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The Royal Socialite SHE WON THE HEART OF THE HEIR TO THE BRITISH THRONE – AND TO THIS DAY, WALLIS SIMPSON REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL PERSONALITIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH MONARCHY. SHE WAS MYSTERIOUS, SMART, AND ELEGANT, AND THE SOLE REASON WHY KING EDWARD VIII CHOSE TO ABDICATE FROM HIS THRONE. Text KAREN LERBECH
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The Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s country home Le Moulin de La Tuilerie in Gif sur Yvette, France.
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have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.” On 11 December 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated from the British throne after less than a year as regent. The reason was an American woman and two-time divorcée. Her name was Wallis Simpson. Wallis grew up far away from the British aristocracy. Born in 1896 in Pennsylvania, USA into modest conditions as the daughter of a flour merchant and his wife, she was hardly destined to cross the path of the future king of England. But from an early age Wallis strove to climb the social ladder. Her mantra was that “no woman can be too rich or too thin”.
And she succeeded. Through her first two marriages, she made it from Baltimore to Mayfair, one of London’s most fashionable neighbourhoods. Here she became part of the social scene, and it was in these circles that she met Edward, then the Prince of Wales. They soon became a couple, but the relationship was not popular among the royal family and the British government. Wallis was still married to her second husband, and even though she went on to divorce him, as a woman who had been married before she could not marry the king. Therefore, Edward renounced the throne. Many people blamed Wallis for seducing Edward, but it is just as likely that she herself was seduced by the glamour and fortune surrounding the prince. After the abdication, the couple left London and settled in Paris, where they married in June 1937. The new King of England, THE HORSE RIDER’S JOURNAL
Edward’s younger brother George, bestowed them with the titles of Duke and Duchess of Windsor. They moved in to a villa in the outskirts of Paris, in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Wallis made sure that the former king would feel at home in his new Paris home, so she decorated the villa as palatial as possible. Wallis Simpson, both before and after becoming the Duchess of Windsor, was known to be an elegant woman who knew how to dress, and who was not afraid to be controversial in her choice of designers. On the subject of clothes she once said: “I’m not a beautiful woman. I’m nothing to look at, so the only thing I can do is dress better than anyone else.” And so she did. She wore Givenchy, Dior, and Schiaparelli, and everything was thought through to the smallest detail. In June 1944, The American Mercury magazine reported: “The Duchess gives the impression of terrific neatness, not a hair out of
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Wallis Simpson and Prince Edward in the late 1930s.
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The dining room at the Paris residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
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place, not a line awry. Her nose never shines. Her slip never shows.” This neatness even caught the eye of Adolf Hitler, whom the couple met during a highprofile meeting in Bavaria shortly after their wedding in the summer of 1937. After the visit, Hitler stated that Wallis “would have made a good queen”. This visit would haunt the Duke and Duchess for the rest of their days, as speculators never stopped accusing them of being sympathisers of the Nazi regime. The Duchess never became a popular figure among the British people. She and her husband lived in isolation in their Paris home, and the British mainly
heard about them when the couple went to America on extravagant shopping sprees while the UK suffered rationing and blackouts as a result of World War II. Wallis was especially fond of jewellery, and Edward gave her everything she wanted from her favourite brand, Cartier. The collection consisted of more than 20 extravagant pieces, including an iconic diamond panther bracelet and a ruby, emerald, saphire flamigo brooch. In their 35 years of marriage, the couple never had any children. Instead, they enjoyed spending time with their two pugs, Ginseng and Diamond. The dogs were often portrayed with them in lifestyle THE HORSE RIDER’S JOURNAL
photos from their home in Bois de Boulogne. Edward died in 1972, and until her own death in 1986, Wallis mainly stayed in Bois de Boulogne. She was buried next to Edward in the Royal Burial Ground near Windsor Castle in England. The royal family attended both her funeral and her burial. As Duchess of Windsor, Wallis lived her life far away from England’s royal life, but to this day she is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of the British monarchy. She has been a popular figure in literature, films, and TV series, and the tale of the American socialite who made the English king surrender the throne will live on as one of the great love stories of the 20th century.
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Thanks to five years of miraculous restoration the Paris house that the Windsors thought of as home is today almost as they left it.
The Duchess of Windsor in the 1950s.
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Future Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, circa mid-1930s.
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