An Old Timey Podcast - 115: Wallis Simpson: Before the Royals (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

In this *very special* two-part series, Kyla Pitts-Zevin (Kristin’s sister & mayor of all of Kristin’s podcasts) tells us about an extraordinarily complicated woman. Wallis Simpson is best known for her relationship with King Edward VIII. When he announced his intention to marry the American divorcee, a constitutional crisis erupted that led to his abdication of the throne. The abdication altered the course of history. People had plenty to say about Wallis Simpson, the new Duchess of Windsor. But what was her deal, really? In part one, we explore her early life and her first two marriages.Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kyla pulled from: “That Woman: The life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor,” by Anne Sebba“Countdown to Abdication: A Very Royal Crisis,” BBC documentary“Duchess of Windsor: The Woman Who Stole a King’s Heart,” documentaryWikipedia“Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor,” by Andrew Lownie“Disbelief from Family of Simpson’s Lover,” BBCAre you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts!Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Kristen Caruso. And I'm Normie C. And I'm Kyla PZ. And on this episode, I'll be talking about Wallace Simpson, the woman whose love made a king abdicate the throne. Ooh. Who the hell are you, Kyla? Hey, it's me, your girl, your sister. Kyla Peezy in the chair. Everyone, Kyla is so enthusiastic. I'm at the soundboard, you guys. I was very excited to text Norm this morning with all of my soundboard requests. And I am here and I am ready to go. She picked some good ones.

Also, we should say, hello, whenever this thing drops. This, Kyla, these episodes that you're doing for us, this two-part series on Wallace Simpson, who is a fascinating character in history. Yeah. We're going to drop these kind of whenever an emergency happens or when we feel lazy. Who knows what's going on with us right now

when you're listening to this episode. Okay, Norm, do you want to do a Patreon plug? What do you want to do? I sure do. Do you want to tell them about that hilarious joke I got you with the other day? What joke? Everyone, if you want to hurt a man's feelings. Oh, no.

Oh, that's joke. I, on Instagram, I can't claim this joke as my own. It is brilliant, though. So here's what you do. You go up to a dude and you say it in the cadence of a joke. And the joke is, hey, what do girls say to guys with big weaners? And then do you just walk away? No, no, no. So the other day, I asked Norm, hey, what do you say to guys with big weeners? And he's like, like, um, um, I don't know. And I said, I knew you wouldn't know. Oh, no. For Normie C. Oh, no. It's pretty good.

Then he got his friends with it and they were not too thrilled with a joke. They were not happy with me. They have small weeners. That's right. They're not part of the club. They were very upset. Anyway, that's my gift to you, people. And if you want to give us a gift in return, which I think you should, frankly, sign up for our Patreon.

Patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Tell them more. For just $5 a month, you get access to our entire back catalog of bonus episodes. Plus you get to chitty chat in the Discord. And I've brought in a special guest today to talk about the Patreon. We have a customer testimonial here. It's my sister-in-law, Kyla P.Z. Wow. Well, I was actually going to say how I am a patron.

But I also want to say how important it is for other people to be patrons because I get to use Kristen and Norm's Disney Plus and Peacock login. Oh, we might have to censor that. We might get our accounts banned because we just confess. I'm sure Disney is listening to this. They are listening, Winnie the Pooh. They're like, what? Piglet's security. Oh, do, do, do you.

They're showing accounts. And if I get Peacock revoked because Kristen and Norm have to make budget cuts because there's not enough patrons, I'm going to be very sad because I just started season seven of Summerhouse. And if I have to stop after I've committed this many hours, it's going to be very sad for me. So please patrons sign up so I can keep watching Summerhouse on their peacock account. Thank you so much. That was a great plug. Thank you. People won't want that kind of blood on their hands.

No, they don't. They don't. Plus, you got a new season of Big Brother coming up. Ooh. That's Paramount Plus, Norm. She uses our Paramount Account kids. And new season of Love Island just started. There's a lot of reality. It's too horny.

It's too horny. You've got kids in the house. You can't be watching that. Yeah, that's true. Okay, I am excited for this episode. Everyone, Norm is not as cool as some of us who are obsessed with the royals and who consider ourselves experts because we watch the crown and we look people up on Wikipedia, which the extent of my knowledge about Wallace Simpson.

Yes. So I'm coming in kind of expert level, Kyla. I don't mean to. Well, so last night I was talking to my friends, Ashton and Caitlin, that I went to college with and they've come on some of the convention. Yeah, they're friends of the pod. And Ashton was like, I don't really know that

much about Wallace. And it's like, wait, but wasn't she like a Nazi sympathizer? And wasn't she like somewhat you know, accessory to a murder or something like Like knew all this stuff. So yes, I think lots of us ladies out here were a little bit dangerous. We've watched the crown. We've looked some stuff up on Wikipedia.

She's a fascinating and very compelling character, I would say. Oh, but you know what? Before we even get into it, we have to do something bad to Norm. Again. Norm does this to me when he comes with some history, boring war topic. He's like, Kristen, tell me everything you know about this. and I know nothing. So Norm, how about you tell us about Wallace Simpson?

What do you know about Wallace Simpson? She was a baddie. Kyla made a face. The king loved her, but she was from America. Okay. And to get it on with her, he had to abdicate the throne, right? Why did, why? Because she wasn't British.

She wasn't British. No, no, she was divorced, right? She was a suspicious divorcee. That's right. That's right. And, you know, if someone's a suspicious divorcee, you cannot marry into the royal family. Too suspicious. Too suspicious.

Okay. Very spitious. So he said, fine, f you, I'm going to give up the throne for this lady. And he did. And then he was like, hey, this Hitler guy's kind of cool. We should go talk to him. And Wallace was like, okay. Norm, that was so good.

We might have to bleep out some of it just for, Spoilers. Yeah. Good job. Good job. Well, shall we dive in today? Yes. Okay.

Let's dive in. On June 19, 1896, a baby girl was born in a small cottage in Blue Ridge Summit. Blue Ridge Summit is a small resort town that borders Pennsylvania and Maryland. Her birth came with very little celebration or notice. There was no newspaper announcement. In fact, there was no birth certificate at all. The silence was notable. It was quite unusual for there to be so little fanfare,

given that the new mother and father were both born from society families. And fancy society people always print everything in the papers. It's true. It's true. They'll print when they pass gas. Yeah, big toots. No, I mean like the Agnes Vale episode, the mountain climbing lady, you know, she was from a prominent family.

