Edward VIII says 'establishment clash was inevitable' in 1969

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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey aired yesterday. The two hour conversation has shaken the royal establishment, with a crisis meeting involving senior royals taking place. Racism, mental health, the media and other royals were touched on in the talk.

Their departure from the Royal Family last year has repeatedly been compared to the abdication of Harry’s great-granduncle, King Edward VIII.

Edward, formerly the Duke of Windsor and briefly King, similarly left the UK to pursue love in the US.

Stuck between the choice of his personal life and happiness, and a commitment to the throne, Edward chose the former, going on to marry the American socialite Wallis Simpson.

Many note that Edward and Harry’s set of circumstances are entirely different – Edward was, after all, monarch.

However, in 2020, Insider drew many parallels between the two’s position – as well as their personalities – with Vogue Magazine having previously noted how the men both served their countries in the armed forces.

While Harry rose to the rank of Captain and undertook two tours of Afghanistan, Edward, during World War 2, was stationed with the British Military Mission to France.

It was during his time at war that Vogue noted the anger he caused in the face of then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

It was reported Edward was privately a Nazi sympathiser, something that has since been explored on a number of occasions.

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Because of this, Churchill ordered Edward to be shipped away as far from the frontline as possible, choosing the Bahamas and appointing him governor of the island.

In the academic paper ‘The Windsor File’, former foreign service officer and historian Paul Sweet wrote that Edward was reluctant to go.

The publication ‘Biography’ said Nazi politician Joachim von Ribbentrop pounced on Edward’s fears of going to the Bahamas, “allegedly feeding false information to the couple that they were in danger of attack or even assassination by British secret operatives”.

Churchill was furious with the Duke.

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Mr Sweet reported: “Eventually Churchill became so frustrated that he reminded Edward in a telegram that even major-generals could be court-martialled.”

He was in office until March 1945, two months before VE Day.

Adding to the tensions, the Duchess of Windsor publicly called the appointment one of little consequence in McCall’s Magazine.

Like Meghan, Wallis was a divorcée.

In royal circles, it was and still is frowned upon for members of the family to marry divorcees – it wasn’t until 2002 that the Church of England decided it would recognise the marriage of any divorced person whose ex-spouse was still living.

The matter is deeply entrenched in British, religious and royal culture.

Wallis’ status as a divorcée caused a constitutional crisis and was viewed as morally bankrupt.

Then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told Edward that his subjects would deem the marriage unacceptable, largely because of the Church’s view, and also because they would not accept Wallis as their queen.

Edward eventually left Britain for an unknown location by yacht, and married Wallis in June 1937.

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