WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 okay picture the scene it is december 11th 1936 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.879 you are sitting in a you know a drafty living 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.500 room in london or maybe huddled around a wireless 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:12.000 radio in a farmhouse in the american midwest 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 the entire world has effectively stopped the 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.019 airwaves are crackling with static and then a 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:20.609 man's voice cuts through And it's a very distinct 00:00:20.609 --> 00:00:22.809 voice. It's a voice that belongs to the king 00:00:22.809 --> 00:00:25.309 of the United Kingdom, the emperor of India, 00:00:25.510 --> 00:00:28.269 the ruler of a dominion that covers a quarter 00:00:28.269 --> 00:00:31.410 of the globe. And he says something that, well, 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:33.909 it basically stops the clocks on the wall. I 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:36.810 have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden 00:00:36.810 --> 00:00:39.250 of responsibility and to discharge my duties 00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:41.670 as king as I would wish to do without the help 00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:43.939 and support of the woman I love. The woman I 00:00:43.939 --> 00:00:46.700 love. It is arguably the most famous resignation 00:00:46.700 --> 00:00:48.479 letter in human history. I think you're right. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:50.200 There's nothing else quite like it. And the woman 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:52.359 he is talking about isn't a princess from a neighboring 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:54.880 kingdom. She isn't a duchess with a pedigree 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:57.500 going back to the Crusades. She is Wallis Simpson, 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:00.299 a four -year -old American from Baltimore. And 00:01:00.299 --> 00:01:02.979 a divorcee, a two -time divorcee, in fact. Right. 00:01:03.179 --> 00:01:06.519 A woman who, depending on which history book 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:10.239 you decide to open, is either the romantic heroine 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:14.540 of the century or a... The villain who nearly 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:16.980 destroyed the British monarchy before it even 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:20.280 hit the mid 20th century. It really is the event 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:22.819 against which all other royal scandals are measured. 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.560 We think we have drama now with modern royals. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.659 This was the original blockbuster. This was the 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:32.519 earthquake that shook the foundation of the institution 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:35.939 itself. It's not an exaggeration to say it brought 00:01:35.939 --> 00:01:38.500 the empire to the brink of a constitutional meltdown. 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:40.769 And that is exactly what we are unpacking today. 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.269 We are doing a deep dive into the life of Wallis 00:01:43.269 --> 00:01:45.969 Simpson. But we aren't just going to rehash the 00:01:45.969 --> 00:01:48.109 fairy tale version or the, you know, the hit 00:01:48.109 --> 00:01:50.450 piece version. We want to know who actually was 00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:52.810 she. Yes. Because for a woman so famous, she 00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:55.489 is incredibly misunderstood. Absolutely. And 00:01:55.489 --> 00:01:57.069 to get to the truth, we have pulled together 00:01:57.069 --> 00:01:59.370 a massive stack of sources for this one. We are 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:01.489 looking at definitive biographies. We combed 00:02:01.489 --> 00:02:03.609 through the Wikipedia archives to get the timeline 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:05.909 straight, which is crucial. We're looking at 00:02:05.909 --> 00:02:08.569 contemporary diaries from the 1930s. which are 00:02:08.569 --> 00:02:11.030 just full of the most incredible gossip. And 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:14.069 we're even cracking open some declassified FBI 00:02:14.069 --> 00:02:16.969 files that paint a much, much darker picture 00:02:16.969 --> 00:02:20.370 than the romance novels do. The FBI. We'll definitely 00:02:20.370 --> 00:02:22.449 have to get into why they were involved. Oh, 00:02:22.530 --> 00:02:25.129 we will. So the mission today is to move past 00:02:25.129 --> 00:02:28.550 the caricature. It is so easy to paint her as 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:32.250 the villainous temptress, the sorceress who stole 00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:34.490 the king. The American Jezebel, as some called 00:02:34.490 --> 00:02:37.210 her. Or, on the flip side, the romantic victim 00:02:37.210 --> 00:02:39.610 who just fell in love and got swept away by forces 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:42.030 beyond her control. But when you look at the 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:45.069 actual evidence, the reality is so much messier. 00:02:45.349 --> 00:02:48.710 She was complex. She was ambitious. She was terrified. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.599 And she was contradictory. That's the perfect 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:53.740 word for contradictory. We're going to trace 00:02:53.740 --> 00:02:56.319 that entire arc. We will go from her childhood 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:59.180 as a poor relation in Baltimore, which I think 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:00.979 explains almost everything about her psychology. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:03.479 I agree. That's the key right there. To the wild 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:05.969 rumors of her time in China. the constitutional 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:08.750 crisis that brought down a government, the incredibly 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:11.469 controversial brush with the Nazis, and finally, 00:03:11.509 --> 00:03:14.849 those silent, lonely years in Paris. It is a 00:03:14.849 --> 00:03:17.610 sweeping narrative, a life lived at the absolute 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:19.949 center of history. So let's start at the very 00:03:19.949 --> 00:03:21.849 beginning, because she wasn't born a duchess. 00:03:21.849 --> 00:03:24.050 She wasn't even born Wallace, really. Not as 00:03:24.050 --> 00:03:26.030 a first name, no. She was born Bessie Wallace 00:03:26.030 --> 00:03:28.629 Warfield. Bessie Wallace. That's right. June 00:03:28.629 --> 00:03:32.270 19th, 1896. And she wasn't born in a palace or 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:34.349 even a major city. She was born in a place called 00:03:34.349 --> 00:03:36.849 Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. Which sounds 00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:39.689 lovely, but why there? Why not Baltimore, where 00:03:39.689 --> 00:03:41.650 her family was from? I mean, the Warfields were 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:43.930 a big name in Baltimore. It was a summer resort. 00:03:44.620 --> 00:03:46.840 You have to remember, in 1896, there is no air 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:49.500 conditioning. Baltimore in the summer is a swamp. 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.259 It's humid. It's oppressive. The threat of diseases 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:55.560 like typhoid was very real. Right. So the wealthy 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:57.659 families and the Warfields, who were a very wealthy, 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:01.039 prominent family, would retreat to the cool mountain 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.020 air of Pennsylvania. It was an escape for the 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:07.060 elite. The square top hotel, to be exact. Right. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.340 So she's born into this world of privilege, at 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.960 least on the surface. On the surface. But even 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:14.120 her birth comes with a little asterisk, doesn't 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.430 it? There is a bit of a scandal right out of 00:04:16.430 --> 00:04:18.649 the gate regarding the timeline. Yes, the wedding 00:04:18.649 --> 00:04:21.389 date versus the birth date. There is. And this 00:04:21.389 --> 00:04:23.490 is the kind of detail that could haunt a family 00:04:23.490 --> 00:04:26.370 in that era, especially in a society as concerned 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:29.689 with appearances as Baltimore's was. If you look 00:04:29.689 --> 00:04:33.269 at the church records, her parents, Tika Wallace 00:04:33.269 --> 00:04:36.410 Warfield and Alice Montague, were married on 00:04:36.410 --> 00:04:40.209 November 19, 1895. Okay, November 95. Wallace 00:04:40.209 --> 00:04:43.790 arrives in June 1896. I'm doing the mental math. 