New light on duchess
- Last Updated: 11:23 PM, April 9, 2012
- Posted: 10:54 PM, April 9, 2012
The Duchess of Windsor brings to mind a tough, cold, adventurous bitch, callous about chilling an empire to marry a could-be king, and to become famous, become a celebrity, grab big jewels and a big title.
Anne Sebba, A-1 Brit author of St. Martin’s new best seller: “That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor” disagrees: “I read letters she wrote. She neither wanted the royal marriage nor to divorce second husband Ernest Simpson, with whom she was congenial. They had a deep comfortable love.
“I’d located Simpson’s son, born 1939 by another marriage. He had a divers business in some isolated Steinbeck deserted area. I cashed in my miles and spent a week with him. Eventually ‘shunted about as an orphan,’ he said, ‘Nobody’s ever looked for me before.’ He also said, ‘Ernest Simpson’s real name was Solomon. He was Jewish.’”
Sebba was next handed on to a deceased relative’s friend who owns Wallis’ 15 letters to her husband. Lawyers and professionals have authenticated their handwriting, postmarks and stationery. To protect from dealers who have approached, Sebba has guaranteed anonymity. Forbidden to remove the letters, this author “sat on a sofa transcribing them as the lady watched.”
It said both social climbers were in this together and thought the royal flirtation would end. Simpson encouraged it as their “pinnacle of achievement” until the “pathologically insecure” king said he’d “commit suicide” if Wallis left him.
Anne Sebba: “January 1936 this Prince of Wales became king. Wallis’ prime motive in making him a friend was to avenge the poverty of her mother, who’d taken in boarders. What happened was in playing with fire, she got burnt.”
OK, not stunning, not young, not virginal, not loving, not English — so what was she?
“This was psychosexuality. He needed a mother figure. He wrote a previous girlfriend ‘Dear Mummy.’ Minus being in their bedroom, I conclude Wallis’ ability was oral sex.
“Wallis was rude. Badly behaved. She controlled him. Made him run an errand, do her nails, [she’d] order him about, punish him. The man whom history remembers as the Duke of Windsor considered the ‘moment of forgivenesss’ sublime. A troubled adolescent, he could never live up to his father. He forever sought his mother’s approval. Also, conjecturally impotent, he couldn’t perform a king’s duty by producing an heir. He was thus always punishing himself and knew he could never do the job entrusted to him.”
“Wallis wanted out, but it had gone too far. She had enabled him to give up what he basically knew he couldn’t do.”
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