And they're like, oh, Agnes went to the Grand Canyon. this weekend. Yeah, but I mean, a birth announcement, that's a big deal. Yeah, that's an even bigger deal. That's an even bigger deal. Very surprised that nothing came of it in the paper. So Wallace's mother, Alice Montague, came from a prestigious English aristocratic line, tracing back to the 13 colonies. And actually, King Charles himself gave their family their land in the Americas. The father of the newborn baby girl was Tickle Wallace Warfield. And he, He was the son of a respected surgeon and prominent member of Baltimore Society. His first name was Tickle.

Tickle, Tickle, Teeco, Teechoo, Teechoo, Coochoo. How do you spell that? T-E-A-C-K-L-E. Oh. I have so many questions. Is that just a name that has fallen out of fashion? Or was that just a strange moment in time? I have no.

I don't. Tinkled on by a mean family member when they gave him that name. I feel like I read it in some place in one of the books, but it made me it was like a family surname that had been made like a first name, but that was a sad choice, and they should not have done that to that man. So Kyla and I were born into the last name Pitts. Do you think we're ever going to name a child Pitts?

Tickle Pitts. I'm sorry. I understand the affection for your given name, but sometimes you've got to let her go. let it go and move on. So this new baby girl, Bessie Wallace Warfield, would make up for her lack of press early in life. She would become internationally known as a villain, a vixen, a victim, a fighter, and ultimately a recluse. She was born Bessie Wallace Warfield, but the world knows her as Wallace Simpson, the woman whose love made the King of England abdicate the throne. So for Wallace's

whole life, her mother was really cagey about Wallace's birth story, Wallace's origin story. When Wallace asked her about the timing and circumstances of her parents' marriage and specifically about her birth, her mother said, I was far too busy at the time to consult the calendar, let alone a clock. What? That is such bullshit. What was she doing? So a question for Norm here, why do you think her mom would say such a thing, Norm?

Because Was it a pre-marriage baby? Okay, okay, very good, Norm. Good. I should have done a little celebration. So Norm, you've never looked more nervous. I was like, whoa, this is getting sprung on me. I don't know what to say.

Did I get it right? A pre-marriage baby. A pre-marriage baby. Pre-marriage baby, yeah. Okay. So even in Wallace's memoirs, she writes that her parents were married. in June 1895. In fact, they were married in November 1895, not in a big church, but in a quiet parish

quarters. Alice's ego was already Perego. So I was right. You were right. Wow, Norm, you sniffed it out. You did. Good job, Norm. I was thinking about, like, well, maybe she didn't believe in daylight saving time

or something. She didn't believe in calendars. That was my favorite thing, was thinking, Norm, you know, You know that saying that's like when you hear hoof? Occam's razor. Yeah, when you hear hooves, what am I trying to say? When you hear hooves, don't think unicorn, think a horse. Yeah.

And I could just tell that your mind when Kylo was asking you about what was clearly a baby out of wedlock, you were like, let's see, it could be anything. Yeah, time travel. She was in a cult that didn't believe in time. She'd never seen a digital clock before. She was just flummoxed. Or she truly was so busy. She was so busy. She just had no idea.

So let's get back to our friend Tinkle. So Wallace's father, Tickle, was a quiet man, a poet. Not necessarily the strong commanding type his family had hoped for. And just to pile on here, he also had tuberculosis. Oh, Tickle tinkled out of his... It was sad times. And this was actually a huge embarrassment to his family because tuberculosis was considered to be a poor person's disease. Okay, now I feel less sorry for them.

Now, wait a minute. Did you say tuberculosis teakle out of the butt? Isn't that an upper respiratory disease? Oh, mistakes of shame. I was thinking about dysentery, which I often am. Which is also a trombone-worthy, old-timey disease. Are you trying to police how often, Kyla, uses the sound word? You're like, I seems like a trombone.

No, I'm ready. I'm ready. Why is you pressing that button? No, and I don't know, like, I did not research as to why tuberculosis was considered a poor person's disease. Maybe it's about, like, you know, fresh air and getting outside and how that was something that, you know, rich people had time for. You know, they were so big into getting the fresh air and being in the outdoors for health and things like that. So I don't know why. they thought that, but.

Well, in many cities, the rich people lived up high. Removed from the bad air, you know, of the lower parts of the city. Which that makes sense because, yeah, before germ theory, whenever that came around, which I don't know. But yeah, everything was, all the bad stuff came through the air. And just to be clear, it's not germ theory. It's germs had not been invented. Germs had, that's right.

Germs had not been invented yet. Duh, Kyla, keep up. Come on. My bad. So at a time when tuberculosis patients were being. sent away to get out of the city and into the fresh air as part of their treatment, his family actually did something different. His family actually sent him to work at his uncle's trust company to kind of like tuck him away. Needless to say, when Alice Montague became interested in him,

her parents were far from thrilled. They did not approve of this meek, sickly poet of a man named Tickle for their daughter. Meekle Tinkle. Meekle. So Alice and Tickle moved to Baltimore to start their life together. But fate had other plans. Five months after Wallace was born, Teakle died from his tuberculosis. The loss of her father set into motion a few significant worries that were themes throughout Wallace's life, instability, financial insecurity, and the need to have a man to provide for your needs.

But fortunately, Wallace and her mother, Alice, had those wealthy family. roots to fall back on. Anna Emery Warfield, Wallace's grandmother, invited them to live with her in her brownstone located at... Oh shit! Hang on, my computer fell asleep. Hold, please. D-D-D-D-D-D-D. Okay, okay,

yes. 34 East Preston Street. A stone. Baltimore, Maryland. Ooh. Oh, cute as hell. We love it. It's still there. It's really close to where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is located.

It looks like a gorgeous place to live. So, yeah, still standing today. Her uncle, Solomon Davies Warfield, financier, also lived there. And it was this man who had complete control of their finances. And that came with a lot of uncertainty. Uncle Saul would deposit different amounts into their accounts from month to month without rhyme or reason. Thanks for nothing, Uncle Saul. That really does suck.

That would make you... I mean, that's a great way to manipulate people, Uncle Saul. Exactly. A great way to assert your control and manipulate. So he just decided randomly what he would put in their account. Probably based on if he was happy. Yeah, probably not randomly. Yeah. Felt random to them, but...