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:46.959 That is seven months, a very tight seven months. 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:49.639 It is a tight seven months. Now, premature babies 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:51.560 happen, of course. That's entirely possible. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.160 But there's always been a persistent rumor that 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.139 she was conceived out of wedlock. Which would 00:04:56.139 --> 00:04:57.920 have been a major stain on the family's honor. 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:00.079 A huge one. And what's really telling is that 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.579 Wallace herself, later in life, would claim her 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:05.139 parents were married in June 1895, pushing the 00:05:05.139 --> 00:05:07.519 date back a full year to make the math look more 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:10.120 respectable. So she lied about it. She did. But 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:12.129 the church records don't lie. That is fascinating. 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:15.529 So from day one, she is managing her image. She 00:05:15.529 --> 00:05:17.610 is trying to rewrite the facts to fit a respectable 00:05:17.610 --> 00:05:19.829 narrative. That's a theme that just never goes 00:05:19.829 --> 00:05:22.389 away with her. Exactly. And that insecurity, 00:05:22.550 --> 00:05:25.389 that need to control the story, is compounded 00:05:25.389 --> 00:05:28.589 by tragedy almost immediately. Her father, Teagle, 00:05:28.750 --> 00:05:31.610 had tuberculosis. It was the scourge of the age. 00:05:31.790 --> 00:05:34.170 A death sentence, really. Pretty much. He dies 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:37.290 in November 1896. Wallace is barely an infant, 00:05:37.509 --> 00:05:41.350 five months old. She never knew him. So her mother, 00:05:41.509 --> 00:05:44.829 Alice, is left a widow with a baby and, crucially, 00:05:44.990 --> 00:05:48.209 no independent income. And this is the defining 00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:50.889 dynamic of Wallace's early life. This is what 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.439 shapes her. They are Warfields. The Warfields 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:55.439 are a big deal in Baltimore history, politicians, 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:58.339 businessmen, very established. But Wallace and 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:00.500 her mother are the poor Warfields. The ones without 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:02.220 the money? The ones without any money of their 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:04.519 own. They are entirely dependent on the charity 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:06.899 of her father's brother, her Uncle Solomon Davies 00:06:06.899 --> 00:06:08.800 Warfield. Let's talk about Uncle Saul, because 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:10.420 he sounds like a character straight out of a 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:12.850 Dickens novel. He really is. He was a bachelor, 00:06:13.009 --> 00:06:15.769 incredibly wealthy, incredibly powerful. He was 00:06:15.769 --> 00:06:18.310 the postmaster of Baltimore, president of a trust 00:06:18.310 --> 00:06:21.209 company, president of a railway. He was a major 00:06:21.209 --> 00:06:24.569 figure. And he held the purse strings, and by 00:06:24.569 --> 00:06:26.550 all accounts, he held them tight. So he takes 00:06:26.550 --> 00:06:29.490 them in. Yes. Wallace and her mother moved into 00:06:29.490 --> 00:06:32.589 his four -story row house on East Preston Street. 00:06:32.850 --> 00:06:35.470 That sounds comfortable on paper, living in a 00:06:35.470 --> 00:06:38.110 mansion. I mean, four stories? It sounds grand, 00:06:38.370 --> 00:06:41.509 but psychologically... That has to be incredibly 00:06:41.509 --> 00:06:44.170 tough. I can't even imagine. It's a very specific 00:06:44.170 --> 00:06:47.009 kind of pressure. You are surrounded by wealth. 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:49.970 You have the right last name. You go to the right 00:06:49.970 --> 00:06:52.170 parties. Yeah. But you have no money of your 00:06:52.170 --> 00:06:54.629 own. You are living there on sufferance. You're 00:06:54.629 --> 00:06:56.949 a guest in your own life. You have to be grateful. 00:06:57.149 --> 00:06:59.329 You have to be pleasant. You have to sing for 00:06:59.329 --> 00:07:01.629 your supper in a way. You can never step out 00:07:01.629 --> 00:07:03.930 of line because the roof over your head, the 00:07:03.930 --> 00:07:05.870 food you eat, it all depends on your uncle's 00:07:05.870 --> 00:07:08.620 mood. It is the poor relations syndrome. You 00:07:08.620 --> 00:07:10.720 are inside the club, but you are not of the club. 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:13.319 You're always looking in from the outside, even 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:16.500 when you're on the inside. Precisely. And I think 00:07:16.500 --> 00:07:19.779 this breeds two things in Wallace. First, a deep, 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:22.980 gnawing insecurity. She never felt safe. And 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:27.220 second, a ferocious drive. A determination. She 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:30.399 decided very early on that she was never... ever 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:32.759 going to be in this position of dependency again. 00:07:32.899 --> 00:07:34.879 She wanted her own security. She wanted security. 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:37.379 And in her world at that time, security meant 00:07:37.379 --> 00:07:39.920 money and status. And the only way for a woman 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:42.100 to get that was through marriage. But Uncle Solomon 00:07:42.100 --> 00:07:44.439 did come through on the education, right? He 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:47.300 didn't skimp there. No. To his credit, he paid 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.959 for her to attend Oldfield School. This was the 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:52.540 most expensive, most exclusive girls' school 00:07:52.540 --> 00:07:55.120 in Maryland. This is where the elite sent their 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.660 daughters. So now teenage Wallace is rubbing 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:00.259 shoulders with the daughters of true tycoons. 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:02.339 We are talking about people like Rene DuPont. 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:04.279 The DuPonts. I mean, that's American royalty. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:06.720 OK, so she is literally in the mix with the American 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:10.120 aristocracy. She is. But again, she knows the 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:12.480 difference. They have trust funds. She has an 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:14.860 allowance from a grumpy uncle. They have country 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:17.399 estates. She lives in her uncle's house. And 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:20.199 this is where we see the Wallace personality 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:23.459 really begin to form. She realizes she can't 00:08:23.459 --> 00:08:26.500 compete on money. And honestly, she couldn't 00:08:26.500 --> 00:08:28.660 really compete on classic beauty either. The 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:31.019 sources are quite blunt about that, aren't they? 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:33.860 One biographer mentioned her jaw was too heavy 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:36.240 for the standards of the time. She wasn't... 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:39.169 the Gibson girl ideal. She wasn't. She didn't 00:08:39.169 --> 00:08:41.509 have that soft, rounded, conventional prettiness 00:08:41.509 --> 00:08:44.289 that was so prized, but she had distinct assets. 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:47.909 She had amazing violet blue eyes, according to 00:08:47.909 --> 00:08:49.409 descriptions. They were apparently magnetic. 00:08:49.809 --> 00:08:52.269 She had a very petite, slender figure, which 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:54.970 she kept her whole life, but mostly she had style 00:08:54.970 --> 00:08:56.970 and she had wit. She weaponized her personality. 