Wallis in Love: The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy

Bessie Wallis Warfield, known as Wallis Simpson (1896–1986), has been labeled a one-dimensional villainess; an American divorcée whose marriage to Edward VIII led him to abdicate the throne in 1936. Morton (Diana: In her Own Words) seeks to flesh out a woman who preferred a veneer of well-honed lies to the stark truth. This book dives deep into Simpson's childhood in Pennsylvania and the romantic relationships that shaped her life; revealing a complex, insecure, and immensely unhappy person who loved the royal title far more than her husband did, and who often used and cast aside friends. Morton strives to point out Simpson's redeeming qualities, specifically how she wholeheartedly tried to prevent Edward VIII from abdicating, knowing what it would cost them both. Afterward, she was universally maligned, suffered death threats, and lived with ulcers for much of her life.