Do you think he had a wheel? He spun a wheel. Yeah. Wheel of fortune. You know, I hadn't accounted for whimsy being a factor here, but perhaps there was some wheel. Financier of whimsy. Those rich people back then were very eccentric. He may have done that.

So imagine this. You've got this bachelor living with his mommy, and then a young woman, his sister-in-law, and her baby move in. Gross. So what do you think happened then? Yeah, what do you think, Norm? He had an affair with the young sister-in-law. Okay, okay.

Uncle Saul got the hot. for Alice. Oh, shoot. Oh, folks, she's new to the soundboard. Okay. Uncle Saul got the hots for Alice. Ow! Ow!

That's right. And, you know, that was just not going to do. Grandma Anna was like, Good for Grandma Anna. I was afraid Alice was going to be stuck with this dude. No. Good on Grandma Anna. She was like, that's nasty.

And Alice, and Wallace were moved back to a hotel. You know, this plus the fact that he had this money dangling over their heads, just nasty. This was, understandably, a really difficult time for Wallace and her mom. There was some bouncing around in their living situations, and Alice had to find a way to support her family. And Uncle Saul obviously wasn't going to be helpful. Alice tried desperately to be a successful business cat. She sold embroidery. At one point, she even tried hosting paying dinner guests, but it seemed like Alice cared too

much about having an excellent menu without charging enough that she never made much money at it. When they were strapped for cash, they stayed for a while at Alice's sister's house. Bessie Merriman, who was also recently widowed. Old Bessie. Old Bessie Merriman. In Maryland. did I not have Maryland?

Well, we can do it right now. My Maryland. Okay, that's enough. I think YouTube's going to strike us for that. That's a beautiful song. Yeah. Yeah. So this was actually a really good time for Wallace living with her aunt.

Wallace loved her aunt Bessie. The book I read says that Alice viewed Bessie as a mother. Now, mind you, she didn't say as a second mother or as a mother figure. She just said mother. With her Aunt Bessie providing some structure and some support in her life, Wallace was sent to Arundel Girls School. There is still an Arundel Elementary in Baltimore. I don't know if it's the same. It doesn't appear that it'd be the same location.

Despite living with Aunt Bessie and her mother, Uncle Saul continued to be a little sketchball during this time. Wallace had to provide monthly school reports to him, which I think is sketchy as all. get out because Aunt Bessie was the one paying for her schooling. Oh, that's ridiculous. She wasn't actually even paying for anything. But when the time came, what Wallace really wanted, more than anything, was to go to the freaking most expensive school in all the land, reclaimed the high class of her name, move up in the world.

She wanted to go to Oldsfield's baby. Go Tigers! Where? Oldsfields. You heard. Oldsfield. Olds fields. When you get felt up by an old person.

You're just a beautiful gun. Ew, okay. Olds fields. Where is that? Oldsfield. It's a, you're nearest nursing home. It's closed now. For obvious reasons, they're all in prison.

Sorry, I'll stop. Oh, no, it's still open. It's located in Sparks, Glenco, Maryland. And sparks glit. Oldsfields. Yeah. Olds fields. A prestigious college, no doubt.

Yes. So, okay, so there are two rules at Oldsfields, which I think, Norm, you're really going to like. They're the same two rules of all non-threatening boys. Gentleness and courtesy. Oh. Okay. Those are the only two rules? Those are the only rules.

Everything else. You're good to go. There else. Do whatever you want. Just do it gently. Just gently and with courtesy. So to be clear, now they are the tigers, but they were not the tigers back in the day. When they played basketball, when Wallace was there, one team was literally called gentleness,

and the other team was called courtesy. And what a game that must have been. Yes. Just imagine. I'm kind of for you, courtesy. Gentleness drives it hard and fast down the court. But courtesy is. absolutely unrelenting on the D.

I have never seen courtesy look so dominant on the D. I'll tell you there's nothing gentle about gentleness player Wallace Warfield. She's in the paint. She's dunking on courtesy. The crowd goes wild.

It's a good thing Norm put that jock chum's music on there. Her your last email. I have added 30 seconds of jock jam. to the soundboard. I like to move it, move it. It probably should have always been on there, Norm.

Yeah. It's on you. I think it's going to find reason to come up in future episodes. So Oldsfields is an interesting place for Wallace. It's a place where she has a lot of independence and a lot of self-discovery. And she particularly loves the equestrian program. And she gets herself in some good old-fashioned trouble, too. After all, this is a woman who once said, my private judgment is that when I was

being good, I generally had a bad time. And when I was bad, the opposite was true. Hmm. Kind of like Betty Boop. Kind of like Betty Boop. What? I think Betty Boop said the same thing. Norm, are you being paid to, like, get weird references in this episode? No. What was my other weird reference? I just feel like there will be more coming. Well, that's just me. That's just my brain.

That's just how it works. Always thinking about Betty Boop. Always thinking. Who's not? Every hour on the hour. So she was into the horses. She was into the horses. Yeah, she was into her athletics. She was not too into her academics.

And she was getting out on the social scene. So Oldsfield is also where she meets her true BFF, Mary Kirk, whose family was rich bitch. Her family was said to be one of the first silversmiths in these United States. So suck on that. I won't. Apparently, everybody had their silverware, which just seems like such a power move to me. Like my family made the silverware that's in everybody's home. And everyone's mouth.

Yeah, that's right. Mary's family sensed that Wallace was a little bit of a troublemaker, so they were not entirely thrilled about this blooming friendship that was happening. So at Oldsfields, the rule was to self-report on misdeeds, like, riding to a boy. Ooh. Well, you couldn't even write to a boy? Yeah. Skanks.

Or sneaking into your BFF's room to talk about the latest hot goss. But I don't think Wallace was doing any self-reporting of her bad behavior. She smoked. She jumped from her balcony to meet up with boys. Her first boyfriend, Lloyd Tab, would later become the inventor of the infamous and later defunct tab soda. Oh my gosh. I made that up.

Oh. That was so messed up. We were so excited. I could tell how excited you were. When you said Lloyd Tab, I was like, like Tab soda. In my head. You would have thought the way we reacted was like we were secret tab enthusiasts. And he was about to come through the door or something like that.