00:08:57.409 --> 00:08:59.389 She did. I love the quote from her classmate 00:08:59.389 --> 00:09:01.169 at Oldfields. They said, she made up her mind 00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:02.789 to go to the head of the class, and she did. 00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:05.129 That sums her up perfectly. She willed herself 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.549 into prominence. Absolutely. She was always the 00:09:07.549 --> 00:09:10.070 best dressed immaculately turned out. That became 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:12.269 her armor. If you can't be the prettiest, be 00:09:12.269 --> 00:09:14.210 the most stylish. If you can't be the richest, 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:16.690 be the most interesting, the wittiest. She learned 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:19.009 how to focus her attention on people, especially 00:09:19.009 --> 00:09:21.350 men, to make them feel like they were the only 00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:23.250 person in the room. It was a cultivated skill. 00:09:23.409 --> 00:09:25.710 A highly cultivated skill. It is a survival mechanism. 00:09:26.110 --> 00:09:29.389 She is... optimizing herself for the marriage 00:09:29.389 --> 00:09:32.230 market, essentially. Crude but true. In 1910's 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:34.090 Baltimore, that was the career path available 00:09:34.090 --> 00:09:36.490 to her, and she was determined to succeed at 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:39.190 it. And succeed she did, at first. So she graduates, 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:41.850 she makes her debut into Baltimore society, and 00:09:41.850 --> 00:09:44.009 she meets a man who seems to tick all the boxes, 00:09:44.389 --> 00:09:48.409 Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. Wynn. This is 1916. 00:09:48.830 --> 00:09:51.950 She is visiting a cousin in Pensacola, Florida. 00:09:52.330 --> 00:09:55.629 And Wynn Spencer is a U .S. Navy aviator. And 00:09:55.629 --> 00:09:58.590 we have to contextualize this. In 1916, a pilot 00:09:58.590 --> 00:10:01.309 was a rock star. It was dangerous. It was new 00:10:01.309 --> 00:10:03.870 technology. It was the absolute height of masculinity 00:10:03.870 --> 00:10:06.289 and glamour. It is like dating an astronaut in 00:10:06.289 --> 00:10:09.110 the 1960s or a tech billionaire today. Exactly. 00:10:09.250 --> 00:10:11.750 He was handsome, dashing, from a good family. 00:10:11.889 --> 00:10:14.190 On paper, he was the perfect catch. They married 00:10:14.190 --> 00:10:16.970 quickly. But the glamour stripped away very, 00:10:17.090 --> 00:10:20.710 very fast. How so? What went wrong? Well, for 00:10:20.710 --> 00:10:23.230 one, the danger part of aviation became very 00:10:23.230 --> 00:10:26.309 real to her. While she was in Pensacola, she 00:10:26.309 --> 00:10:28.909 witnessed two separate airplane crashes just 00:10:28.909 --> 00:10:31.629 weeks apart. Oh, wow. Not on a newsreel, but 00:10:31.629 --> 00:10:34.350 in person. In person. Saw the wreckage, saw the 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:37.389 aftermath. Seeing that trauma firsthand gave 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:40.590 her a lifelong crippling fear of flying, which 00:10:40.590 --> 00:10:42.610 is incredibly ironic considering how much she 00:10:42.610 --> 00:10:45.330 traveled later in life, often sedated or terrified 00:10:45.330 --> 00:10:47.370 on planes. But that wasn't the main problem with 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:49.129 the marriage, was it? Not at all. The bigger 00:10:49.129 --> 00:10:51.679 problem was Wynn himself. The sources describe 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.340 him as a heavy drinker. Heavy is putting it lightly. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:57.259 He was an alcoholic and not the fun at parties 00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:00.000 kind of alcoholic. He was a mean drunk. He was 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.559 abusive, both verbally and some sources physically. 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.399 He was known to drink even before getting into 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.940 the cockpit. That's terrifying. Can you imagine? 00:11:09.439 --> 00:11:12.039 Their marriage became a cycle of fighting, him 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:14.500 leaving for months on deployment, and her trying 00:11:14.500 --> 00:11:17.220 to cope. They moved to San Diego, then to Washington, 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:19.500 D .C., but the relationship was just crumbling. 00:11:19.539 --> 00:11:21.639 It was toxic. And eventually, Wynne gets posted 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:24.379 to the Far East. And this leads us to what I 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:26.539 think is the most mysterious and mythologized 00:11:26.539 --> 00:11:29.879 chapter of her life, the China years. The China 00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:32.379 dossier. This is where the legend of Wallace 00:11:32.379 --> 00:11:36.370 Simpson starts to drift into, well... So she 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:38.330 decides to travel to China to try and reconcile 00:11:38.330 --> 00:11:41.509 with him, right? Which in the 1920s, for a woman 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:45.049 traveling alone, that is a serious track. It 00:11:45.049 --> 00:11:47.090 is a massive undertaking. She travels on a troop 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:49.990 carrier, the USS Shomal. It takes weeks and weeks. 00:11:50.129 --> 00:11:52.429 She ends up in Hong Kong and joins Wynn. But 00:11:52.429 --> 00:11:55.169 the reconciliation is a complete disaster. He 00:11:55.169 --> 00:11:57.529 is drinking more than ever. He is erratic. Does 00:11:57.529 --> 00:11:59.809 she leave him? She does, but she doesn't go home. 00:11:59.889 --> 00:12:01.529 She doesn't go back to Baltimore with her tail 00:12:01.529 --> 00:12:03.409 between her legs. She goes to Beijing. And she 00:12:03.409 --> 00:12:06.009 spends over a year in China. And the rumors that 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:07.870 came out of this period, I mean, they dogged 00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:10.509 her for the rest of her life. Oh, they were salacious. 00:12:11.029 --> 00:12:13.850 People whispered that she learned ancient sexual 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:17.269 techniques in the brothels of Beijing, that she 00:12:17.269 --> 00:12:19.970 was running with a wild crowd of diplomats and 00:12:19.970 --> 00:12:22.850 warlords. It's very exoticized, isn't it? Completely. 00:12:22.990 --> 00:12:25.970 And the most specific and damaging rumor involved... 00:12:26.139 --> 00:12:29.360 Count Galeazzo Ciano. Who later becomes Mussolini's 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:32.120 son -in -law and foreign minister, a major historical 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:34.559 figure. Right. He was a young diplomat in Beijing 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.679 at the time. The rumor, which was repeated for 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.279 decades in London salons and treated as fact, 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:42.799 was that Wallace had a torrid affair with Ciano, 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:45.879 got pregnant, and had a botched abortion that 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:48.700 left her infertile. That is an incredibly specific 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:51.139 and vicious rumor. Is there a shred of truth 00:12:51.139 --> 00:12:53.960 to it? Based on the actual evidence, almost certainly 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:56.419 not. Jianna's wife later denied it vehemently. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.320 The dates don't really line up with their time 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.500 in Beijing. Historians have searched for this 00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:03.000 legendary China dossier that supposedly listed 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:06.059 all her crimes and sexual exploits. The consensus 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:08.620 is that it simply doesn't exist. It was a myth 00:13:08.620 --> 00:13:11.159 likely fabricated later to discredit her. It 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:13.480 feels like a very specific kind of smear. It's 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:15.990 like... How did this American woman with a heavy 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:19.250 jaw enslave the King of England? Oh, she must 00:13:19.250 --> 00:13:21.450 have learned secret dark arts in the mysterious 00:13:21.450 --> 00:13:24.809 Orient. That is exactly what it is. It's a toxic 00:13:24.809 --> 00:13:28.309 mix of sexism and Orientalism. People couldn't 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:30.049 accept that Edward just found her personality 00:13:30.049 --> 00:13:33.309 compelling, so they had to invent a sexual sorcery 00:13:33.309 --> 00:13:35.809 narrative to explain his devotion. They had to 00:13:35.809 --> 00:13:38.379 exoticize her to make sense of it. But she did 00:13:38.379 --> 00:13:40.500 enjoy her time in China, by your own account. 