Before Wallis
Page 14
Now Audrey was available, and as she was a widow rather than a divorcee the prince could have married her. The younger generation of the royal family liked her; she was a friend of Edward’s sister-in-law, the Duchess of York, and his sister, Princess Mary. However, Edward’s relationship with Audrey had been primarily physical and he had no intention of committing to her. After her husband’s death, Audrey gave up work and went on holiday to Antibes and then Le Touquet.70 In November she was one of the few women at the opening meet of the Quorn Hunt. Wearing her distinctive silk top hat and a riding habit, she was photographed lighting a cigarette before the hunt began. She looked every inch a match for the prince who was there in his spotless buckskin breeches, pink coat and silk hat.71 However, although Audrey was free Edward was not interested so she began to look elsewhere. In 1930, she married Marshall Field III of the wealthy Chicago department store family and moved to Long Island.72
The situation changed in Freda’s life too. In 1927 she tried to break the stagnant circle created between Duddie, Michael and the prince by having an affair with the American polo player Rodman Wanamaker. Rodman’s father, Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, was the owner of famous department stores in New York and Philadelphia and of Wanamaker’s Magazine. He was known as ‘the richest shopkeeper in the world’. He had become friends with George V and presented the king with a gold, ruby and diamond communion plate set for Sandringham Church and a gold processional cross for Westminster Abbey.73
Freda went to Paris with Rodman and she also stayed at his exclusive estate in Palm Beach. Both the prince and Michael were jealous but willing to put up with the situation to keep Freda in their lives. For the first time in eight years Michael began to see other women, but none of his flirtations were serious. After exchanging bitter words with Freda, he wrote to her that they had both had a ‘testing and exhilarating fling’, but he begged her ‘not to try and kill our love for each other which is the only really living thing in my life because of a temporary crossness and lapse on both our parts’.74
As Freda’s affair with Rodman continued, Michael became unwell and unhappy. He described 1927 as the worst year of his life and he accused Freda of being cruel. His beloved brother, Sidney, was constantly ill following a serious operation on his leg, which eventually had to be amputated. Michael was also ailing; he suffered from recurring chest infections, which were becoming increasingly serious. The two brothers travelled abroad searching for cures that might improve their health. They visited Switzerland, Biarritz and Berlin with friends, but Michael missed being able to rely on Freda’s support when he was frightened about the future. In September 1928 Michael was diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia. He was distraught without Freda and became very depressed. He told her that he was in tears much of the time and looked like a ghost. He added: ‘everyone must notice your future in my poor longing eyes.’75 Michael’s doctor advised him to winter abroad, which meant he was separated from Freda for four months. As he travelled around America on business he wrote letters home most days. He told her that he had never loved her more and that he would give years of his life for them to be together now. He explained that it was not good for his health to be so miserable and if she did not write to him to show that she loved him ‘it will just be murder for it will kill me’.76
While Michael was in Nassau with his brother and their mutual friend, Lady Diana Cooper, Freda was in Palm Springs with Rodman. Known as ‘the American Riviera’, Florida was a millionaires’ paradise as wealthy American stockbrokers and businessmen socialised with celebrities from around the world. As evening fell, the actor and writer Noël Coward could be found sipping cocktails with the Vanderbilts. One newspaper described it as ‘a sun-baked garden with spacious lawns, surrounding lovely homes, framed with palms and bordered with flaming pointsettas, hibiscus and bougainvillea; and everywhere glimpses of turquoise blue and jade green sea’.77 Freda was having fun, swimming, golfing and then dancing the night away. The smartest place to dine was the palm-framed terrace of the Colony Club. While Freda was staying, Mr and Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney of New York gave a dinner at the club for Rodman and his house party.78 Michael found it torture to think that Freda was so near and yet so far away from him. They met up for a tantalising few hours, but Michael got the impression that she did not really want to see him. He felt insane with jealousy.79