So with all first loves, you learn a lot. And with Lloyd, Wallace honed a skill that she used all her life. If there was something that Lloyd was interested in, Wallace studied it, she pretended to be really interested in it, and then she praised the hell out of him for it. That's what she did with Lloyd and football and subsequent other dudes and other activities as well. At Oldsfields also, unfortunately, Wallace began a lifelong obsession with her weight. what we would call today Disordered Eating

Because apparently these girls were drinking cod liver oil To stay skinny Oh my God Oh, you just shit yourself I mean I guess so It sounds horrible Yeah

The administrators were trying to confiscate All the cod liver oil All over campus And Wallace had a lifelong fixation With her weight And trying to keep herself very thin This was definitely of the time When like

The wealthiness and thinness Were kind of And that's gone now And now we're so much better than we once were. Yeah. On the streets, they call it fish juice. Come on. Give me the fish juice.

Give me the fish juice. That sounds horrible. It does. So a brief aside here, while Wallace was off at Oldsfields, her mother, Alice, had a brief second marriage with John Freeman, raisin, son of a wealthy Democratic Party leader in Baltimore. And they had up and moved to Atlanta. But he died in 1913 because old-timey times, I mean, he... these dudes just were dying all the time. And Wallace, if you think about it, she's just watching her mom kind of be with a man,

find some stability, finally have some of that financial comfort, and then he just ups and dies. And so there's a lot of instability in her life. This story, I can't really stick with it because that man's last name was Raisin. I was waiting for you to lie about him being the inventor of the Raisin or something. I don't think I can trust anything after that tab joke. You can't. I was very proud of my tab joke.

I was going to make a horrible joke and say he died because he was left out in the sun too long. That is bad. That's his last thing of the reason. Yeah, we get it. I'm sorry. We need the rim shot going. Oh, no, we don't have a rim shot. Kyle's in charge.

Ewe. There we go. That's exactly. Yeah, that's all we said to that. Yeah. So when it came time for her days at Oldsfields to come to an end, Wallace Plan was the path of most Oldsfields gals to get married. And she was not shy about the fact that she wanted to marry someone with money. In fact, she even said it at the Kirk's dinner table right in front of all that fancy silverware. is scandal. Yeah, it's funny, like, especially at this time when a woman really couldn't go out and earn a decent living herself, that should not have been scandalous to just say, like, yeah, I want to marry someone wealthy for the stability. But saying it out loud, it's kind of like farting. We all do it. We know we all do it. But you do it at a dinner party and suddenly you're not asked back. Suddenly everybody's got a problem with it. Yeah. Yeah, I think there, Wallace Simpson is such an interesting. multifaceted person, but she really did own who she was and what she wanted. There wasn't a lot of pretense there.

But she knew how to create the pretense if it was advantageous to her, kind of like how she was learning, like, oh, I just have to learn what this dude is into and talk to him about it and act like he's really good at it and, you know, he's going to be interested in me. So there wasn't a lot of pretense to her. If she wanted something, she went for it pretty relentlessly. So when it came time to sign the Oldsfields Leavers book, which I guess is like yearbook, she signed All Is Love. And now, Kristen and Norm, we must prepare for the race of a lifetime.

Who will get married first? Mary and Wallace, best friends that they were. had their debut in December that year at Monday German, a coming out ball from the Bachelor's Catillion Club. It was called Monday German? It's a great date. I'm like, I don't know what that means. But during this time with World War I looming,

sorry, Kristen, World War I reference, debutantes were advised to, now we're talking about debutants. Okay, I'm awake now. Don't be rude. about wars she's trying to talk to me about wars she said it hasn't even started yet listen she had my attention with the raisins and the tabcola but she lost me with the great war that's right but so with world war one looming debutants were advised to refrain from quote rivalry in elegance in respective social functions so this rule actually was pretty great for

Wallace because she didn't have any money. She had to be very creative in figuring out what her looks were going to be for the different balls. Very much like Rupal's drag race when you have a queen that doesn't have a lot of money compared to the other queens, right? I was thinking the exact same thing. Also, Project Runway, Make it Work. It's a make it work.

Did she glue some gift bags to a... GIFPens. Sponges. Yeah. Gift bags and sponges. I really wonder what percentage of the art. audience will understand us and love us for that joke. I don't get any of these.

Well, that's a shame, Norm. No, I do kind of love this for her because, yes, she can just rotate a few dresses and be like, oh, sorry, I'm so patriotic. Sorry, I'm such a good person and I care about the war effort. Wars are fascinating. I'm there. I'm with her. Exactly.

It really worked out well for her. So she's trying to have a bomb-ass debutante season. The stupid war is messing everything up, but it's also helping her to cover up her money troubles and then her grandma dies to top it all off. Could this coming out season be any worse? Don't be too bummed, though. Because imagine her luck. Her mother's cousins, Corinne Mustin, and Layla Montague Barnett invited her down to

Sunny Florida. Spring blue! Get crazy. Get love. So these cousins had some money. Layla was married to a general commander in the U.S. Marine Corps. and when they weren't whooping it up in Florida, they were in their home in the epicenter of democracy and politics.

Washington, D.C., baby. And this all worked out tremendously well for Wallace because she had access to social standing, the people she was with had money, and she didn't have to report back to stupid Uncle Saul for everything. But most importantly, her aunt Layla, who had money, decided to host her coming out party in Washington, D.C., I'm coming out.

I want the world to know. Got to let it show. So this was pretty good for Wallace's family too because Aunt Layla did what any good nosy auntie would do. Okay, Kristen. It's old-timey times and you're tasked with hosting a coming-out party for your niece. What do you do? I mean, I'm scouting around.

I'm getting the best and brightest and richest. and I'm only inviting them, and if any losers try to get in, I will be the rude auntie M. And kick them out. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. And that's precisely what her aunt did.

So it was at her coming out party that she met Lieutenant Earl Winfield Spencer. He was tall, strapping, a hunky hunk, and he was eight years older than Wallace. So Wallace was 19 and Wynn was 27. Kristen thoughts. I mean, these are old-timey times, so that does make a difference. But, boy, that's a big experience gap. I also like, I'm like, how has no one scooped him up, this big hunky hunk? What kind of personality issues does he have?

He's a lieutenant. He's been in the military. Oh, yeah. And he just has never come across a woman before, sure. So her previous experience with boys had been kid stuff, sneaking out from the balcony at Oldsfields, but she'd been out with boys, but this was a man. So let's take a moment and learn about Wynn, shall we?