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:43.039 She lived the expat life. She did. She stayed 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:45.419 with friends. She went to parties. But for all 00:13:45.419 --> 00:13:47.480 the talk of her becoming this worldly, sophisticated 00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:50.559 traveler, there is a hilarious anecdote from 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.100 Madame Wellington Koo, who was a famous Chinese 00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:55.919 socialite in Beijing. Okay. She claimed that 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.320 after a full year in China, Wallace had mastered 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:00.919 exactly one phrase in the local language. Let 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:03.240 me guess. Was it, hello, thank you, where is 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:05.460 the embassy? It was, boy, pass me the champagne. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:07.789 Boy, pass me the champagne now. That's the story. 00:14:07.909 --> 00:14:10.370 And if it's true, it tells you everything about 00:14:10.370 --> 00:14:12.710 her lifestyle there. She was living in the bubble 00:14:12.710 --> 00:14:14.929 of the international settlement. She wasn't immersing 00:14:14.929 --> 00:14:17.610 herself in the culture. She was extracting pleasure 00:14:17.610 --> 00:14:20.570 from it. So she eventually leaves China, returns 00:14:20.570 --> 00:14:23.289 to the U .S., and finally divorces Wyn Spencer 00:14:23.289 --> 00:14:27.409 in 1927. And then she wastes absolutely no time. 00:14:27.570 --> 00:14:30.210 She pivots immediately. She pivots to Ernest 00:14:30.210 --> 00:14:33.570 Simpson. Marriage number two. Ernest is the anti 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:36.330 -Wyn. He is everything Wynn Spencer was not. 00:14:36.529 --> 00:14:38.929 He is an Anglo -American shipping executive. 00:14:39.070 --> 00:14:41.590 He served as an officer in the Coldstream Guards. 00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:45.210 He is stable. He is solvent. He is eminently 00:14:45.210 --> 00:14:47.029 respectable. And he's already married when she 00:14:47.029 --> 00:14:49.950 meets him. He is. He actually divorces his first 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:52.710 wife to marry Wallace. They get married in London 00:14:52.710 --> 00:14:55.289 in 1928, almost immediately after her divorce 00:14:55.289 --> 00:14:57.610 from Wynn is finalized. And crucially, he takes 00:14:57.610 --> 00:14:59.830 her to London. This is the key. This is the goal. 00:15:00.269 --> 00:15:02.870 Wallace always loved the idea of England, of 00:15:02.870 --> 00:15:05.590 English society. To her, London was the absolute 00:15:05.590 --> 00:15:07.750 pinnacle. They moved to Mayfair. They get a flat 00:15:07.750 --> 00:15:09.870 with servants. They start entertaining. This 00:15:09.870 --> 00:15:11.649 is the life she has always wanted. And the timing 00:15:11.649 --> 00:15:14.389 is just terrible. Terrible timing. They marry 00:15:14.389 --> 00:15:18.169 in 1928. The Wall Street crash happens in 1929. 00:15:18.429 --> 00:15:21.549 Oh. It completely wipes out Wallace's small investments. 00:15:21.950 --> 00:15:24.909 To make matters worse, her mother dies penniless 00:15:24.909 --> 00:15:27.720 that same year. And Ernest's shipping business 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:29.980 takes a huge hit in the Great Depression. So 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:31.899 they're in trouble financially. They aren't poor, 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.639 not by normal standards, but they certainly aren't 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:38.379 Mayfair society wealthy. But, and this is classic 00:15:38.379 --> 00:15:40.720 Wallace, they pretend they are. Fake it till 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.440 you make it. Exactly. They continue to live well 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:45.960 beyond their means. She throws these immaculate 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:48.259 dinner parties. She serves the best food, the 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:50.379 best wine. Even she has to scrimp elsewhere. 00:15:50.940 --> 00:15:54.500 She is climbing the social ladder rung by painstaking 00:15:54.500 --> 00:15:56.759 wrong. And that letter eventually leads her to 00:15:56.759 --> 00:15:59.259 Lady Thelma Furness. It is a game of degrees 00:15:59.259 --> 00:16:01.700 of separation. A friend of hers is friends with 00:16:01.700 --> 00:16:03.899 Thelma Furness. And Thelma Furness happens to 00:16:03.899 --> 00:16:05.500 be the current mistress of the Prince of Wales, 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:07.620 Edward. It is always the mistress who introduces 00:16:07.620 --> 00:16:09.419 the replacement. It's like something out of a 00:16:09.419 --> 00:16:12.940 Greek tragedy. It is a dangerous game. January 00:16:12.940 --> 00:16:16.159 1931, a weekend house party at Borough Court, 00:16:16.460 --> 00:16:19.879 Lady Furness's country house. And she invites 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.519 the Simpsons. And there, Wallace is introduced 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:24.700 to the Prince of Wales. Now, was it fireworks 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:27.840 immediately? Did the earth move? Not really. 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:29.720 The sources suggest he didn't even remember her 00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:31.899 after that first meeting. It was a slow burn. 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:33.919 They moved in the same circles for about three 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:35.980 years. The prince would come to dinner at their 00:16:35.980 --> 00:16:38.399 flat. They would go to his weekend retreat, Fort 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:40.399 Belvedere. So she's just part of the crowd at 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.340 this point. She is. But the shift, the pivotal 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:46.620 moment, happens in January 1934. Thelma leaks 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:48.759 town. Thelma Furness has to go to New York City 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.269 for a family matter. And she turns to her good 00:16:51.269 --> 00:16:53.629 friend Wallace and basically says, look after 00:16:53.629 --> 00:16:55.590 the prince for me while I'm gone. Keep him entertained. 00:16:55.809 --> 00:16:57.909 Don't let him get bored. Look after him. Famous 00:16:57.909 --> 00:17:00.110 last words. By the time Thelma steps off the 00:17:00.110 --> 00:17:02.370 boat back in England, she has been completely 00:17:02.370 --> 00:17:05.789 erased. Wallace has taken her place. The affair 00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:08.170 has begun in earnest. I want to drill down on 00:17:08.170 --> 00:17:09.710 this because it's the question everyone asks. 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:14.029 Why Wallace? Edward is the Prince of Wales. He 00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:16.029 is the most eligible bachelor on planet Earth. 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.509 He could have anyone. He's dated stunning beauties, 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:23.130 aristocrats. Why this 38 -year -old, not classically 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:25.670 beautiful American housewife? This is the million 00:17:25.670 --> 00:17:27.930 -dollar question, isn't it? Yeah. And the sources 00:17:27.930 --> 00:17:31.589 all seem to converge on one answer. It was her 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:33.829 manner. We'll know about it. Edward was surrounded 00:17:33.829 --> 00:17:36.869 by sycophants. Everyone bowed. Everyone curtsied. 00:17:36.990 --> 00:17:39.809 Everyone agreed with him. His entire life was 00:17:39.809 --> 00:17:42.829 a performance of deference to him. He was bored 00:17:42.829 --> 00:17:45.549 out of his mind. Okay. Wallace. Wallace didn't 00:17:45.549 --> 00:17:48.869 do that. She was irreverent. She was abrasive. 00:17:48.910 --> 00:17:50.869 She was domineering. She was absolutely domineering. 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:52.789 She treated him like a normal person or even 00:17:52.789 --> 00:17:54.930 like a naughty child. She would tell him his 00:17:54.930 --> 00:17:56.789 tie was ugly. She would snack his hand if he 00:17:56.789 --> 00:17:58.210 reached for a cigar when he was trying to quit. 00:17:58.349 --> 00:18:00.069 She would interrupt him mid -sentence and say, 00:18:00.170 --> 00:18:02.410 that's a bore. Tell us something else. And he 00:18:02.410 --> 00:18:05.490 liked that. He loved it. His official biographer 00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:08.309 described him as being slavishly dependent on 00:18:08.309 --> 00:18:10.869 her. It seems he had a deep psychological need 00:18:10.869 --> 00:18:13.230 to be mothered or dominated by a strong woman. 00:18:13.490 --> 00:18:15.910 She provided a structure and a discipline that 00:18:15.910 --> 00:18:18.450 he secretly craved. He found her complete lack 00:18:18.450 --> 00:18:21.589 of deference totally intoxicating. So he showers 00:18:21.589 --> 00:18:24.630 her with gifts, jewelry, money. Enormous amounts. 00:18:24.990 --> 00:18:28.869 Jewels, furs, cash. He pays off her debts. He's 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.890 completely besotted. Her husband, Ernest, is 00:18:31.890 --> 00:18:35.230 just sort of sidelined. pushed into the background. 