The story was quite a scoop. In October 1970, I was in Paris as a 23-year-old reporter for the Daily Mail when the young Prince of Wales made an unheralded visit to his great-uncle, the former Edward VIII, who was living there in exile.
The ex-king – then the Duke of Windsor – and his wife, the former Mrs Wallis Simpson, were desperate to win back their regal status and Prince Charles, as he then was, arrived at the duke’s home in the Route du Champ d’Entrainement with the British ambassador, Sir Christopher Soames, in tow.
‘This was a surprise visit,’ a member of the Windsor staff told me. ‘I don’t think the duke was expecting it but he was very, very pleased.’
The memory of that visit came surging back to me following the revelation in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday that another duke in self-inflicted exile, Prince Harry, was eager for rehabilitation.
The Duke of Sussex is said to be consulting former aides on how he can find a route back into royal life. Due to turn 40 in two weeks, and with his father the King undergoing treatment for an unspecified form of cancer, Harry appears to have realised that life in California is not enough for him, however much he loves his wife and two children.
Prince Harry and Prince William attend the unveiling of a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, at The Sunken Garden in Kensington Palace, London on July 1, 2021
Edward became a royal outcast in December 1936, when he gave up the throne after just 11 months so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Above: The pair arriving in Britain in 1967 for a visit as guests of the Queen
In October 1970, the 21-year-old Prince Charles met his great-uncle, the erstwhile Edward VIII, at his Paris home. Above: Prince Charles accompanying his mother the Queen when she met the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson just ten days before his death
Charles’s meeting with his great-uncle, the former King Edward VIII, was dramatised in the third series of The Crown. Edward was portrayed by Derek Jacobi and Charles by Josh O’Connor (above)
But the parallels with the past are not encouraging.
The Duke of Windsor never did win forgiveness from ‘the Firm’ and, 18 months after that meeting with Charles, he died in France from throat cancer at the age of 77.
Earlier this year, palace sources suggested that King Charles was willing to consider a rapprochement with his younger son. Always a spiritual man, he has consulted religious leaders and is keen to leave past arguments and insults behind.
It was his initiative, back in 1970, to offer an olive branch to the Windsors in Paris too. His first idea was to invite them for a weekend visit to England. When that suggestion met with a flat refusal from senior courtiers, he proposed making a visit himself, saying: ‘It would seem pointless to continue the feud.’
But he had reckoned without the deep animosity his grandmother, the Queen Mother, nursed towards the duke and duchess. She blamed them for the early death of her husband, who ascended reluctantly to the throne as George VI after the Abdication.
Her daughter the Queen was equally implacable. Devoted to her father’s memory, she knew that George had always resisted schemes to bring the Windsors back into the fold.
William and Harry pictured in 2021 arriving for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor at their Paris home during filming of a scene for A King’s Story, the 1965 documentary about his life
Edward abdicated in December 1936 so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Above: The King giving his abdication broadcast
During the Second World War, the duke and duchess were sent to govern the Bahamas, and while out there they made repeated demands to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, pleading for more official recognition. Angry at what he saw as his brother’s betrayal, George refused, right up till his own death from cancer in 1952. He knew allowing the Windsors to return would invite endless headlines about their showboating, their parties and their politics: that toxic sideshow would make his own role impossible.
Today, Prince William can see the identical risks of pardoning Harry and Meghan. Their capacity for generating negative royal publicity is limitless, whether through books, TV series or high-profile celebrity interviews.
In the wake of the Queen’s death two years ago, the Royal Family is fragile, especially given the serious illnesses of both the King and the Princess of Wales. Harry’s return would hit all of them like a wrecking ball.
Charles may be willing to consider it, but William is not. And as heir to the throne, it is very much William who is calling the shots.
The abdication notice signed by Edward VIII at his Fort Belvedere home. His brothers Albert, Henry and George also signed the document
On June 3, 1937, Edward married Wallis Simpson in a French chateau while a businessman who the American divorcee actually loved watched on.
The lifelong loathing between Wallis and the Queen Mother is mirrored by the deep division between Meghan and Princess Catherine. After that poisonous allegation of racism made by the Duchess of Sussex during her television interview with Oprah Winfrey – and amplified by Harry in his autobiography, Spare – how can the couple ever rejoin royal life… and how could they ever be trusted if they did?
Harry clearly hopes a way will be found. His announcement that the paperback edition of Spare will contain no new material, and that he will not be giving interviews to publicise it, must be seen as a peace offering.
His wife, who was so vehement in her hatred for everything royal, might be reviewing her
options. Her Netflix deal appears to be in abeyance, her Spotify contact was terminated amid humiliating recriminations (one senior executive dismissed Meghan and Harry as ‘grifters’) and her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, has so far proven fruitless.
While Harry might want to come back for emotional reasons, she may have more business-like ambitions. But for both of them the door to the palace, as it was for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, is likely to remain securely barred and bolted.