Wynne's dad was a stockbroker and from a wealthy Chicago suburb. He was one of six children, all of whom were active in the war effort. Mrs. Spencer was once quoted in the newspaper as saying, I believe I am the happiest woman in the world. I could not be happier unless I might have a few more to offer for the cause of the nation. Now that's a patriot. I'm like, oh, God, no. So if you didn't love the eight-year age gap, you're kind of going to hate this.

They got married within weeks of meeting. Nice. Wallace felt pretty good about this. She would finally have a life of stability and security. Scoring a naval lieutenant was a pretty good marriage for an Oldfield's gal, and she snagged him pretty quickly after graduating. But I don't know if you know this, but a few weeks isn't very long to, get to know your future spouse.

And on top of that, Corinne, her mother's cousin, had been their chaperone the whole time. The couple hadn't really talked about dreams, ambitions, life plans. They hadn't... Boinked, obviously. You're missing out if you're not on the video level. Kyla was so excited to press the button. So thrilled with her own joke. Oh, so that sound means sexy times?

Yeah, basically. Now what does the boy yo-yoing mean? Norm. I'm just kidding. We don't know, Norm. We don't have the technology. Well, and her cousin Leila once said, you know perfectly well you married him just out of curiosity.

Oh. Oh, so just to be like, what's sex like? Norm. Is that what that means? Just a young, young naive boy. You don't have to get married to do that, though, right? Well, but in old, tiny times. And I'm guessing given how she was born, you know, and what was probably instilled in her because of that, that you have to wait.

And that that was going to be key to her access to her greater goal, which was, you know, better social standing, money and the like. She couldn't have sex out of wedlock. Also, you see this even today in super religious communities where people are like 20 years old. They're like, I guess I met my soulmate. And it's like, or you wanted to have sex, which is natural. Yes. And best of luck to you. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So why would we let any of those things, though, get in the way of a beautiful wedding? Their wedding was described in the Baltimore Sun as one of the most important of the season, performed in front of a large assemblage of guests, and it was Hela Naval, whatever that means. That direct quote, Hela Nable? Hela Nable. Unfortunately. Felly buttons everywhere.

Everywhere. Crop-top wedding dress. That's the dress code. Got to wear a crop top. Guys and gals. Guts are out. Unfortunately, wedded bliss was over before it began. The night of the wedding, she realized what she had failed to see in their short courtship.

The bottle was seldom far from my husband's thought. or hands, she later wrote. In fact, he became rageful when he realized they were honeymooning in a dry state. Maybe it should be mentioned here, but obviously the documentation that we have here and what's most prominent in general is Wallace's side of the story. But don't give Wynn too much benefit of the doubt because his three subsequent wives also alleged cruel behavior in the divorce records. He even forced Wallace to watch him destroy her family photographs.

Oh, brother, this guy stinks! That's awful. We hate them. Yeah. Despite all of this, Wallace went about learning how to be the ultimate housewife, learning to cook, decorating their military accommodations. But mostly she set her eyes on being the ultimate hostess in Squantum, Massachusetts. She even had something called a Fanny Farmer Cookbook, which I included in here just because I thought it sounded cute.

That sounds familiar. It sounds really familiar. A Fannie Farmer Cookbookbook. So I looked it up and you can still get it. It was written in 1896 by, of course, the Fannie Farmer for the Boston Cooking School. It must be just one of those classic cookbooks. Maybe it is like a pretty crocker or something like that. It does sound really familiar.

Fannie Farmer. So because they were a military family, there was some moving around. They were transferred to San Francisco where they lived at the Hotel Coronado and were photographed with Charlie Chaplin and John Barrymore. future topic. Ooh. Oh, sorry, everyone, if you can hear that, that's the sound that our dryer makes when it's finished. Dun, dunna, na, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

Dunna na, da-da-na-na-na-da-na-na-da-na-na. I'm sure everyone's interested in the sound of our dryer makes and it's finished. It's the same sound my dryer makes, so I feel right at home. Yeah, see, Norm, you're hating on this, but I think there will be a small point. portion of our audience who's like, that's what my dryer does too. It's his sing-along. We're all so connected. So despite

living next door to freaking Hollywood royalty, Wynn was a sad sack because he wanted to fight. And he just had to be stuck in a stupid classroom teaching stupid soldiers to kick ass when he wanted to kick ass. At this time,

one of his brothers was awarded a medal for bravery and another brother was killed in battle. What a lucky guy. Once again, the mother shared her sentiment about wishing she had another to go and fight in his place. Oh, geez. Give it a rest. Raising a regiment. What an obnoxious

person, seriously. So, Wynne felt like he wasn't doing what he wanted to do in life. And he was an alcoholic. To top that off, Wyn's sister later described him as someone who was frightfully jealous, and that Wallace was someone who couldn't

stop flirting as soon as she could stop breathing. She came by it honestly, Wallace had a low tolerance for boredom, and she had a strong conviction that you should have as much fun as you could have at a party. She sounds like a good time in a lot of ways. At one point when they were transferred to D.C. on a particularly frightful evening, things came to an ugly head. When locked Wallace up in a room for hours on end, and Wallace decided it was time for a divorce. So despite the fact that she was being abused, what she was really concerned about was that this decision was going to bring great shame to her family.

Her mother and her Aunt Bessie were appalled. Uncle Saul was equally horrified, but did finally note that he'd never been married, so maybe he shouldn't opine on the matter. He'd never been married? F off, Uncle Saul. No kidding. Yeah, I just, I think about the place that she had to be in mentally and how on edge she had to be to finally make that decision given how much she wanted stability in her life.

Yeah. And it had to be a really, really horrible situation that she was in. Yeah, to get pushed to divorce, especially during that time. Right. Must have been really bad. Yeah. And the pushback she knew she was going to get from her family. So despite having the mental and emotional closure, she felt she needed that the marriage was over.

It was easier to just keep being married to win and let him go off to his naval posts. And that's what they did. The decision ensured they weren't drawing negative attention and created more stability for Wallace. Wynn headed to Hong Kong in 1922. And Wallace was now receiving checks for $225 a month to live on, adjusted for inflation, $4,4,460. So in a lot of ways, she felt like a new woman at the ripest. young age of 25. Her husband's gone and effed off and she's getting this check to live on.

I bet that was kind of awesome. That freedom she had. Exactly. So picture it. 1920s, Washington, D.C. It was a hip happening place to be, y'all. Flappers were flapping. Warren G. Harding was shacking up with a divorcee that was older than him.