00:18:35.410 --> 00:18:37.849 So by 1934, he is hooked. He's bringing her to 00:18:37.849 --> 00:18:40.029 Buckingham Palace, which is a huge no -no. A 00:18:40.029 --> 00:18:42.789 massive breach of protocol. You did not bring 00:18:42.789 --> 00:18:44.869 divorced women to court, especially not when 00:18:44.869 --> 00:18:46.990 the king and queen are in residence. And she 00:18:46.990 --> 00:18:49.650 had two living ex -husbands, well, one ex and 00:18:49.650 --> 00:18:52.150 one current. What did his parents think? King 00:18:52.150 --> 00:18:54.720 George V and Queen Mary. They were horrified, 00:18:54.839 --> 00:18:57.200 absolutely appalled. King George V refused to 00:18:57.200 --> 00:18:59.799 meet her. He was furious with his son. He famously 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:01.759 predicted to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, 00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:04.299 after I'm dead, the boy will ruin himself in 00:19:04.299 --> 00:19:06.759 12 months. That is a chillingly accurate prediction. 00:19:07.099 --> 00:19:11.380 It was precise. Because in January 1936, the 00:19:11.380 --> 00:19:15.839 clock runs out. King George V dies. And the bored, 00:19:15.940 --> 00:19:18.700 besotted Prince of Wales becomes King Edward 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:21.099 VIII. And suddenly, this isn't just a family 00:19:21.099 --> 00:19:23.900 embarrassment or society scandal. It is a constitutional 00:19:23.900 --> 00:19:26.880 crisis waiting to explode. The fuse has been 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.920 lit. There is a moment right after the accession 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:32.619 that symbolizes everything. The proclamation 00:19:32.619 --> 00:19:34.720 of the new king is being read at St. James's 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.140 Palace. Traditionally, the new king doesn't watch 00:19:37.140 --> 00:19:38.900 his own proclamation. Right. It's considered 00:19:38.900 --> 00:19:42.500 unseemly. But Edward breaks tradition. He watches 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:44.990 from a window. And who was standing right next 00:19:44.990 --> 00:19:47.410 to him? Wallace. Wallace. Still married to Ernest 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:49.970 Simpson. Caught on camera by the press, it was 00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:52.509 a deliberate signal to the establishment. I am 00:19:52.509 --> 00:19:54.549 the king now, and she is with me. Get used to 00:19:54.549 --> 00:19:56.329 it. He couldn't just keep her as a mistress, 00:19:56.509 --> 00:19:58.470 right? Kings have had mistresses for a thousand 00:19:58.470 --> 00:20:00.369 years. Why couldn't he just keep her in a nice 00:20:00.369 --> 00:20:02.549 house in Regent's Park and visit her on Tuesdays? 00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:05.029 Why did it have to be marriage? Because he was 00:20:05.029 --> 00:20:08.509 obsessed. It wasn't just lust or affection. He 00:20:08.509 --> 00:20:11.289 wanted to possess her completely. He wanted her 00:20:11.289 --> 00:20:14.329 to be his queen. He wanted to validate her in 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:16.609 the eyes of the world and in the eyes of the 00:20:16.609 --> 00:20:19.630 family that despised her. And that is where he 00:20:19.630 --> 00:20:22.470 hit a solid brick wall. Let's break down that 00:20:22.470 --> 00:20:24.970 wall because I think people forget the technical 00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:27.650 reasons why this was so impossible. It wasn't 00:20:27.650 --> 00:20:30.390 just a case of we don't like her. No, it was 00:20:30.390 --> 00:20:33.309 a trifecta of constitutional and religious blockers. 00:20:33.809 --> 00:20:36.630 Religion, law, and politics. Okay, take us through 00:20:36.630 --> 00:20:40.220 them one by one. First, religion. This is the 00:20:40.220 --> 00:20:42.519 big one. The king of the United Kingdom is also 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:44.299 the supreme governor of the Church of England. 00:20:44.539 --> 00:20:48.140 In 1936, the church's doctrine was strict. Marriage 00:20:48.140 --> 00:20:50.579 is for life. If you divorce, you cannot remarry 00:20:50.579 --> 00:20:52.259 in the church while your former spouse is still 00:20:52.259 --> 00:20:54.900 alive. And Wallace had two living ex -husbands. 00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:57.440 Exactly. Win Spencer was still alive and Ernest 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:00.180 Simpson was still, you know, breathing. For the 00:21:00.180 --> 00:21:02.599 king to marry her would be to directly defy the 00:21:02.599 --> 00:21:05.579 core teachings of the very church he was sworn 00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:08.220 to lead. It's a theological contradiction. It 00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:10.539 would undermine the entire institution. Completely. 00:21:10.660 --> 00:21:13.740 Second is the legal risk. And this is a really 00:21:13.740 --> 00:21:16.559 interesting, slightly obscure point that the 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:19.519 government was terrified of. Okay. Wallace divorced 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:22.220 her first husband. When? In the United States. 00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.609 On grounds of incompatibility. Emotional cruelty, 00:21:26.009 --> 00:21:28.589 basically. But in England at that time, the only 00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:31.109 ground for divorce was adultery. So English law 00:21:31.109 --> 00:21:34.130 didn't recognize American incompatibility divorces. 00:21:34.269 --> 00:21:36.589 There was a very real legal opinion circulating 00:21:36.589 --> 00:21:39.430 in Whitehall that her first divorce was not valid 00:21:39.430 --> 00:21:42.089 under English law. And if her first divorce wasn't 00:21:42.089 --> 00:21:44.250 valid, then her second marriage to Ernest was 00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:46.950 bigamous. Oh, wow. And if the king married her, 00:21:46.990 --> 00:21:48.829 he would be committing bigamy. Can you imagine 00:21:48.829 --> 00:21:51.250 the scandal? The king of England, a bigamist. 00:21:51.329 --> 00:21:53.250 It was a legal nightmare. That's a landmine. 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.420 And the third reason. Politics. Pure and simple. 00:21:56.539 --> 00:21:58.799 The prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, and the 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:01.200 governments of the dominions, Canada, Australia, 00:22:01.460 --> 00:22:03.500 South Africa, New Zealand, they all said no. 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:06.759 Emphatically no. They saw her as a woman of limitless 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:09.279 ambition, a political adventurer. They didn't 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:11.200 trust her judgment. And they felt the British 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:14.559 public would never, ever accept a twice -divorced 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:17.099 American as queen. So Edward tries to find a 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:19.900 loophole, right? The morganatic marriage proposal. 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.009 He does. He's getting desperate. He proposes 00:22:23.009 --> 00:22:25.589 a compromise. He says, OK, I'll remain king. 00:22:25.630 --> 00:22:28.869 I'll marry her. But she won't be queen. She'll 00:22:28.869 --> 00:22:30.970 have a lesser title, like the Duchess of Cornwall. 00:22:31.069 --> 00:22:33.970 And any children we have won't inherit the throne. 00:22:34.430 --> 00:22:36.430 On the surface, that sounds like a reasonable 00:22:36.430 --> 00:22:38.789 compromise. Baldwin shot it down immediately. 00:22:38.849 --> 00:22:40.630 He went to the cabinet and they rejected it. 00:22:40.789 --> 00:22:43.609 He famously said, the queen is the queen. There 00:22:43.609 --> 00:22:45.490 is no such thing as a half queen in the British 00:22:45.490 --> 00:22:48.279 Constitution. The Dominion governments were consulted 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:50.460 and they all rejected it too. So the walls are 00:22:50.460 --> 00:22:52.920 closing in. There's no way out for him. None. 00:22:53.289 --> 00:22:55.349 At this point, Wallace herself is panicking. 00:22:55.430 --> 00:22:57.869 She's filed for divorce from Ernest, citing his 00:22:57.869 --> 00:23:00.430 adultery with her own friend, Mary Kirk, an affair 00:23:00.430 --> 00:23:02.269 that was almost certainly arranged for the purpose 00:23:02.269 --> 00:23:04.809 of the divorce. A convenient adultery. A very 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:06.769 convenient adultery. Right. But as the scandal 00:23:06.769 --> 00:23:09.269 breaks in the British press in December 1936, 00:23:09.549 --> 00:23:12.470 and it breaks like a tidal wave, Wallace realizes 00:23:12.470 --> 00:23:14.750 she is about to become the most hated woman in 00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:16.190 the empire. She has to get out of the country. 00:23:16.369 --> 00:23:19.109 She flees to the south of France, to the home 00:23:19.109 --> 00:23:21.950 of her friends, the Rogers. Reporters are literally 00:23:21.950 --> 00:23:24.930 chasing her car across France. It's terrifying 00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:28.329 for her. And under immense pressure, she releases 00:23:28.329 --> 00:23:30.549 a public statement saying she is willing to withdraw 00:23:30.549 --> 00:23:33.750 to give Edward up. She offers to end it. She 00:23:33.750 --> 00:23:36.650 does. She offers him an out, but Edward refused 00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:38.630 to take it. He was on the phone to her constantly. 