50. He Had Dark Sympathies
In 1937, Edward and Wallis made their most controversial move yet, and it’s an act that is still looked on with horror today. They traveled to Nazi Germany—to the absolute shock of the British government—and actually had a meet and greet with none other than Adolf Hitler. Perhaps worst of all, they gave full Nazi salutes. And oh, the circus show was just getting started.
51. His Friends Were Evil
Hitler liked Edward VIII, and thought that if his infamous abdication hadn't happened, things could have been much different. To quote Hitler directly: “I am certain through him permanent friendly relations could have been achieved…His abdication was a severe loss for us.” This is not the guy you want in your corner. But if you think that's bad, hold on to your hats.
52. He Made A Sinister Ally
Whatever Edward was thinking in public during this time, his private comments were much darker. Apparently, he once confided to a friend years after his little visit that, “I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap." Yes, this is completely gross and reprehensible, but somehow it gets even grosser and even more reprehensible.
53. He Tried To Take Back His Throne
The Duke’s letters from around this time reveal a disturbing truth: He wanted to take back his crown. In the late 1940s, George VI’s health was ailing, and the Duke of Windsor took full advantage. In his correspondence, there’s evidence he planned to sneak back into England and set himself up as a regent for his sick brother. Thing is, it came closer to happening than most people know.
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54. He Might Have Become King Again
In 1940, there was Nazi plot—called Operation Willi—to persuade or kidnap the Duke of Windsor and make him work for Adolf Hitler. It didn’t work, but people obviously knew what side he was really on during WWII. Today, many scholars agree that the German state was fully prepared to reinstate Edward as a fascist ally king.
55. He Insulted Queen Elizabeth II
In 1952, Edward received a crushing blow. That February, his brother King George VI passed, turning his niece Elizabeth officially into Queen Elizabeth II, a title that must have rankled Edward to the bone. He didn’t even attend the coronation, claiming that it wasn’t proper for a foreign sovereign to be there. But since when did Edward care about propriety?
56. He Suffered A Mysterious Ailment
Throughout all their years together, the great love story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII had one glaring problem: They never had children, and not necessarily for lack of trying. The reason behind this was tragic. Many historians believe that a spell of mumps in Edward’s youth rendered the Duke of Windsor royally infertile. Many of Wallis Simpson's biographers have postulated that she was infertile as well as the result of a botched abortion before she knew Edward VIII.
57. His Wife Had Bizarre Tastes
Edward apparently liked them freaky. Throughout her life, Wallis Simpson was infamous for her love of pug dogs, and it wasn’t a normal kind of love. Besides owning multiple pugs—with names like Davey Crockett, Black Diamond, and Ginseng—Edward and Simpson also slept with 11 pillows shaped like the breed at the foot of their bed.
58. He Was An Exile
In 1940, the British government was so appalled with Edward and Wallis, they sent the Duke of Windsor over to Nassau to be the “Governor of the Bahamas,” a position that he hated and a populace he disdained with a vicious contempt. The couple reportedly called Nassau “our St. Helena,” referring to the French Emperor Napoleon’s place of exile.
59. He Got A Merciless Revenge
Many people in England felt that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s anti-British leanings had partly to do with revenge. Bitter that Wallis had never become queen and that he hadn’t remained King, Edward turned on the country he once ruled and ran straight into the arms of her enemies. Yeah, somebody had mommy issues. And, well, daddy issues...
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60. His Father Hated Him
Edward’s father George V not only preferred Edward’s younger brother, he even preferred George VI's own daughter, the future Elizabeth II. This distaste was personal as well as professional: George once said he hoped Edward would never have children so “nothing will come between...Lilibet and the throne.” No wonder Edward turned out how he did.
61. His Wife Received A Rare Tribute
Ever the fashion-plates, Edward’s wedding to Wallis turned into legend for another reason besides scandal. When Wallis wore a pale blue Mainbocher dress on her big day, the designer created the pale cerulean color especially for her, and later dubbed it “Wallis Blue.” Hey, if you can’t have a kingdom, at least your wife can have her own color.
The Woman He Loved (1988 TV Movie), CBS
62. He Broke A Huge Tradition
Edward’s vanity about his hair destroyed a centuries-long tradition about royal coinage. When new coins are struck in the monarch’s honor, the tradition is that they face the opposite direction of their predecessor. George V was facing left, but Edward insisted that his face also face left...all because it showed off the fetching part of his hair.