Times were changing. Wallace knew this was a place a girl could get herself in trouble. In fact, she called it hazardous to be a young woman single in 1920s Washington. She basically called it a sausage fest. But before you get too excited, poor Wallace had to come home and check in with her mom every night. It was kind of a buzzkill. She did? Yeah.

I mean, I think she may have lived with her mom at that time for a brief period. I would hope so because it'd be weird if you didn't live and still check it in. Just check it in. So Wallace moved out of mom's house as fast as she could and moved into the home of a friend whose husband was also stationed in China. This friend was also the daughter of an admiral, which meant that Wallace had bumped up in her social ranking and was in more influential and powerful political and diplomatic circles. It was in these circles that she met Ambassador, Ambassador, the Ambassador. The Ambassador. Felipe Espil, he was Argentinian.

He was eight years old. older than her, and he was a lawyer. He was smart, traveled, charming, involved in politics and law. Wallace told friends that she was deeply in love with him. She wanted to convert to Catholicism to marry him. Never mind the fact that she's actually technically still married. I was going to say. Yes.

Well, and this lines up with the whole, like, I'm going to learn everything about what you're into to please you. I'm going to learn all about these ambassadors and other doors. The windows, too. Every single one. Norm, that was worse than your racing joke. I apologize. But they weren't, her and Felipe weren't exactly on the same page.

It seems like he thought this was a safe, no strings affair. You know, when you're boink in a woman who's technically still married, but her husband's often Hong Kong kind of thing. We've all been there. Yes. True, true. Norm. You're going to get in trouble. Then the worst thing.

ever happened. He up and effed off and married one of the big four. Do you guys know what the big four are? The big four. The basketball team. Collection of chunky sisters? What are we talking about? I don't want a jam. If you want a jam. Okay. No, you're you're you're on the track. It's about the ladies. I hadn't heard of them either, but I am getting future topic vibes. Okay. They were four absolutely legendary debutants that year and one of them was Courtney Louise Letts. She was beautiful. Her father was a senator and she had it all, baby. They live on the big four in infamy because it was an amalgamation of the big four that served as an inspiration for the characters in the Great Gatsby. Oh, okay. So I think to cover like

the big four debutante season would be really, really interesting. So not physically big. as Chris said. That's an important distinction, Norm. Yeah, thank you, Norm. Yeah, yeah. This giant woman will destroy us all. Oh, no, there's three more. But I love her.

So this was humiliating. She loved Felipe. So Wallace did what every gal who's down on her luck in love does. Girls trip. Oh, yeah. Where did she go? Branson. She wishes.

She sailed off to Europe to forget her troubles with Corinne. And on their way, they definitely watched Britney Spears Crossroads. I'm not a girl. Not yet a woman. And all I need is time. Oh, Norm knows all that. He stopped himself. I can tell he knows more.

Yeah, absolutely. That's all I remember. There's more in the noggin. Oh, there you go. I was waiting for you. Okay, anyway. So when she recovered from her heartache, Wallace was determined to never be out of control in that way again.

When it was time for Wynn to make a journey back to Hong Kong for duty, Wallace made the decision to join the other naval wives and go off for an adventure. She was determined to make the marriage work. And for a while, it did. But Wyn was back to his old ways, drinking, jealous, violent. He felt like she had been flirtatious with other naval officers on the ship. and to be fair she probably had. Wallace wrote, To his already formidable repertory of taunts and humiliations,

I gathered that during our long absence, he had spent a considerable amount of his time ashore in the local Sing Song Houses. In any event, he now insisted on my accompanying him to his favorite haunts where he would ostentatiously make a fuss over the girls. There's lots of rumor and speculation about what Wallace may have gotten into in this time period in Hong Kong. So I'm going to pause there for a second just to say, like, she was in Hong Kong for about a year during this time.

And kind of fast forward, there's speculation that the crown required a dossier of what did she get into in her time in China. There's been no proof. Like there's been no unveiling of the dossier. People have speculated all kinds of wild things about her time in Hong Kong. It does seem that maybe she did some transporting of secret documents, like some spa shit she was into. But people are saying she posed for nude photos. She had a botched abortion, but there's just no proof of any of that. And there's a lot of speculation that that's just a bunch of racism that once, like, people in England found out, oh, she spent this year in Hong Kong.

like what did she get up to and that they speculated all kinds of, you know, nasty things that they said she was into. Okay. So racism as like, like Chinese people do weird, horrible stuff? Yeah. And that, you know, it's nothing but crime over there and nothing but, you know, sex work and this kind of stuff. And so there is a book, I'll shout it out probably in this episode at the end, like that really, really goes into. depth into her time in Hong Kong. But there's just like, there's no there there there.

Yeah. The most there that there is is that it does seem that she probably transported some important documents and that was really something they had a lot of the naval wives do because they would get less attention going from place to place. Okay. Yeah. Hey, I mean, today you can keep top secret documents in your bathroom and like it's not a big deal. What are you talking about?

I don't know if you'd know anything about President Trump and how well he keeps things classified. I've heard those rumors. I was like, what joke on the podcast is Norm referencing right now about what is in their bathroom? You know how mom used to have a bunch of taste-to-home magazines in the bathroom? Yeah. Trump just has classified documents. I'm not sure which one's grosser. Everyone needs something to read.

That's right. Hell of a read after eating the Mexican bean chili dip. So the second attempt at marriage with Wynn was an absolute disaster. It was a lose. It was. Jesus. Wallace was all the way, Kristen. Quit laughing.

The look, you know, your face went on a journey. And it was kind of like, okay, yeah, we'll continue. Oh, wait, I understand what you're doing. Oh, I'm disappointed in what you're doing. Like the whole, the whole. You went through it all, baby. The range of emotions. Wallace was all the way in Asia.

she wasn't going to let a good opportunity go to waste. She decided to make her own way to Shanghai and explore. The way they described Shanghai in this book I read makes Washington, D.C. in the 20s look like a trip to Branson, Missouri. I like that this is a way of reference to Branson. So this is, I get a little more into this here, but, you know, crime, sex work, fashion. The fashions were just out of this world. People from all around the world.