00:23:38.809 --> 00:23:40.750 He famously said something to the effect of, 00:23:40.789 --> 00:23:43.269 the other end of the wicket was determined. He 00:23:43.269 --> 00:23:45.089 had made up his mind. If he couldn't have her 00:23:45.089 --> 00:23:47.329 as king, he wouldn't be king. It was Wallis or 00:23:47.329 --> 00:23:49.710 the throne. And he chose Wallace. He chose Wallace. 00:23:49.890 --> 00:23:52.369 And so we get to the broadcast, December 10th, 00:23:52.369 --> 00:23:56.029 1936. He sits in Windsor Castle and signs the 00:23:56.029 --> 00:23:58.390 instrument of abdication. He signs it. He gives 00:23:58.390 --> 00:24:00.390 up the throne. He becomes the Duke of Windsor. 00:24:00.410 --> 00:24:03.390 His stuttering, shy brother Bertie becomes King 00:24:03.390 --> 00:24:06.710 George VI. And Edward goes into exile, king for 00:24:06.710 --> 00:24:09.109 less than a year. The shortest reign for an uncrowned 00:24:09.109 --> 00:24:11.130 monarch. And that brings us to the next chapter, 00:24:11.349 --> 00:24:13.490 the Duchess of Windsor. They finally get married 00:24:13.490 --> 00:24:17.109 on June 3rd, 1937. at the Chateau de Condé in 00:24:17.109 --> 00:24:19.450 France, which was loaned to them by a rather 00:24:19.450 --> 00:24:22.069 controversial industrialist named Charles Badeau. 00:24:22.230 --> 00:24:24.049 Everything about them seems to have a controversial 00:24:24.049 --> 00:24:26.990 asterisk next to it. It does. And this wedding 00:24:26.990 --> 00:24:28.630 should have been a triumphant moment for them. 00:24:28.690 --> 00:24:32.109 Love conquers all. The ultimate romantic gesture 00:24:32.109 --> 00:24:35.130 is complete. But if you look at the wedding photos, 00:24:35.410 --> 00:24:38.829 there is a distinct sadness there. Why? Because 00:24:38.829 --> 00:24:41.880 no one came. No member of the royal family attended. 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:44.619 Not his mother, Queen Mary. Not his brothers, 00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:46.579 the King and the Duke of Kent. Not his sister. 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:49.599 It was a total coordinated boycott. That must 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:52.900 have stung deeply. It was a profound humiliation. 00:24:53.259 --> 00:24:55.799 Wallace wore a beautiful dress in a color created 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:58.660 just for her, Wallace Blue. The designer was 00:24:58.660 --> 00:25:01.140 Maine Botcher. And she had a new wedding ring. 00:25:01.339 --> 00:25:04.380 An emerald mount engraved with the words, We 00:25:04.380 --> 00:25:07.430 are ours now. We are ours now. That is... It 00:25:07.430 --> 00:25:10.529 is romantic, but it is also incredibly isolating. 00:25:10.710 --> 00:25:12.589 It is like saying, we have nothing else left 00:25:12.589 --> 00:25:14.890 but each other. That is exactly what it was. 00:25:15.009 --> 00:25:16.869 And the royal family made sure to twist the knife 00:25:16.869 --> 00:25:18.630 one more time, just to make sure they understood 00:25:18.630 --> 00:25:21.490 their new status. The title. The title. The new 00:25:21.490 --> 00:25:25.369 king, George VI, created Edward the Duke of Windsor, 00:25:25.390 --> 00:25:27.710 which gave him the style of his royal highness, 00:25:27.869 --> 00:25:31.740 or HRH. But the king then issued a specific legal 00:25:31.740 --> 00:25:34.599 document called Letters Patent that decreed that 00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:37.339 while Edward was a royal highness, his wife Wallace 00:25:37.339 --> 00:25:39.500 and any children they might have would not be. 00:25:39.640 --> 00:25:42.640 The famous HRH snub. So she was the Duchess of 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.940 Windsor, but not her royal highness, the Duchess 00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:47.259 of Windsor. Correct. She was just her grace. 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:50.140 And this was the one that never healed. For Edward, 00:25:50.299 --> 00:25:52.900 it was an unforgivable insult. He felt it as 00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:55.299 an illegal act, stripping a wife of her husband's 00:25:55.299 --> 00:25:57.940 rank. For Wallace, it was a daily reminder that 00:25:57.940 --> 00:26:00.400 the family considered her less than. They fought 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.740 for that HRH title for the rest of their lives. 00:26:02.900 --> 00:26:04.900 And the animosity between the women. I mean, 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:06.960 the sources describing the feud between Wallace 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:09.160 and the new Queen, Queen Elizabeth, later the 00:26:09.160 --> 00:26:11.799 Queen Mother, are absolutely brutal. It was venomous, 00:26:11.819 --> 00:26:14.319 pure poison. The Queen Mother reportedly referred 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:25.640 to Wallace only as And Wallace fired back. Oh, 00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:28.960 yes. Wallace had a sharp tongue. In private, 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:31.880 she had nicknames for all of them. She called 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:35.680 the Queen Mother Cookie, a cruel jab at her supposedly 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:39.400 frumpy style and fondness for food. Wow. And 00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:41.619 she called the young Princess Elizabeth, our 00:26:41.619 --> 00:26:45.049 late Queen Shirley. As in Shirley Temple. as 00:26:45.049 --> 00:26:47.789 in Shirley Temple, because she was a curly -haired, 00:26:47.849 --> 00:26:50.789 precocious child who was suddenly the heir to 00:26:50.789 --> 00:26:53.089 the throne. That is next -level shade, calling 00:26:53.089 --> 00:26:55.789 the future Queen of England Shirley Temple. It 00:26:55.789 --> 00:26:57.910 just shows you the level of petty resentment. 00:26:58.069 --> 00:27:00.769 They were consumed by it. They felt they had 00:27:00.769 --> 00:27:02.650 been robbed of their destiny, their dignity. 00:27:02.970 --> 00:27:05.569 But if we think the scandal ended with the abdication 00:27:05.569 --> 00:27:08.839 and the wedding, we are very wrong. Because now 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:10.460 we get to the part that makes the history books 00:27:10.460 --> 00:27:12.619 really uncomfortable, the part that's not romantic 00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.160 at all, the Nazi connection. This is the darkest 00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:18.079 shadow over their lives. And it's the part that 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:20.220 really changes the story from a tragic romance 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:22.980 to something much closer to potential treason. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:26.759 It is 1937. They are newlyweds. They're in exile. 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:29.039 They need to make a splash to show they're still 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:31.599 relevant. So where do they decide to go for their 00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:35.420 high -profile tour? Germany. Nazi Germany. To 00:27:35.420 --> 00:27:39.450 meet Adolf Hitler. I mean... Talk about reading 00:27:39.450 --> 00:27:42.730 the room wrong. In 1937, the nature of the Nazi 00:27:42.730 --> 00:27:45.750 regime was already becoming clear. It was a catastrophic 00:27:45.750 --> 00:27:48.390 error in judgment. But you have to see it from 00:27:48.390 --> 00:27:50.670 their perspective. Edward wanted to be treated 00:27:50.670 --> 00:27:53.069 like a king, and the British government was ignoring 00:27:53.069 --> 00:27:56.569 him. The Nazis. The Nazis rolled out the red 00:27:56.569 --> 00:27:58.750 carpet. They treated him like a visiting head 00:27:58.750 --> 00:28:01.130 of state. They were greeted by crowds giving 00:28:01.130 --> 00:28:03.609 the Nazi salute. And there are photos of them 00:28:03.609 --> 00:28:05.710 doing it back, or at least Edward doing it. There 00:28:05.710 --> 00:28:08.019 are photos of Edward giving the salute. They 00:28:08.019 --> 00:28:09.799 met with high -ranking officials. They toured 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:12.599 factories. And the climax of the visit was tea 00:28:12.599 --> 00:28:15.319 with Hitler at the Berkhof, his mountain retreat. 