He threw away his crown and an empire for “the woman I love” – and she repaid him by having an affair with a playboy young enough to be her son.
The legend of King Edward VIII and his abdication has filled thousands of books and inspired countless films, TV documentaries and plays. But the story of how Wallis Simpson deceived the British king remains – even seventy years later – something few people know.
Edward fled from the throne in December 1936. The following year he married the twice-divorced Wallis, and as their lives turned from majestic grandeur to a welter of glittering parties, cocktails and photo calls, they became the world’s first media superstars.
Time and time again, their romance has been labeled the greatest love story ever told. But the truth was somewhat different.
In 1950, thirteen years after they married, Edward – now 56 – and Wallis, 54, had been everywhere, done everything, met everyone. The Duchess of Windsor was unbearably bored.
“You don’t know how hard it is to have a great romance,” she snapped when a friend asked her how it went.
But that all changed when the Windsors boarded the liner Queen Mary in New York on May 24, 1950, bound for France.
Also on the passenger list was Jimmy Donahue, 34, grandson of the legendary Frank Woolworth – whose five-and-dime shops were in every town and city center in Britain and the United States.
American divorcee, Wallis Simpson and Edward with Jimmy following them, the grandson of the legendary Frank Woolworth – whose five-and-dime shops were in every town and city center in Britain and the United States
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor aboard the Queen Mary in New York en route to France in May 1950
The Windsors on board the liner sailing from America to France
Jimmy had no fortune of his own, but his mother Jessie Donahue was wealthy and ready to give him whatever he wanted. He never had to work a day in his life, so he made his work with bad pranks and tricks.
He was slim, stunningly attractive and homosexual. But Jimmy loved the company of women and he knew how to make them laugh.
During that trip to France he made Wallis laugh. And as he measured his success, the joker in him took over. He began to romance her, despite the fact that she was almost twenty years older and one of the most famous women in the world. And despite the fact that he was homosexual.
In Paris he bought her jewelry and sent her flowers. The Duke, seeing how flamboyantly gay Jimmy was, didn’t think for a second that the boy might pose a threat to his marriage and, financed by the Woolworth millions, the Windsors and Jimmy became a fixture on the French capital’s nightclub circuit.
“The Duchess fell in love with him,” David Metcalfe, the Duke’s godson, told me. ‘He had control over her. She couldn’t live without him.’
Did they have sex? Mona Eldridge, secretary to Jimmy’s cousin Barbara “Poor Little Rich Girl” Hutton, says yes.
“I know it was physical,” she added. ‘There was sexual activity. She was in love with him, she pursued him. She really fell for him.” In the history of love, this was the greatest betrayal of all.
Apart from this unexpected sexual awakening, the attraction of the affair for the Duchess was its clandestine nature: she became skittish at the prospect of secret nighttime adventures.
Billy Livingston, Jimmy’s lifelong friend, reported that he hid Wallis on the floor of a limousine while she went on a date with Jimmy. “They enjoyed all the wildness and the things they did,” he recalled.
Thirteen years after their marriage, Edward – now 56 – and Wallis, 54, had been everywhere, done everything, met everyone. The Duchess was unbearably bored
The Windsors had a private suite at the Waldorf Astoria, where they were seen dancing here
Jimmy’s mother Jessie Woolworth Donohue financed him because she was ready to give him whatever he wanted, seen here (third from left) with the Duke of Windsor
But the Duke finally found out what was going on. In an emotional confrontation witnessed by his private secretary, the ex-king summoned his wife. He begged her to give him up. She refused.
The scene took place at the Waldorf Towers in New York, where the Windsors had a private suite, in 1953.
According to a note written by Anne Seagrim, the Duke’s private secretary: ‘The day he returned from the Racquets Club – where someone had told him “for his own sake” that the Duchess had been away every night until dawn with the same young man – he went to his room and lay down on his bed. She came in, happily oblivious, and went into his room.
‘I heard him suppress the tears in his voice and tell her what he had heard. I heard him say what I’m sure he’d rehearsed over and over again: ‘It’s not because you’re the Duchess of Windsor, it’s because you’re my wife. Any man would hate it if his wife did this.”
His voice wavered. She never said a single word – or at least I did not hear her voice, and soon she came out, all her gaiety gone – walking slowly with her head bowed, her face submissive, her eyes blue and bewildered. She shot me a quick glance as she walked through my room.
‘She was very quiet and submissive for a long time after that. She immediately called and canceled the appointment she had made with the young man.”
But the affair continued. And, Mrs. Seagrim says scathingly of the Duchess, “She enjoyed this meager little success.” Jimmy gained courage. He asked Wallis to marry him.
And she, born in America and all too aware of Woolworth’s colossal fortune – far greater than her husband’s – hesitated for a moment before realizing how useless it all was.
The American-born Wallis was all too aware of Jimmy’s colossal fortune
The Duchess on Palm Beach in Cannes with Jimmy
The affair is said to have ended when Jimmy kicked Wallis in the shin and Edward ordered him out of the room
Then misfortune struck. While on a tour of Austria with the Duke and Duchess, and probably drunk, Jimmy kicked her in the shin under the dining table. Her leg started to bleed.
The Duke jumped up in anger. “We’ve had enough of you, Jimmy,” he shouted. “Go away!”
And that was that – after four years and three months, Wallis’ autumn affair was over. A friend bumped into Jimmy in New York shortly afterwards and asked him how the Duchess was doing. “Didn’t you hear?” he replied. ‘I have renounced!’
- CHRISTOPHER WILSON is the author of Dancing With The Devil – the Windsors and Jimmy Donahue (HarperCollins).