It was also a very unhappy time for the prince. Edward was drinking heavily and one night he turned up in the casino at Le Touquet so drunk that he was incapable of standing.80 His behaviour was worrying his staff. In 1927, during a tour of Canada, his assistant private secretary, Tommy Lascelles, was so concerned that he arranged a private meeting with the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin. He told Baldwin that in the pursuit of ‘wine and women’ and whatever selfish whim obsessed him at the time, the prince was rapidly going ‘to the devil’. Unless he changed his behaviour, he would be an unfit king. Lascelles admitted that sometimes when he was waiting to get the result from a point-to-point the prince was riding in he could not help thinking that the best thing that could happen for the country was for Edward to break his neck. To Lascelles’s surprise, Stanley Baldwin agreed with him.81
Without Freda permanently in his life, the prince was going off the rails. While she was absorbed in her affair with Rodman, her good influence on Edward was absent, leaving his bad behaviour uncontrolled. Like Michael, Edward tried to be understanding, comparing Freda’s affair to the purely sexual flings he had had in the past. He wrote to her:
I know you like me better than anybody else deep down yet you have a crazy physical attraction an affair on just now – And you like still another very much in another way to me. I know our two lives aren’t absolutely satisfactory and I’m afraid they won’t ever be now. But I do know my angel – That I love you too much to ever be able to love anybody else again ever.82
In autumn 1928, the prince went on a tour of East Africa. He told his staff that he had begun to find England ‘a little cramped’.83 Tommy Lascelles, who was now his principal private secretary, believed that only two things kept Edward in England: riding in point-to-point races and Freda – but either of these might end at any moment. Apparently, the prince admitted to him that his relationship with Freda would not last forever.84 With Freda often abroad with Rodman the prince did not wish to be in England. He was seeking distraction. His trip to East Africa was hastily arranged and he told his staff that it should be a strictly informal tour with no uniform more elaborate than khaki.85
Once in Africa, he wrote to Freda that he wished that she was with him and it was ‘so d—d silly’ that they were not married as she would be happier with him than ‘with any bloody Pappapacker’. He added that his ‘kind’ were all right for an affair but not for anything more serious.86 Freda asked if he was keen on anyone in Kenya and he denied it. However, as usual there had been some flirtations and flings, which infuriated his staff. After ‘princing’ during the day he partied all night at the Muthaiga Club with the so-called ‘Happy Valley’ set. They were a group of aristocratic fugitives who were notoriously decadent; there were rumours of orgies, wife-swapping and stripping.87 The prince spent a great deal of time with one of the most outrageous women of them all, Gwladys (pronounced Gladys), Lady Delamere. Known for her scandalous behaviour, she was very thin, with pale skin, bright lipstick and jet-black hair.88 Edward told Freda that she was very keen on him, but it was not reciprocated. During one dinner, Gwladys literally threw herself at him. First, she chucked pieces of bread at him. It hit Karen Blixen, the author of Out of Africa, who was sitting beside him and gave her a black eye. Next, Gwladys rushed at him, overturning his chair and rolling him around on the floor.89 Gwladys was not the only woman infatuated with Edward. Even Karen Blixen, who was sceptical about the royal family before the prince’s arrival, was won over by his slightly childish shy charm. She wrote, half-joking, that she was so much in love with him that it hurt.90
The Muthaiga Club was the prince’s sort of plac
e. It had a golf course, squash courts, croquet lawn and a ballroom. Inside the pink pebbledash building with its small doric columns there were comfortable armchairs, chintz and parquet floors. Drinks were available at any time of day. Pink gins were served before lunch, then gin fizzes at teatime followed by cocktails, then whisky and champagne until bedtime. For the more adventurous, cocaine and morphine were also available.91 However, when the resident drug dealer, Frank Greswolde Williams, offered cocaine to the heir to the throne in between courses at dinner, it was considered too much, even by Happy Valley standards. Williams was manhandled out of the room by a white hunter.92