00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:18.339 What happened at that meeting? Hitler was utterly 00:28:18.339 --> 00:28:21.140 charmed by them, especially Wallace. He reportedly 00:28:21.140 --> 00:28:23.039 told an aide after the meeting she would have 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:25.500 made a good queen. Of course he said that. A 00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:27.980 fascist sympathizer on the British throne would 00:28:27.980 --> 00:28:30.420 have been the greatest strategic asset the Third 00:28:30.420 --> 00:28:33.180 Reich could ever hope for. Exactly. And that's 00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:35.180 how the Nazis saw them. They saw the Windsors 00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.859 as useful idiots, at best, or potential puppets, 00:28:38.859 --> 00:28:42.700 at worst. There was a plan, if Germany conquered 00:28:42.700 --> 00:28:45.720 Britain Operation Willie, to find the Windsors 00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:48.559 and reinstall Edward on the throne as a puppet 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:51.700 king. And it wasn't just the trip. The declassified 00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:54.200 FBI files you mentioned earlier, they suggest 00:28:54.200 --> 00:28:56.359 Wallace might have had personal connections to 00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:59.380 the Nazi leadership long before this. The files 00:28:59.380 --> 00:29:01.440 are full of intelligence reports and informant 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.240 gossip, so you have to take it with a grain of 00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:06.019 salt. But they repeatedly mentioned Joachim von 00:29:06.019 --> 00:29:08.359 Ribbentrop, who was the Nazi ambassador to London 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:10.720 in the mid -30s. Right, when the affair with 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:14.119 Edward was in full swing. Yes. There were persistent 00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:16.420 rumors that Wallace and Ribbentrop had an affair 00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:18.099 while she was in London. There were rumors about 00:29:18.099 --> 00:29:21.059 the carnations. Yes, that he sent her 17 carnations 00:29:21.059 --> 00:29:23.640 every day, supposedly representing the number 00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:25.279 of times they had slept together. That sounds 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:27.579 like over -the -top gossip. It almost certainly 00:29:27.579 --> 00:29:31.160 is. But the FBI took very seriously the report 00:29:31.160 --> 00:29:34.240 from an informant that she kept a signed photograph 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:38.200 of Ribbentrop on her bedside table. Whether they 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:40.660 were lovers or not, it's clear they were politically 00:29:40.660 --> 00:29:44.420 aligned. Wallace was deeply anti -communist. 00:29:44.460 --> 00:29:47.440 And like many in the aristocracy, she saw fascism 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:50.039 as a necessary bulwark against the Soviets. So 00:29:50.039 --> 00:29:52.859 the war starts in 1939. The Windsors are in France. 00:29:53.240 --> 00:29:56.400 Germany invades in 1940. They have to run. They 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:58.630 flee south. They get out of France and make their 00:29:58.630 --> 00:30:01.410 way to Spain, then to Portugal. And this is where 00:30:01.410 --> 00:30:03.690 the British government starts to panic. Edwards 00:30:03.690 --> 00:30:05.549 is in neutral territory, talking to all sorts 00:30:05.549 --> 00:30:07.789 of questionable people, sending defeatist signals. 00:30:08.029 --> 00:30:10.130 And Wallace is doing the same. She is. She's 00:30:10.130 --> 00:30:12.329 quoted in a diplomatic cable telling the U .S. 00:30:12.349 --> 00:30:14.470 ambassador that France lost the war because it 00:30:14.470 --> 00:30:17.410 was internally diseased and hadn't organized 00:30:17.410 --> 00:30:19.910 itself properly. That is classic defeatist talk. 00:30:20.130 --> 00:30:22.710 Blaming the victim. And Edwards later admitted 00:30:22.710 --> 00:30:24.750 in an interview that he was taken in by Hitler. 00:30:25.450 --> 00:30:27.390 He thought Britain should negotiate a peace. 00:30:28.009 --> 00:30:30.670 Winston Churchill was terrified that the Nazis 00:30:30.670 --> 00:30:32.869 would either kidnap the Windsors or convince 00:30:32.869 --> 00:30:35.710 them to defect. He had to get them out of Europe. 00:30:35.890 --> 00:30:37.849 So he gives Edward a job basically to get him 00:30:37.849 --> 00:30:39.470 out of the way. He appoints him governor of the 00:30:39.470 --> 00:30:42.089 Bahamas. Which, on the surface, sounds like a 00:30:42.089 --> 00:30:45.849 nice gig son, sand, cocktails. But for them... 00:30:45.849 --> 00:30:47.750 For them, it was prison. It was the ultimate 00:30:47.750 --> 00:30:50.849 exile. wallace called it our saint helena a direct 00:30:50.849 --> 00:30:53.329 reference to the desolate rock where napoleon 00:30:53.329 --> 00:30:56.289 was banished to die she hated it she felt buried 00:30:56.289 --> 00:30:58.529 alive in a colonial backwater and her letters 00:30:58.529 --> 00:31:01.609 from this time they really peel back the veneer 00:31:01.609 --> 00:31:04.609 we see a side of her that is really truly ugly 00:31:04.609 --> 00:31:07.369 we have to address the racism It is undeniable. 00:31:07.369 --> 00:31:09.890 And it is shocking to read. In her letters to 00:31:09.890 --> 00:31:12.130 her aunt in Baltimore, she complained bitterly 00:31:12.130 --> 00:31:14.630 about the local Bahamian population. And she 00:31:14.630 --> 00:31:17.069 used appalling racial slurs. She called them 00:31:17.069 --> 00:31:20.789 lazy thriving. And she used the N -word to describe 00:31:20.789 --> 00:31:23.369 them. It reflects that old South Baltimore upbringing 00:31:23.369 --> 00:31:26.109 in the worst possible way. It does. It shows 00:31:26.109 --> 00:31:29.289 a deep and unthinking prejudice. And on top of 00:31:29.289 --> 00:31:31.630 that, she was also incredibly tone deaf about 00:31:31.630 --> 00:31:34.269 the suffering of the war. While London was being 00:31:34.269 --> 00:31:36.130 blitzed, while people were sleeping in subway 00:31:36.130 --> 00:31:39.029 tunnels and eating meager rations, Wallace was 00:31:39.029 --> 00:31:41.329 taking shopping trips to Miami and New York. 00:31:41.529 --> 00:31:44.049 Buying designer dresses and jewelry while her 00:31:44.049 --> 00:31:46.450 former subjects were being bombed. It was a PR 00:31:46.450 --> 00:31:49.089 disaster. She was criticized heavily in the press. 00:31:49.369 --> 00:31:51.589 There was also the incident with the yacht, the 00:31:51.589 --> 00:31:53.910 Southern Cross. They went vacationing on the 00:31:53.910 --> 00:31:57.490 yacht of Axel Wennergren. a Swedish industrialist 00:31:57.490 --> 00:31:59.509 who was on the British and American blacklists 00:31:59.509 --> 00:32:02.210 for being a suspected pro -German agent. Churchill 00:32:02.210 --> 00:32:04.329 must have been pulling his hair out. He was furious. 00:32:04.630 --> 00:32:07.430 He basically had to send a strongly worded telegram 00:32:07.430 --> 00:32:10.089 saying, stop hanging out with Nazi sympathizers. 00:32:10.970 --> 00:32:13.109 It is honestly amazing they survived the war 00:32:13.109 --> 00:32:15.250 with any reputation left at all. But they did 00:32:15.250 --> 00:32:18.130 survive. The war ends in 45, the governor gig 00:32:18.130 --> 00:32:21.710 is over, and they go back to France. And this 00:32:21.710 --> 00:32:24.440 leads us to the final act of their lives. The 00:32:24.440 --> 00:32:27.500 long, glittering exile. They settle in Paris. 00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:30.039 The city of Paris gives them a mansion in the 00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:32.500 Bois de Boulogne for a nominal rent, which is 00:32:32.500 --> 00:32:35.299 controversial in itself. They also buy and restore 00:32:35.299 --> 00:32:38.259 a country house, which they call the Mel, and 00:32:38.259 --> 00:32:40.200 they basically become professional socialites. 00:32:40.380 --> 00:32:42.140 What does that even mean? What did they do all 00:32:42.140 --> 00:32:44.660 day? They entertained. They traveled. They played 00:32:44.660 --> 00:32:47.559 with their pugs. They curated their image. They 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:51.630 were famous for... Being famous, really. A precursor 00:32:51.630 --> 00:32:53.549 to our modern celebrity culture. Who were they 00:32:53.549 --> 00:32:56.369 hanging out with? A mix of old aristocrats, rich 00:32:56.369 --> 00:32:59.109 Americans, fashion designers, and the occasional 00:32:59.109 --> 00:33:02.009 political outcast. Notably, they stayed very 00:33:02.009 --> 00:33:04.930 close with Oswald and Diana Moseley, the leaders 00:33:04.930 --> 00:33:07.470 of the British Union of Fascists. That connection 00:33:07.470 --> 00:33:09.670 never really went away. And tell me about the 00:33:09.670 --> 00:33:12.109 jewelry, because the Duchess of Windsor collection 00:33:12.109 --> 00:33:14.589 is the stuff of legend. It really became her 00:33:14.589 --> 00:33:17.509 substitute for royalty. Edward... Continued to 00:33:17.509 --> 00:33:20.109 shower her with jewels. Incredible pieces from 00:33:20.109 --> 00:33:22.529 Cartier, from Van Cleef in our bowls. The famous 00:33:22.529 --> 00:33:24.769 panther bracelets, the flamingo brooch made of 00:33:24.769 --> 00:33:27.309 rubies and diamonds. If she couldn't wear a crown, 00:33:27.470 --> 00:33:29.269 she would wear everything else. It was her armor. 00:33:29.450 --> 00:33:32.650 But there was a famous theft, right? A big mystery 00:33:32.650 --> 00:33:36.329 surrounding the jewels. 1946. They were visiting 00:33:36.329 --> 00:33:39.910 England, staying at Ednam Lodge. A burglar broke 00:33:39.910 --> 00:33:43.609 in and stole a massive haul of her most precious 00:33:43.609 --> 00:33:45.980 jewels. And of course, the conspiracy theory 00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:49.279 started immediately. Instantly. Some people whispered 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:51.920 the royal family had orchestrated the theft to 00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:54.440 steal back the royal heirlooms that Edward had 00:33:54.440 --> 00:33:56.519 taken with him. I've heard that one. Others said 00:33:56.519 --> 00:33:58.779 the Windsors staged the theft themselves for 00:33:58.779 --> 00:34:01.220 the insurance money, because for all their glamour, 00:34:01.240 --> 00:34:03.839 they were often cash poor. So what was the reality? 