Meghan as ‘narcissistic and controlling’ as Wallis Simpson

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith says that like the American socialite, Meghan Markle ‘changed the dynamic’ in the royal family, in part because Harry is as ‘weak’ as his great great uncle Edward VIII.

“An American woman came into the picture and changed the dynamic of the whole thing,” says royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith.

Meghan Markle shares the same ‘narcissistic and domineering’ qualities as Wallis Simpson, while the Duke of Sussex is as ‘weak’ as King Edward VIII, one of the Royal Family’s ‘authorised’ biographers has claimed.

Sally Bedell Smith, whose book George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy focuses on how the earlier royal “spare,” Bertie, Duke of York, and his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon’s marriage preserved the monarchy amid the constitutional crisis occasioned by Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936, has drawn parallels between these contemporary and historical royal marriages.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor pose after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande near Tours, France, on June 3, 1937. Picture: AP Photo

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend an official photocall to announce their engagement at The Sunken Gardens, Kensington Palace on November 27, 2017. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival in England, Bedell Smith, 75, who has previously written biographies of Queen Elizabeth and King Charles, said that both then and now “an American woman came into the picture and changed the dynamic of the whole thing,” The Times reports.

King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate less than a year into his reign so he could marry the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who was in the midst of her second divorce.

She went on to suggest that Markle and Simpson share similar personality traits: “Very narcissistic, very controlling, very dominating.”

Observing that if you read Edward’s letters to his previous lovers “you can see how weak he was and how much he needed a domineering woman,” she added that “it feels as if Harry is somewhat the same way.”

Bedell Smith noted that the Prince of Wales would feel a similar sense of “betrayal” toward his younger brother, Harry, as Bertie felt toward his older brother and his “deceptions” after the abdication.

George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy by Sally Bedell Smith

“The Duke of Windsor did a lot of harmful things [after his abdication],” she reportedly told the festival. “He lied to his brother about how much money he had. For example, he was in the process of selling a huge amount of land at Sandringham just so he could pocket the money.

“It was those kinds of deceptions, as well as his behaviour in general.”

“It is different,” she added, noting that Harry was never going to be King. “But I think there are similar feelings of betrayal that have resulted in William in particular being furious with his brother — with good reason.”

Bedell Smith’s comments come after William and Harry made a rare joint appearance at the Diana Legacy Awards at the Science Museum in London on March 14. William was not in the room while his brother delivered his address virtually from California.