I have been intrigued to see, over a period of time, Wallis reduced from a strong willed woman in charge of her own destiny, to this pathetic victim trapped by an obsessive lover turned stalker!
It has been quite frequently quoted, on this very thread, how David did not even notice her when they were first introduced. He had a lover with whom he was perfectly happy. Wallis, being the strong-willed woman she was, set out to change that, to capture his interest, and during the absence of his current lover, succeeded in supplanting her in his affections, a situation that she created and that worked far beyond her wildest dreams.
She was not beautiful but she was interesting, perhaps even charismatic. Regardless, she captured his interest, then his love and the pathetic dog-like devotion that followed.
I am of a mind to believe that Wallis was a woman that got what she wanted, when she wanted, and at any cost. Having married a decent man who loved her, she proceeded to cuckold him with her lovers and he, loving her, did not make a fuss. But when the ultimate indiscretion of her affair with the King became public, it made his situation untenable as he became the subject of public humiliation and ridicule. Yet even in that he allowed himself to be the "sinner".
Her sad and remorseful letters about her sorrow at Ernest forcing a divorce, feeling betrayed at his falling in love and then remarrying with almost indecent haste, how she still loved him and regretted the divorce. How, even now, married to David, she still loved Ernest best, wished things were different, etc. ad nauseum, speak more to her narcissism than her love.
Of course she still loved Ernest, because ultimately, he was the one that got away. Let's get real here. Men did not leave Wallis. She left them! But the fact that Ernest had the audacity to not only leave her, but to fall in love with someone she had used to divert his interest while she carried on her affair with David stung. Worse, he divorced her, and like many a narcissist before her, she decided she didn't want to be divorced, she still loved her husband. She wanted what she couldn't have. What she, in fact, had destroyed irrevocably.
But worse was in store as the King she had pursued with passion, whom she had reduced to her doting lapdog, no longer had that vitally essential and irresistible aphrodisiac, "Power". All that remained was the tedious and obsessive lapdog she had created, interminably yapping at her heels. Her only pastime? Making him fetch! Baubles. What a bore!
No home, no friends, no life. They sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. How sad!
Lesson: Be careful what you wish for . . . . you may actually get it and it may be not quite what you thought!
Brooke Astor's family probably remembered what happened to Wallis and Barbara Hutton and determined that that was not going to happen to Brooke.
