The Exiled Windsors (2023) - FULL DOCUMENTARY - HD

The year; 1936. Behind the doors of 10 Downing street. Controversy. Suspicion. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin has a difficult decision to make. The King of England, and of Great Britain, is infatuated with divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The King has been showering his mistress with extravagant gifts, a warning to the security services of possible blackmail. Fears grow, too, of his association with fascist sympathisers, and the possibility the king could attempt to overthrow the government to keep his seat of power on the throne. At the very least, would the affair trigger civil unrest and turmoil in an already unstable country. The Prime Minister must make that difficult decision. To spy on the head of state, the monarch, is an extraordinarily controversial and intrusive act, but Baldwin finally gives the order. The British intelligence service began to spy on the King. And so began one of the greatest constitutional crises in centuries… Edward and Wallis - The Exiled Windsors.

[ba]

Baldwin and the government were absolutely right in not wanting Edward as king. Edward's subsequent interactions with Hitler proved them right. A reign with Edward as king would have been disaster for England and the world.

[mareahmom]

We need to stop romanticizing this story, from all docu's so far, they truly were unfit for the job and we are truly lucky he never became king. Even the love affair from all we hear, most especially her own letters confirm it wasn't a match make in heaven. Fact's are better than fiction in my opinion.

[gullwingstorm]

Stop slobbering over these two. The only good thing about their situation is that it spared us their reign and gave us Elizabeth the Great.

[auntiegc]

Interesting that no mention is made of the now-commonly-accepted view that Wallis never wanted to marry Edward, but was backed into a corner when he threatened to kill himself if she left him. Her letters to her previous husband appear to confirm how trapped she felt and it's doubtful that she was ever truly happy or fulfilled in her marriage to Edward. A pretty sad story really.

[mrs.herculepoirot]

The fact that those two spent time prancing about Germany with Hitler tells us all we need to know.

[maureen-rnpv]

I’m 66 and I’ve read many clips of the horrible way this woman treated the ex king especially when he was dying. Apparently he kept calling her and she would ignore him, even the attendant nurse would ask her to come sit with him and she refused. He, apparently, died alone. So this narration seems to be glossing over the real story. Someone needs to check this out.

[mchapman]

Wallis was backed into a corner and felt forced into marrying him. Play with fire…..you may get burned. She enjoyed being his mistress, no responsibility, just the fun. It backfired. She was involved with an emotionally repressed party boy with a mother complex. He wanted a lover that would mother him. That can get old really quickly.

[janeswitzer]

How short-sighted to ignore the fact that the abdication led to the magnificent reign of Elizabeth II. The self-indulgent Windsors proved themselves unfit and unwilling to serve GB. Their lack of heirs would also have damaged the monarchy. Thank God for the wisdom of the stuffed shirts in gray suits!

[cra]

Wallis may have been the love of Edward's life, but he was not the love of hers

[ScreenBlaster]

George V had said this of his son Edward VIII: "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in 12 months." He wasn't joking. Edward's reputation for his impatience, affairs with married women, and the inability to properly settle down didn't make him a suitable king.

[morningdew]

Edward didn’t want the hardship of being the King, just privileges that comes with it. You can’t have it both ways!

[kimsimmons]

I believe, had Edward VIII not abdicated the throne, he would have ultimately lead the downfall of the British Monarchy. He was truly unfit to be the King.

[gabrieleoverweg]

Remember their last interview a few years before he died. They both gave the impression as being utterly unhappy with each other. What a wasted life.

[markthompson]

Even apart from the Wallis factor, I find it strange that Edward thought he would abdicate but yet still stay and play a significant role in Great Britain. How exactly was that ever going to work? You can't have a king and an "alternate-king" who used to be the "real king."

[maryvalentine]

After learning so much information- a ton of it out there- over the years about Edward and Wallis, I have come to the conclusion that they were just a pair of rather stupid, self absorbed, selfish, self-indulgent, petty, spoiled people who deserved each other. I don’t feel one bit sorry for either one of them. Reminds me a lot of the never ending Harry and Megan saga. Freaking boring.

[PatriciaPalmer-oe]

His abdication was a well instigated gift to England and the world facing WW2. Thank you Mr. Baldwin ✝️

[CollegeMan]

There are two realities that, in my opinion, are not mentioned in this interesting film. Firstly Edward Vlll did not want the throne and saw Wallis Simpson as a way out. He knew beyond doubt that the ‘establishment’ would never accept her as Queen and, by marrying her, would release him of his duties and he could go on leading his former life as Prince of Wales. This would never happen. Secondly Wallis Simpson never really loved Edward and saw his, basically, as a week man who she was despised. She was flattered of course by his attention to her (every woman would have been) but marriage never entered her head until it was too late. Ultimately they lived a shallow and unfulfilled life together.

[victoriaaguilar]

As the years passed she became more abusive and humiliating to him. A fashion model demonstrating a line of the highest fashion for Wallis said she was an awful person to deal with. She controlled and abused Edward, it was a sick relationship. She punished him constantly like telling him in public to buzz off mosquito, or like a child sending him to bed crying. She was masochistic to him and he ate it up. He did what ever she told him and yes he was a huge security risk with his relationship with the Nazi.

[lindakahler]

People who attended their parties claimed he was boring and she was interesting. Sitting next to him at dinner was seen as a punishment because it would be a bad night

[sopranosd]

The woman who defends Wallis has some mad skills with rose colored glasses. She is totally romanticizing a very unhappy story (except that it was really good that dimwit Edward did not remain King.) This is the first I've heard of Wallis being 'extremely kind.' She made fun of Bertie's wife, who, unlike Wallis, was a bit plump and not at all fashionable. Meanwhile Wallis was basically anorexic and wore gorgeous couture clothes. Wallis was bright and witty, and socially ambitious, clearly at any cost. She was also a woman of the world, who is rumored to have 'special skills' that made her popular with men. She abandoned a perfectly good marriage to climb the social ladder with Edward, and belatedly realized she had hitched her wagon to a really, really bad star. Amazingly, she actually thought she could get out of what she had dug herself into, even after the affair had gone public. Was she totally unaware of social convention, mores - American or British or otherwise -- or any other aspect of reality? Did she really think she could sidestep the court of public opinion? She couldn't possibly have been so stupid, so one assumes she must have een arrogant. Or maybe she thought the weak man she was in love with could actually wield some power. Oops. Edward outsmarted her with his weakness and she was done for. He was obsessed to the point of derangement, and threatened to kill himself if she didn't marry him. It is conceivable he would have done so. He was that unstable. So Wallis gave in and entered a marriage that did not, in fact, make them happy. As time went on, and they both grew bitter -- he bitter with the fact that he could not be fancy pants Prince any more, and she with the fact that she had married a wacko who would not leave her alone. He was shallow and so stupid as to imagine that after abdicating he would somehow manage to have royal honors. He was also totally fixated on Wallis. Party guests would see - Edward's eyes would follow her wherever he went. If she left the room he would soon go in search of her because he couldn't bear to be out of her presence ( translation: he was obsessive and nuts). She eventually began to ridicule him and treat him with open scorn. Their lives devolved into one long, bitter spending spree of boredom. It is one of the saddest and most frustrating stories. They had so much and resented that they didn't have more. Such selfish idiots.