Calgary Public Library

The real Wallis Simpson, a new history of the American divorcee who became the Duchess of Windsor, by Anna Pasternak

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The real Wallis Simpson

1140970900

by Anna Pasternak

a new history of the American divorcee who became the Duchess of Windsor

The story that has been told repeatedly is this: the handsome, charismatic, and popular Prince Edward was expected to marry a well-bred virgin who would one day become Queen of England when he ascended the throne. But when the prince was 37 years old, he fell in love with a skinny, divorced American woman - Wallis Simpson. No one thought the affair would last, and when the prince did become king, everyone assumed the affair would end. But instead the new king announced he wanted to marry the American divorcee, and Wallis was accused of entrapping the prince in a seductive web in order to achieve her audacious ambition to be queen. After declaring that he could not rule without the woman he loved at his side, the king gave up his throne, and his family banished him and his new wife from England. The couple spent the rest of their days in exile, but happy in their devoted love for each other. Pasternak tells a different story: that Wallis was the victim of the abdication, not the villain..

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