On the deck of the liner, the couple recognized him immediately. Wallis especially. She remembers the first lunch at Cielito Lindo, Jessie Donahue’s palatial family home, ten years earlier in Palm Beach. The first time she saw Jimmy, Jessie’s son. Leaving Nassau, where the Duke was appointed governor during the Second World War, the couple took this getaway to Florida in April 1941, to change their surroundings more than the climate. In the living room with the Renaissance fireplace of this building with pink tiles and ivory walls, the duchess is seduced by the flamboyance of this impetuous and arrogant son of a good family. His flirtatious character, his spending spree and his total lack of restraint catch his attention. They see each other a dozen times afterward, a little closer each time. For his part, the Duke of Windsor looks favorably on this twirling young man. He makes his beloved wife laugh out loud and offers a breath of fresh air to his drifting couple.
Aboard the Queen Mary, they exchange gossip and small talk. Wallis, fifty-four years old, looks with interest at this handsome young man of thirty-five. Despite Jimmy’s stated homosexuality, the Duchess falls under his spell. After thirteen years of marriage, her relationship suffocates her and her husband fades. This is confirmed by the American author Stéphane Birmingham: “With each successive rebuff from Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, the Duke became a little more depressed and became hermetic to distractions and, for the Duchess, trying to penetrate his bouts of sadness and his mood dark had become more and more difficult. In comparison, Jimmy is a will-o’-the-wisp.
Le trio improbable
Arriving in Cherbourg then in Paris, the “trouple” separates. The Duke and Duchess return to their Parisian apartment on Rue de la Faisanderie in a Rolls, while Jimmy goes to the Ritz, Place Vendôme, in a Cadillac. But the three of them meet at the first ball of the season at the Hôtel Lambert, on Île Saint-Louis. The guests notice the Duke’s departure at midnight and the waiters notice that of Jimmy and Wallis at the end of the night, after dancing non-stop. Same scenario the following week at the Cercle Interallié rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where Wallis received five hundred members of what we do not yet call the jet-set. Paris gets used to this improbable trio, the duke, his wife and their “friend”. Edward VIII tolerates the young man, especially the latter pays the restaurant bills. Another pleasure of Jimmy’s is to cover the duchess with jewels. If the Duke is accustomed to Cartier, Jimmy prefers Van Cleef & Arpels where his mother has an account. He also gave the Duchess a sapphire ring during an evening at Jimmy’s.
The couple, James and Wallis, have their habits. When the Duke stays on Rue de la Faisanderie to try to write his memoirs, more motivated by value than by a literary career, the Duchess goes shopping with her knight servant. The couple finds themselves in the Ritz suite that Barbara Hutton, Jimmy’s cousin and model, leaves at their disposal. According to the maids, there is no doubt about the nature of their relationship. The writer Charles Murphy, who helped the Duke write his memoirs, noted about them: “If they were not seated next to each other, they would write little notes to each other behind the chairs that separated them. , and the languid gaze of each rarely left the face of the other.”
“The Duke and Duchess, it’s over”
But if Europe takes advantage of Jimmy’s affirmed homosexuality to see in this “trouple” only a happy social trio, the smoke screen does not work across the Atlantic. Stuck in Paris while writing his memoirs, the Duke let Wallis and Jimmy leave for two months of New York society in November 1950. On site, the couple’s outings to clubs, Le 21, Le Colony and El Morroco , are the favorites of the columnists. “The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, it’s over!” title the New York Daily Mirrorothers add: “The relationship of the Duke and Duchess is nothing more than a facade.”
Desperate after two weeks without news – the Duchess does not even answer the phone – the Duke of Windsor drops his manuscript and joins Wallis and Jimmy in New York. Appearances are kept, at least in the photos. Jimmy has all the talents. That of being able to offer 15 suits in the same day to the duchess, while Edward VIII takes over the manuscript of his memoirs. He also persuades the former Anglican king and his wife to attend a Catholic Christmas mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“We’ve seen enough of you”
From New York to Palm Beach, from Paris to Gif-sur-Yvette, where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor have just purchased a mill, the decoration of which is chosen and financed by Jimmy, the “trouple” continues its headlong flight . The more the years pass, the less the Duke can do without Wallis and the less she can do without Jimmy. They don’t leave each other. The only exception was the funeral of George VI. The Duke of Windsor does not consider it appropriate for his wife’s lover to attend his brother’s funeral. The trips follow one another, the gifts pile up and Jimmy brags without restraint about the influence he thinks he has over the couple. Until the summer of 1954. The trio plans to spend five days in Baden-Baden, a spa town, too boring for the American imp. Drunk on the third night, he ended up kicking Wallis in the shin. Furious, she goes to her room to treat herself. The former monarch turns to James Donahue, heir to the Woolworth fortune, and says contemptuously: “We’ve seen enough of you, Jimmy. Get out.” No one will ever be allowed to speak his name in front of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor again.
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