.
“But the whole story is commented on by Buckingham Palace.
“So when we’ve been told for the last six years, ‘we can’t put out a statement to protect you,’ but you do it for other family members, there comes a point where silence is betrayal. ‘
It comes ahead of the publication of his memoir, Spare, which is due for a UK release next week.
In the trailer for his interview with Mr. Bradby, Harry says “it never had to be like this” and refers to “running and seeding” before adding “I want a family, not an institution.”
He also says, in an apparent reference to the royals, “they feel it’s best to keep us the villains in some way,” adding that his family “has shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams says the claims made by the Sussexes in the press are not helping the fractured relationship.
“This is akin to a publicity circus that seems pretty desperate,” he said.
Harry would like to “get his brother back” and “… his father back”, but surely he must know that further exposing this catalog of problems is not the way to do it.
“More accusations from stories the Palace planted against them in both interviews show just how bitter he and Meghan still are, but, even if his fans support him, there will come a time when even the media will tire of exposure at this level.
Referring to the Palace’s inability to protect them from false reports, Harry says in the CBS interview trailer that “there comes a point where silence is betrayal.”
‘There is also a point, if you desire any relationship, however distant, with the royal family, that silence is common sense. When will the Sussexes know this?