UK noble led ‘modest’ life
European royalty stories brought memories back to my earliest news interview. Like me back with some long-gone journalistic op that left us when Coolidge was in kindergarten. My interviewee? Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, who had the warmth of an avalanche.
The suite? No. 25A. She and the Duke of Windsor roughed it in a six-room Waldorf palace.The silk couch? Covered with a giant-size leopard skin that once covered a giant-size live leopard. Said the duchess: “It’s ours. The duke himself shot it. We always take it with us.”
OK.
“The hotel once decorated specially for us and we’d ship furnishings back and forth, but it’s now getting too expensive. And that’s even though the hotel gives us a discount rate.”
Yeah.
Her lifestyle?
“Paris is home. Weekends we go to our country house. But we live simply. Quietly. I even sometimes cook.
“His Royal Highness handles his own investments. More than half a day’s job keeps him very busy. I don’t know why anyone’s interested in us. Suppose His Royal Highness sold cars for a living — would that detract from his position?
“People think I do nothing but shop. Untrue publicity about our so-called wealth is harmful. Prices then always get proportionately upped. Such rumors could end up busting the duke and I. We’re everyday kind of people.”
OK.
Commoner me, I’d been told that whenever this HRH appears at some major function, her thank-you is jewelry. Real jewelry. Serious jewelry. Like maybe possibly could be of the diamond variety.
Hair apparent
Also, since just for me she was done up like for a Rembrandt sitting. A Balenciaga suit. Even the eyebrows were on alert. Each hair at attention. And the beautician who arrives daily to do her up?
“I brought my own personal hairdresser in from Europe only because I had an important ball to attend. My friends go to hairdressers twice a week. I’m washed only once.
“We’re really careful. Just twice a week do I take French lessons. His Royal Highness the duke takes Spanish lessons.”
“Living in Paris is because the US is frightfully expensive. I don’t know how much longer we can afford coming here. We’re everyday kind of people.”
Yeah.
“The duke and I discussed children but wouldn’t be fair now. We’re too old. We were fairly old when we got married. He doesn’t do any kind of work because he hasn’t time. I wouldn’t mind a job. Not anything steady like being in a certain place at a certain time. I wouldn’t like those long hours. And, too, there’s just the two of us.”
American way
Here in the Colonies, they were roughing it. The suite: black and white vinyl tile floor, three bedrooms. Maid’s quarters. Sitting room. Secretary. Same type apartment used for presidential visits.
This Royal Highness had gifted her husband for their 25th anniversary — a plant. No breaking the bank on something as costly as a tie or new unused BVDs. A plant.
I don’t think she liked me. I was wearing a maroon dress. Plus matching shoes and bag. She had her private secretary show me to the door, and HRH graciously sniffed: “Too much maroon.”
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