It was very cosmopolitan at this time in drugs. Opium. Opium. Yeah. In fact, years later, when Wallace became the love interest of the king, nervous British prude Queen Mary had a China dossier commission to try and learn more about what Wallace got up to at this time. The best bit of gossip appears to be that she may have appeared in a few naughty postcards,

but even that speculation is really not based in anything that could be found, and no one's seen the dossier. Wallace was invited at this time to stay with a girlfriend, Catherine Bigelow, female jigolo in Hong Kong. Catherine Bigelow. That's like a famous movie director, pretty sure. Is it really? Today, yeah.

Are you sure? Yeah. I think so. Look it up. Look it up. This isn't really important. I think Catherine Bigelow is a movie director. Oh, yeah, American filmmaker.

Oh, look at that. Good job, Norm. Here we go. Yeah, the Hurt Lockers, Hero Dark 30. Oh, she makes dude movies, doesn't she? Yes. Yes. Movies for me.

Movies for me. Let's see. So Catherine was a friend who she knew from her time living in the Coronado Hotel with Charlie Chaplin and John Barrymore. Catherine was now married to a man named Herman Rogers, who was from old money in New York. They invited her to come and stay with them, and she jumped at the chance. Her $225 a month was not lasting in the ways she wanted it to. She wanted luxury, sophistication, opulence. Mm-hmm.

Did you get that reference, Kristen? No. Oh, another RuPaul opulence. Oh, I'm sorry. God, what a let down. We're ashamed, Kristen. It's all good. So she was here to play, baby.

Now she had the wealthy support and the cover of being a single woman staying with married friends. And those times, it looked very weird for her to be on her own. So it was good for her to be with married friends. Let the trists begin. You get a trist. You get a trist. You get a trist. British architect.

Italian naval attache. Some dude named Count Galliato Ciano. Mama Mia. Is the button getting stuck? I can't do it again. I couldn't possibly boink again. Apparently the last dude ended up becoming Mussolini's son-in-law. Oh.

Oh. But she was approaching third. 30. Adjusted for inflation, she was turning 85. No, no. 30, flirty and thriving. She was like, what am I doing with my life? I can't just boink and bounce from dude to dude. After about a year in Hong Kong, it was 1925. Norman's picturing her on pogo sticks. Tell me I'm wrong.

The boing sound. I don't know. It's perfect. Wallace knew it was time to come home to the U.S. On the ship home, she had a bad medical mystery situation. What she was experiencing depends on what source you consult with. It's described as something internal. Some people speculate it was a botched abortion in China, but we'll never know for sure. She ended up back at home. Not with that attitude.

Kristen. Kristen. Sorry. She ended up back at home with her mother, Alice, who was now remarried to her third husband, Washington's civil servant, Charles Gordon Allen. In order to figure out how to move forward with her life, Wallace had to get a divorce somehow, and Wynn was not going to be particularly helpful. She found that she could get a divorce in Virginia for $300 if she could prove desertion for three years and had established one year of residence in Virginia. So Wallace wasted time in Virginia for one year. To quote her, I simply rusticated, and when I was,

wasn't rusticating, I vegetated with equal satisfaction. What does rusticate mean? I think she was chilling. Just growing rust on you. I think she has great quotes. She does. You can tell why she was so charming. I mean, she had a way about her.

I think she was a conversationalist. I think she was entertaining. I think she was very witty. Yeah. So I think she's a very interesting woman. and in another time, I just wonder what she would have done with her life if she'd had more rights and more freedoms. Yeah. Honestly, I respect the hustle of like, yeah, I'm just going to chill in Virginia for a year.

Yeah. So I can get a divorce. Yeah. And I think when you think about what a party girl she was and how much of a people person she was, how hard that would have to be of like, I'm just going to go basically self-isolate where I don't know. know anybody for a year. I mean, she had to have really wanted that divorce from when. Yes, definitely. So it was around this time that your favorite uncle, Uncle Saul, died. As his favorite niece, Wallace had heard that she stood to inherit $5 million. Oh. Oh. I did not adjust for inflation. I don't know. Now everyone thinks Uncle Saul's very cool, huh? Well, did she get it, though? Now this would

solve a lot of problems. But imagine her shock when she found out that Uncle Saul went full petty bitch mode. Two months before he died, upset with her for her divorce, he changed his will. He instead used the money to set up a home for indigent and aged women, specifically designating that a room be available for Wallace if she needs it. He also said that he had invested $15,000 for her the returns on which would go to Wallace quarterly as long as she doesn't remarry. You know, he's put me in a real pickle care because on the one hand, I'm not mad that he donated money to charity. Right.

But that is petty. It is so petting. Yes. Yes. Yep. Yeah, I think just so unhealthy family dynamics and gender dynamics around money. It is really, really. petty. So Wallace did get the divorce she wanted and she did end up with about $37,500 in stock after

the will went through the courts a bit, which is about $700,000 today. Oh, okay. And she made half-hearted attempts at getting work, but she was clear, she was marrying again and she was marrying for money. It was now 1926. She was pursuing a new life for herself. She was traveling Europe and she was reconnected with her Oldsfield's BFF Mary Kirk. Oh, Mary. What's Mary up to? Mary's making a comeback. They'd stayed in touch through letters over the years. Mary was married to a Frenchman, Jacques Refrae, a World War I veteran who came to the States to train troops. It was during this time period at Mary and Jacques's home that she met Mr. Ernest and Mrs. Dorothea Simpson. They all had several dinners together.

It wasn't until Mary called Ernest to serve as fourth in a bridge game, Sands the wife, that, uh-oh, Mary noticed Wallace was locked in on Ernest. Oh. He started taking her to dinners, art galleries. Ernest was now desperate to get divorced and marry Wallace. Unfortunately for Dorothea, and I quote her here, from the moment I met her, I never liked Wallace at all. She moved in and she helped herself to my house and clothes and finally to everything. Ernest was decently well off. His family had a shipping company.