In the evenings there was bridge, backgammon and dancing. Syd Zeigler and his band played on Saturdays while on other nights the prince and his party danced to gramophone records. One night, Edward got frustrated and complained that they were the wrong kind of music, he then picked up all the records and threw them out of the window of the old ballroom. During his stay, he would go to bed at 4 a.m. and be up at 6.30 to go riding.93
After Nairobi, the prince went on safari. His main aim was to observe and photograph big game rather than shoot animals. However, the safari turned out to be more eventful than planned. A one-tusked elephant charged the party and had to be shot. The next crisis was when the prince’s stalwart supporter and assistant comptroller, Brigadier-General ‘G’ Trotter, had a serious heart attack. During the trip, the king also became dangerously ill with pleuropneumonia and a severe case of toxaemia caused by an untreated abscess behind the diaphragm.94 The prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, sent urgent cables begging the prince to come home at once. At first Edward did not take it seriously; he spent the evening completing his successful seduction of Mrs Barnes, the wife of the local commissioner.95 Eventually, it became clear that he would have to travel home as it seemed at one point as though the king might die, and Edward would ascend the throne.96
Tommy Lascelles was appalled at his boss’s callous attitude. He resigned shortly after their return to England. Lascelles had become increasingly disenchanted with the prince, saying it was like working for the son of an American millionaire rather than the next King of England. After working for him for eight years and observing him closely, he feared that the prince was too self-absorbed and lacking in any sense of duty ever to be fit to become king.97 When Lascelles told him his reasons for resigning, Edward did not argue back, he just thanked him for the talk and said that he supposed the problem was he was the wrong sort of person to be Prince of Wales.98
Back in England, while the king was ill the prince took on many of the monarch’s duties. As he took on more responsibilities he got on much better with his father and mother, and they wrote some warm letters praising his behaviour. Edward even stopped steeplechasing, which had been a constant concern for them. He gave up his rooms at Craven Lodge, Melton Mowbray and sold his string of horses. He turned to the safer pursuit of golf for relaxation instead.
The king and queen were also pleased with the way Edward had looked after his younger brother Prince George. The two siblings had become close friends; they shared a sense of humour, love of jazz and passion for keeping fit.99 After leaving the navy, Prince George moved into York House. The brothers were often seen at Quaglino’s and the Embassy nightclub together. Artistic and hedonistic, George was attracted to men and women. He loved the theatre and enjoyed dressing up. He counted among his girlfriends the African-American singer, dancer and comedienne Florence Mills who was appearing in one of Charles B. Cochran’s revues, Blackbirds. His name was also linked with the film stars Lois Sturt, Tallulah Bankhead and Gloria Swanson as well as the playwright, composer and actor Noël Coward.100
Inevitably, Prince George’s parents did not approve of his choice of partners, but they became increasingly worried when he started seeing a glamorous American called Kiki Whitney Preston. Known as ‘the girl with the silver syringe’, she introduced the young prince to drugs.101 Edward was as concerned as his parents. He intervened by breaking up the destructive relationship. After persuading Kiki to leave England, he took George off to the country and took charge of his drugs rehabilitation.102 While he was helping his brother recover he turned, as always, to Freda for advice. He knew that he could rely on her discretion. She recommended qualified nursing staff who were a great support to Edward while he looked after his brother. Edward’s care of George showed his compassionate nature; he dedicated himself to being there for his younger sibling and when the cure was at a critical stage he would not leave him, even to see Freda. It was a stressful and draining time. Edward would sit for hours in the sickroom with his brother, embroidering a stool cover for him. He told Freda: ‘It would make you laugh and maybe cry a little too.’103
It seems that as Edward took on more responsibilities and seriously faced the prospect of becoming king he reassessed his hopes of a future with Freda. Her fling with Rodman Wanamaker had changed the dynamics of all her relationships. The prince now saw Michael as a fellow victim, not a rival, and wrote: ‘Poor Herbert, I’m sorry for him and we might conceivably become friends. But Wanamaker – NO.’104 Michael also felt a degree of sympathy for Edward during the king’s illness. He wrote to Freda: ‘I am glad to see the king is better, the poor Prince of Wales must have had a hard time but now you needn’t go on comforting him much need you?’105
