The explosive details on the night the Duke of Windsor finally confronted his wife, Wallis Simpson, over her affair with gay American socialite Jimmy Donahue were revealed in unearthed notes kept by his former private secretary.
Anne Seagrim’s unpublished memoir was stored in an archive at Cambridge University and offers a unique and detailed look into life at the Villa Windsor, the Paris home on the outskirts of the Bois de Boulogne which Edward VIII shared with his wife after his abdication from the throne in 1936.
After the “Abdication Crisis” the pair’s relationship was dubbed “the greatest romance of the 20th century”.
Seagrim worked for the Duke from 1950 until 1954 and her recollections are sizzling.
In her memoir, the former King’s ex-private secretary revealed that after 13 years of marriage, the Duchess had become restless with her “needy” husband who was constantly demanding her attention and approval, which led to her extramarital affair with Woolworth heir Jimmy Donahue, who was 19 years her junior and a flamboyant homosexual.
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Wallis first met Jimmy in 1941 at his mother’s home in Palm Beach when she was 54 and he was 35, but they started their affair nine years later in May 1950.
The 35-year-old was heir to the Woolworth family fortune and lived an extravagant life in New York City. Before Wallis, he would frequently see other men.
Seagrim who witnessed the affair at close quarters, observed: “Sometimes she had to break out, and she would revel in some shoddy little success.”
In her memoir, Seagrim recalled the moment the Duke finally accused his wife of betraying him.
She wrote: “Someone had told him ‘in his own interests’ that the Duchess had been out every night with the same young man. He went to his room and lay on his bed.
“She came in later that night and went to him – and I heard him choking back the tears in his voice, telling her what he’d heard. His voice wavered.
“She never said a single word in reply but soon she came out, her head bent, her face submissive, her eyes blue and bewildered. She’d been found out.
“She’d naively always hoped to get away with her affairs – brazening it out where another wife would have given herself away – she was determined to have her fun, and was angry with herself [for having been discovered].”
The Duchess’s affair with Donahue reportedly continued even after the Duke’s confrontation but ended in 1954.
According to reports, during the pair’s liaison, it was Woolworth money from the family’s five-and-dime stores which provided both the Duchess and Duke with luxury travel and holidays, jewellery and even dinner bills.
Once Donahue was gone, life at Villa Windsor resumed an even keel, and Anne Seagrim continued to sit at her typewriter observing these two extraordinary people.