00:34:04.339 --> 00:34:07.700 The much more mundane reality. Years later, a 00:34:07.700 --> 00:34:10.079 career criminal named Richard Dunphy confessed 00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:13.829 to it in 1960. It was just a regular, if very 00:34:13.829 --> 00:34:16.389 successful, burglary. But with the Windsors, 00:34:16.449 --> 00:34:19.110 nothing was ever allowed to be mundane. There 00:34:19.110 --> 00:34:21.329 always had to be a conspiracy. So they lived 00:34:21.329 --> 00:34:23.690 this life of easy retirement, as one biographer 00:34:23.690 --> 00:34:26.829 called it. Dinner parties, pugs, fashion. But 00:34:26.829 --> 00:34:29.510 then time catches up. It always does. Edward, 00:34:29.690 --> 00:34:31.530 a lifelong smoker, was diagnosed with throat 00:34:31.530 --> 00:34:34.110 cancer. He died at their home in Paris in 1972. 00:34:34.429 --> 00:34:36.170 It was the end of the partnership. And Wallace 00:34:36.170 --> 00:34:38.329 went back to England for the funeral. She did. 00:34:38.980 --> 00:34:41.900 And in a gesture of reconciliation, the queen 00:34:41.900 --> 00:34:44.780 had her stay at Buckingham Palace. There are 00:34:44.780 --> 00:34:47.840 heartbreaking photos of her, a tiny, frail figure 00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:50.380 in black, looking out the window, watching his 00:34:50.380 --> 00:34:52.880 coffin pass by. But by then, she wasn't really 00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:55.639 herself, was she? The decline had already started. 00:34:55.860 --> 00:34:59.219 No. She was frail. She was confused. She was 00:34:59.219 --> 00:35:01.940 suffering from arteriosclerosis, which was affecting 00:35:01.940 --> 00:35:04.639 her mind. She was beginning to succumb to dementia. 00:35:04.980 --> 00:35:07.260 And the years after Edward's death, from what 00:35:07.260 --> 00:35:08.639 I've read, they sound like a horror movie. They 00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:10.460 were tragic. She lived for another 14 years. 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:13.059 But she became a complete recluse in that big 00:35:13.059 --> 00:35:15.300 house in Paris. She lost the ability to speak 00:35:15.300 --> 00:35:18.300 by 1980. And she fell under the total control 00:35:18.300 --> 00:35:20.920 of her French lawyer, a woman named Suzanne Bloom. 00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:23.480 This is a very controversial figure. Hugo Vickers, 00:35:23.659 --> 00:35:26.800 the royal biographer, called Bloom a satanic 00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:28.860 figure. That's a strong phrase, but there are 00:35:28.860 --> 00:35:31.440 serious accusations that Bloom exploited Wallace's 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:34.039 dementia. She isolated the Duchess, kept her 00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:36.320 old friends away, and allegedly sold off her 00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:39.119 possessions, furniture, art, personal items, 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:41.980 to Bloom's own friends at bargain prices, all 00:35:41.980 --> 00:35:44.679 while Wallace was upstairs, bedridden, and in 00:35:44.679 --> 00:35:47.059 a vegetative state. That's a sad, vulnerable 00:35:47.059 --> 00:35:49.860 end for a woman who had been so obsessed with 00:35:49.860 --> 00:35:52.539 control and her own image. The ultimate loss 00:35:52.539 --> 00:35:55.500 of control. And when she finally died, April 00:35:55.500 --> 00:35:59.039 24th, 1986. She was buried next to Edward at 00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:01.480 the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore, near Windsor. 00:36:02.300 --> 00:36:06.059 Finally, back in the royal fold, in death. The 00:36:06.059 --> 00:36:09.760 Queen attended the funeral. A final, quiet peace 00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:12.809 was made. But the will... The will was one last 00:36:12.809 --> 00:36:15.610 shock to everyone. It was. Everyone expected 00:36:15.610 --> 00:36:17.909 the money or the jewels to go to friends or maybe 00:36:17.909 --> 00:36:20.329 back to the royals or to a charity she had shown 00:36:20.329 --> 00:36:22.809 some interest in. Instead, the entire estate, 00:36:23.010 --> 00:36:25.489 millions of dollars, went to the Pasteur Institute. 00:36:25.769 --> 00:36:27.949 A French medical research foundation. A foundation 00:36:27.949 --> 00:36:30.130 which she had shown zero interest in during her 00:36:30.130 --> 00:36:32.449 life. It was almost certainly Suzanne Bloom's 00:36:32.449 --> 00:36:35.030 influence. Bloom sat on the board of a connected 00:36:35.030 --> 00:36:38.559 charity. It was the final... Strange twist. And 00:36:38.559 --> 00:36:41.679 then came the auction, 1987, Sava Bees in Geneva. 00:36:41.940 --> 00:36:44.260 The sale of the jewels. It was a global media 00:36:44.260 --> 00:36:47.260 frenzy. It raised $45 million, a staggering sum 00:36:47.260 --> 00:36:49.079 at the time. Mohamed Al -Faid bought the Paris 00:36:49.079 --> 00:36:50.679 mansion and a lot of their personal effects. 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:53.239 It was the final liquidation of the Windsor myth. 00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:56.239 So, bringing it all back, we've looked at the 00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:58.599 ambitious girl from Baltimore, the scandalous 00:36:58.599 --> 00:37:01.920 mistress, the hated duchess, the Nazi sympathizer, 00:37:02.039 --> 00:37:05.760 and the lonely, exploited widow. When you step 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:08.400 back from all the details, what is the legacy 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:10.960 here? Well, Wallace tried to write her own legacy. 00:37:11.059 --> 00:37:13.900 She published a memoir in 1956, The Heart Has 00:37:13.900 --> 00:37:16.659 Its Reasons. But critics at the time called it 00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:20.260 a facelift of the truth. She conveniently rearranged 00:37:20.260 --> 00:37:22.900 facts and timelines to make herself look better, 00:37:22.980 --> 00:37:25.039 more sympathetic. Of course she did. She was 00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:28.039 shaping the narrative until the very end. But 00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:29.699 I think the most poignant assessment comes from 00:37:29.699 --> 00:37:31.800 one of her biographers who said she experienced 00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:34.079 the ultimate fairy tale that went wrong. How 00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:36.429 so? Explain that. Think about the classic structure 00:37:36.429 --> 00:37:38.670 of fairy tale. The prince falls in love with 00:37:38.670 --> 00:37:40.769 the commoner. He defies his family. He makes 00:37:40.769 --> 00:37:43.190 her his queen. They rule together, happily ever 00:37:43.190 --> 00:37:46.329 after. But here, the script flipped. The prince 00:37:46.329 --> 00:37:49.349 fell in love. He defied his family. But to have 00:37:49.349 --> 00:37:52.130 her, he had to quit his job. He had to abdicate. 00:37:52.530 --> 00:37:54.389 So suddenly, you aren't the queen of England. 00:37:54.590 --> 00:37:56.849 You're just the wife of an unemployed duke with 00:37:56.849 --> 00:37:59.650 a lot of baggage and a resentful family. That's 00:37:59.650 --> 00:38:02.590 the tragedy, isn't it? She got the man, but she 00:38:02.590 --> 00:38:05.449 lost the context that made him the man she wanted. 00:38:05.710 --> 00:38:08.250 She didn't want Edward Windsor, private citizen. 00:38:08.429 --> 00:38:12.010 She wanted the king, and she got the duke. And 00:38:12.010 --> 00:38:14.389 Wallace herself summed it up in a moment of rare, 00:38:14.550 --> 00:38:17.829 brutal honesty. She once said to a friend, you 00:38:17.829 --> 00:38:20.349 have no idea how hard it is to live out a great 00:38:20.349 --> 00:38:22.769 romance. That is a heavy sentence. Living out 00:38:22.769 --> 00:38:26.070 a great romance as a job, a burden. It implies 00:38:26.070 --> 00:38:28.489 it was work. It wasn't just effortless love. 00:38:28.630 --> 00:38:31.809 It was a performance. She had to be the woman 00:38:31.809 --> 00:38:34.489 worth giving up an empire for. Every single day. 00:38:34.630 --> 00:38:36.630 She had to be witty. She had to be perfectly 00:38:36.630 --> 00:38:38.590 dressed. She had to keep him happy. Because if 00:38:38.590 --> 00:38:41.489 he was unhappy, then the entire colossal sacrifice 00:38:41.489 --> 00:38:43.969 was for nothing. That is an absolutely exhausting 00:38:43.969 --> 00:38:46.730 burden for any one person to carry. And that 00:38:46.730 --> 00:38:48.730 leads us to the final provocative thought for 00:38:48.730 --> 00:38:50.929 you, the listener. When you look at the whole 00:38:50.929 --> 00:38:53.369 story of Wallace Simpson and Edward VIII, was 00:38:53.369 --> 00:38:56.449 the throne lost for love? Or was the love just 00:38:56.449 --> 00:38:59.130 a consolation prize for a throne that maybe was 00:38:59.130 --> 00:39:01.090 never really possible for a man like him to keep 00:39:01.090 --> 00:39:03.289 anyway? That is the question, isn't it? Something 00:39:03.289 --> 00:39:05.849 to chew on. Thanks for diving deep with us. We'll 00:39:05.849 --> 00:39:06.710 catch you on the next one.