Although there was a powerful physical attraction between Freda and Rodman, after two years the affair burnt itself out and she returned to her long-term lovers. Michael loved her more than ever and told her that every moment away from her felt like time stolen from his short life. He was still hoping she would get divorced and marry him. The prince reacted differently. After the Wanamaker fling, he became more realistic. He wrote to her:
I do now at last realise that you can’t feel quite the same as you used to and that you have other interests and friends which prevent you being as much in my life as I want you to be – I guess I’m a fool and have been living on the idea of a situation that just can’t be.106
9
SECOND BEST
While Freda was increasingly preoccupied with her other commitments, the prince started seeing a twice-married American, Thelma Furness. Once Freda had chosen to distance herself from him, Lady Furness became increasingly important to the heir to the throne. However, although his affair with Thelma was Edward’s most serious relationship since he had met Freda, she was no real replacement for the exceptional woman who had shared his life for more than a decade. Thelma was kind and very beautiful, but she could only provide the physical, not the emotional, support the prince needed. She lacked the maturity and confidence of Rosemary and Freda, so she proved to be only a temporary substitute until their true replacement, Wallis Simpson, filled the vacuum.
Whatever the reality of their relationship, in her memoirs Thelma Furness told the story of her romance with the prince as though it was a fairy tale. She recorded in breathless detail their first meeting in 1926. She could hardly contain her excitement as she got ready for a ball at the home of society hostess Lady Londonderry. An American who was just entering London society as the young bride of Viscount Furness, she was particularly impressed by the thought that royalty would be at the event. She tried to imagine whether Princess Mary, the Duke of York, or most thrillingly of all, the Prince of Wales would be among the guests.
Londonderry House was at its most spectacular that night. It was filled with banks of flowers, and there were footmen in powdered wigs, knee breeches and white stockings to wait on the glamorous guests. Thelma had just begun to dance with her husband when a murmur, then a hush spread through the room. Lord and Lady Londonderry had entered the ballroom with the Prince of Wales at their side. Thelma whispered to her husband: ‘Look, darling, the Prince of Wales!’ The heir to the throne looked boyish and slightly shy as he stood in the doorway. Thelma noticed that in a nervous gesture, his hand frequently touched his white tie and as he spoke he held his head to one side, but he seemed younger and more handsome than she had e
xpected.
As the music came to an end and Lord and Lady Furness walked towards the supper room Thelma heard her name called close behind her. When she looked around Lady Londonderry and the Prince of Wales were beside her. As her hostess presented Lady Furness, beneath her long dress, Thelma’s knees would not stop shaking. As the prince put out his hand, she put her gloved one on his. Unable to say anything, she just made a deep curtsy. ‘Welcome to England,’ he said politely. ‘I hope you will be happy here. May I have the next dance? I believe it’s a Viennese waltz. I do hope you like them.’ After they danced together, the prince thanked her, and Thelma curtsied again.1 She would never forget that Viennese waltz. Although according to her account she did not see the prince again for nearly three years, the heir to the throne had made an indelible impression.
It was as if Thelma had been preparing for this romantic moment all her life. Her ambitious mother had brought her up to use her good looks to rise up the social ladder and in two and a half decades she had reached the top. Born in 1904 in the Hotel Nationale overlooking the Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, Thelma was one of twin daughters born to an American diplomat, Harry Hays Morgan Senior, and his dominating wife Laura. Mrs Morgan was half Irish-American and half Chilean. Proud of her ancestry, she was the daughter of General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, who had fought ruthlessly in the American Civil War and was then appointed as American minister to Chile. Her Chilean mother was a descendant of the grandees of Spain.2 However, Thelma claimed that her mother often dramatised her background and she never allowed facts to get in the way of the fantasies she created. Reading Lady Furness’s memoir, it seems that these tendencies were passed on to her daughter.