Wallace was very pissy about the alimony and child support Ernest had to pay to Dorothea and their daughter, Audrey. But it's like Wallace, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Remember how you relied on those $225 payments. Wallace is a very selfish person, goes without saying. Yeah. Well, yeah, you're busting it on. that family like right got to take care of them yeah and maybe it was because you know I think again she's selfish and like yes she saw her mom suffer but her mom always suffered because the

husband had died so maybe it was different in her mind doesn't make it right but maybe that's like the distinction in her mind because her mom suffered too okay but actually Ernest Simpson was not really Ernest Simpson. He was actually Ernest Solomon. Ernest's dad, also named Ernest, moved from England to the U.S. and left his Jewish name on the boat. He built a family and he never talked about being Jewish. There was lots of casual anti-Semitism around the dinner table. In fact, Ernest Jr. only found out he was Jewish after his father died. Wow. Which all of that is just interesting given the later Nazi stuff. The time period. Yeah. Yeah. Wallace. loved Ernest. Ernest was kind. He was safe. He was smart and traveled. Wallace wrote to her mother,

32 doesn't seem so young when you see all these really fresh, youthful faces one has to compete against. They married in a registry office in England in 1928, five months after Ernest's divorce was final. I'm sorry, if you've mentioned this, but how old was Ernest? That's a good question. 1928 minus 1897. 33? 31. 31. So they're the same age.

Yeah, they're close. They're really close. Oh, he's actually younger. Oh, yeah. Oh. He's got himself a coog. Ernest's sister, Maude, helped incorporate them into the high levels of British society. Wallace was a good time girl, which definitely makes you popular with some and not with others.

A British woman who met her once described her as badly driven. and aggressively American. I love. I know exactly what it means, too. In 1929, Wallace received bad news from across the pond. Her mother had died of cancer. She didn't have anything to pass along to Wallace when she died. It had all been wiped out from the stock market crash.

Wallace felt this was a deep injustice and continued to fuel her ambition to ascend. Wallace poured herself into what she knew, socializing, hobnobbing, and throwing the best parties. But what would make a lady, the creme de la creme? What is the highest of high society? The ultimate signal in social ascension was to be close with the royals. The most eligible bachelor in England was the one, the only, Prince Edward. Wallace had a secret dream, a hope and an ambition, a crazy idea that she confessed to her aunt. She, Wallace Simpson, had her mind made up. She was going to meet Prince Edward.

On the next episode of an old-timey podcast, Wallace meets Prince Edward. And they live happily ever after? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Wait a minute. Nazis, Nazis? Wait a second. Now, when she has this dream, she's still married to earnest. But her dream is just to meet the prince?

At this point, yes. At this point, it's just like we're climbing the social ladder. We're in these wonderful circles of people who other people that we're meeting are close with Prince Edward. They party with Prince Edward like I want to party with Prince Edward too. Okay. So that's that's episode one, folks. I loved it. You loved it. Loved it.

Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah. Scandalous. Scandalous. Scandalous. She's a very common. complex woman. I think that's why I find her so fascinating. Not likeable necessarily, but very intriguing and just, again, in another time period, what would have come of her? I have no idea.

Yeah. What's a modern day equivalent to Wallace Simpson, you think? Hmm. It's not Megan, not Megan Markle. No. No, because Megan Markle didn't have a, like that troubled past. Right. Right. Right. Right. I think it's hard to find a modern equivalent, partly because what to me I enjoy about Wallace Simpson and what I like is like, there were so few opportunities for women. There was so little power you could have. And so much of it had to come from a man. And it had to come from your social standing.

And the only way to play that game, you know, I guess if you're lucky and you're born wealthy and, you know, all the cards fall into place, okay, then you don't have to play dirty. But if you're not that lucky, you do have to play a little dirty. Right. And there's something that I kind of like about someone who's like,

yeah, here's what I'm going to do. Mm-hmm. You know, I always talk about, like, you know, anytime we watch anything from like the Gilded Age period, I feel like it's a trope where there has to be some woman who's like, what? You mean me?

I have to marry for money? Oh, no. I want to marry for love. And it's like, I want to smack her in the face because, first of all, I don't believe that person existed. Yeah. Yeah. No one was that dumb. Like, everybody knew the gig.

Yeah. Everybody knew the gig. And, you know, maybe you would perform the, oh, I want. But surely if you had half a brain, you knew you had to play the game that marriage was really key to securing your future and the future of your. your family of origin and, you know, any children you would have. It was all really, really important. Right. Yeah.

And that's why it's so important who I play pickleball with. That's right. And who I socialize with. That's why I'm so choosy. You picked the wrong guy to mirror if you want to be in social circles. I know. That's why I am trying to level up, desperately, always trying to level up. She's trying to meet her Mr. Simpson.

Yeah. So there's any listeners out there? No. I will just leave quietly. Slip out the big. Back door. The idea of me trying to socialize. Norm knows I'm an indoor cat.

You know I'm an indoor cat. So I don't think I would have done too well in the early 1900s. No, I can't imagine. Oh, thanks a lot, Kyle. No, you wouldn't have done well. No, it would have been hard. Probably would have had dysentery and tuberculosis. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, shoot. Was that the wrong one? I would think if I had dysetary. Too much. I had too much confidence. So I didn't plan anything

Slop related. Did you have something? Because you were thinking about something earlier and then you were like, save it for the pod. That was my hilarious joke I wanted to share with people.

No, for the Slop, I do have something prepared. Folks, those you may not know at the $10 level on Patreon, we do a special segment at the end of each episode. It's called The Slop.

And we're going into it right now. Folks, we just wrapped up an incredible segment of the Slop. Where we talked about Kyla's first impressions of me and my first impressions of Kyla. No spoilers. We can't tell people. We can't. Okay. It could be very dramatic.

I mean, I think it was kind of dramatic. There was fighting. There was orange juice. You jumped into a twin bed with me. There were lots of way too many twin beds. There's a lot twin beds in that story. Yeah. But yeah, this has been such a fun episode, Kyla.

Thank you so much. We can't wait for part two. Yeah, we can't wait. Thanks for having me. Yeah. And you know what they say about history hoes? We always cite our sources. That's right.

From these episodes, I got my information from That Woman, the Life of Wallace Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anne Siba. Countdown to Abdication, a very royal crisis. Duchess of Windsor, woman who's stole a king's heart. Wikipedia. Trader King, the scandalous exile

of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Launy. And disbelief from a family of Simpson's lover from the BBC. Wait, say that title again. Disbelief from... I got to click on it. No, no, it really...

Disbelief from family of Simpson's lover. A beautifully written title. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to an old-timey podcast. Please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts, and while you're at it, subscribe. Support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast.

Join the Reddit community, ar, slash old-timey podcast. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram at Old Timey Podcast. You can also follow us individually on Instagram. She is the beautiful Kristen Pitts-Karuso. I go by a gaming historian. Kyla, you got an Insta? No. And until next time, Tudu, Tata, and Cheerio.

Do the boing again. See ya. See ya.