Wikipedia
63. He Left An Odd Memento
In 1997, Sotheby’s auctioned Edward and Wallis’ personal belongings, and one peculiar item made headlines for all the wrong reasons. A slice of cake from their wedding went for whopping $2,900 after a heated auction. The couple who won said of it, “It is almost unimaginable to have such an item exist...It represents the epitome of a great romance.”
64. He Was Hateful
Though it may come as zero surprise to you, Edward’s opinions on race were controversial even for their time, and near-universally reviled. To call a spade a spade, he was a white supremacist to his core and spent much of his royal life dropping incredibly hateful sound bites about people who didn’t look like him, causing several well-earned royal scandals in the process.
Edward VIII: The Plot to Topple a King (2013), Channel 4 Television Corporation
65. He Developed Sinister Ailments
In the 1960s, Edward’s once-glamorous life slowed to a near halt. His health started deteriorating, and beginning in 1964, he had a series of surgeries for various ailments, including his an aneurysm abdomen and a detached retina. In late 1971, he then found out that he had throat cancer after a lifetime as a smoker. The end was near, and it was tragic.
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66. He Became Frail
In the final days of his life, Edward was too weak even to hold onto the last vestiges of his royal dignity. When his niece Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1972 while she was on state business in France, she managed to speak to her uncle for 15 minutes, but only Wallis was feeling well enough to accompany Elizabeth for a photo opportunity while the ailing Edward stayed inside.
67. He Lived In Style
For all that the royal family weren’t so hot on them, Edward and Wallis made famous friends wherever they went, and were prominent members of Paris’s café society at the time. In endless glittering evenings, they rubbed elbows with the likes of Gore Vidal and socialite Gloria Guinness. Of course, we now know that some of their other friends were less than savory.
68. He Has A Dubious Claim To Fame
At 326 days, Edward’s reign is the shortest for any monarch of the United Kingdom. There are shorter reigns if you’re thinking about just the English throne, but even then, Edward’s is still one of the briefest tenures in the crown’s history. In fact, like Edward V and Jane Grey, Edward VIII never even had an official coronation.
69. He Made A “Triumphant” Return
Just 10 days after Queen Elizabeth II visited him, the former King Edward VIII passed from throat cancer in his home in France, just a few weeks away from his 78th birthday. In death, he did what he could never do in life: returned to Britain for good. To this day, his body lies in Windsor castle. And as for his beloved Wallis? Well…
70. His Love Never Forgot Him
The former Mrs. Wallis Simpson outlived her infamous royal lover by over a decade, but she chose to be with him when the end of her life came, too. After living out the remainder of her years as a recluse, she passed at the age of 89 in 1986. As per her last wishes, attendants buried her next to Edward on the Royal Burial Grounds at Windsor Castle.
71. His Wife Two-Timed Him With A Villain
While Edward and Wallis were getting friendly with Germany, Simpson’s penchant for infidelity reared its ugly head. According to FBI reports from the 1930s, Wallis started an affair with German officer Joachim von Ribbentrop. If we're to believe the whispers, she also kept his signed photograph on her bedside table. But that wasn’t the only way Ribbentrop humiliated Edward…
The Woman He Loved (1988 TV Movie), CBS
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72. He Was A Cuckold
Apparently, Ribbentrop also sent Wallis a disturbing “gift.” Reportedly, after their tryst was over, he would send 17 carnations to Simpson’s home each day. Why 17? It was the number of times that the two had slept together during their affair. Yep, the gesture was a creepy way for Ribbentrop to remind Simpson—and Edward—about their time together.
73. His Wife Loved Someone Else
Despite their dark pasts and infidelities, we still tend to see King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson as a love story for the ages. Well, even that has holes in it. According to the man who ghost-wrote her memoirs, Wallis actually admitted that a childhood friend, Herman Rogers, was the true love of her life, though she made the writer swear never to print the confession.
The Woman He Loved (1988 TV Movie), CBS
74. He Made An Unforgivable Comment
Edward’s reaction to the death of his youngest brother, Prince John, put a rank taste in people’s mouths. John, who was 11 years younger, passed in January 1919 from a severe seizure at just 13 years old. Edward’s response was so disturbing, it’s impossible to forget. He referred to John’s passing as “little more than a regrettable nuisance.” And that wasn’t all.
75. He Didn’t Know How To Deal With Grief
When Edward heard of John’s tragic fate, one of his first responses was to complain about John to his mistress at the time. As he wrote to her, "This poor boy had become more of an animal than anything else." Edward was also so savage to his mother about her loss that he later apologized for being “a cold-hearted and unsympathetic swine.”
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