THELMA MORGAN - VISCOUNTESS FURNESS : AFTER FREDA DUDLEY WARD EDWARD PRINCE OF WALES HAD THELMA AS AN ACKNOWLEDGED MISTRESS FOR SEVERAL YEARS

And it would seem that their relationship was all right - until it wasn't. We know that the Prince Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales, moved on from Thelma to an American daughter of Baltimore, Wallis Simpson, and gave up his throne as King of England to marry her and live in exile in France. However, the King was no youth when he did marry - He was 42 - and had enjoyed a wild time as well as a series of married women as Mistresses before all that. To get to the story of Thelma Morgan Furness, Viscountess Furness, I read this well regarded book by author Andrew Morton, Wallis in Love. It is difficult to separate the story of Thelma from the story of Wallis, for it was Thelma who provided Wallis the entree into the exclusive social world of the Prince who would one day be King.

THELMA MORGAN - VISCOUNTESS FURNESS

1904-1970

Thelma was the identical twin sister to Gloria Morgan who married Reggie Vanderbilt in her youth. The sisters were New York socialites and heiresses who together were known as the "Magnificent Morgans". But the association with the Vanderbilts, perhaps the richest family in America at the time, stuck and they are both often erroneously called Vanderbilts. At the age of 17, in 1922, Thelma first married James Vail Converse, whose bank account her mother liked. He was a decade or so older and a womanizer who had been divorced himself. Their marriage lasted until 1925. But soon after, as she could only do better, the still very young Thelma married a British nobleman and shipping magnate, Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness. Thelma gained a title as his wife as Viscountess Furness. She and her husband were in the aristocracy of Great Britain and socialized with the the future King, the Prince of Wales.

As a married woman, Thelma became the acknowledged mistress of Prince Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, an arrangement that her husband didn't protest too much but also didn't like. She affectionally called the Prince David, as did his family. Though perhaps there was some understanding that the Prince liked married women as mistresses and would never marry a divorcee, or a Catholic, Thelma's marriage to Furness did not last. She is said to have been the Prince's constant companion from 1929 through 1934. She was separated from Marmaduke for three years and they divorced in 1933. What had been speculated was that when a woman became available for marriage, the Prince was turned off. But maybe the relationship had been winding down, for it would seem that all it took was Thelma taking a vacation, going back to America, for the Prince to rather quickly transfer his affections to Wallis Simpson, who had also been divorced and was married to her second husband, Ernest Simpson, at the time they met.

Thelma had aspirations, in her early years during the Silent Screen era, to become an actress. She mixed some with early Hollywood's moguls and actors, including Samuel Goldwyn and the comedic Charlie Chaplin. While she set up her own movie production company (like some other women I've profiled here at Mistress Manifesto such as Gloria Swanson) and starred in a movie called Aphrodite, she was no great actress. When Chaplin proposed marriage, her mother ordered her back to New York where she could keep control of her. She and Chaplin seem to have remained friends, at least for a while.

It's my idea that it's the children of controlling mothers so often feel the need to go wild for a while. And when her twin, Gloria Morgan, married into the Vanderbilt family by marrying Reggie, twice her age, and that marriage ended two years later when he died, and then another of Gloria's marriages failed, the two beautiful sisters were ready to find better men with, if possible, bigger fortunes. They had been raised to do so. But did they?

When Thelma went back to America in 1934, thinking that upon return she would resume being a loving and caring Mistress to the Prince, it is said she had a brief interlude with Prince Aly Khan. It may have only been a flirtation, but it became known, and certainly the Prince heard about it. Was that really the reason he moved on?

Thelma and her sister may have reassessed what happiness they might find in marriage or in men, for as high profile as they were, neither remarried and in the end they lived together in New York and in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, where they were far less social, even reclusive. Gloria Morgan was either bisexual or lesbian and because of this lost custody of her only child, daughter Gloria Vanderbilt, who you may know of as a fashion and interior designer and artist whose son is journalist Anderson Cooper.

In 1958, the two co-authored a memoir titled Double Exposure: A Twin Autobiography, which I read years ago.

Thelma had a son, Anthony, Viscount Furness, who was rumored to have been fathered by the Prince.  I attempted to find a photograph or two of Thelma when she was young and involved with the Prince that was in the public domain without success, but I did see one of her and her son. I could say there's a resemblance to the Prince though perhaps there is also a resemblance to the man who claimed him as a son too. (There were other rumors that the Prince had children with other women he never married.) When he was seventeen, in 1946, Tony won a $6,000,000 settlement from the $16,000,000 estate of Lord Furness. Mother and son were photographed at New York's Stork Club celebrating.

Let's find out more!

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Note: Andrew Morton's, Wallis in Love, has been reviewed by others as providing an understanding of Wallis Simpson that has more insight and detail about Wallis. This month's posts are based on Andrew Morton's book but also other research including Wikipedia and Google - AI.

In my archives : You may also be interested in reading:

January 2010

WALLIS SIMPSON aka the Duchess Wallis Windsor 

The American Divorcee Whom a King Gave Up His Throne For

January 2019
MARGUERITE ALIBERT - Sex Worker, Courtesan, Mistress, Wife - Her Men

(As a young man Prince Edward had a potentially scandalous relationship with her.)

June 2015

BETTINA

Red Head, Freckled - The First Supermodel and Mistress of Aly Khan, International Playboy

 

FALL OF THE LEAF

 

FLOBELLE "BELLE" FAIRBANKS BURDEN : EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT HER DIVORCE MEMOIR TITLED "STRANGERS"

 

Everyone is talking about this memoir and it's controversial. Some commentators have the idea that it's outrageous that Belle, a woman who came from "old money" - American aristocracy out of New York City - dare reveal her pain. One commentator - a woman - said in so many words, how dare she feel bad about herself because she went through a divorce, Belle isn't wondering if she's going to have to sell the house and move into a small apartment or what sort of job she's going to have to work to support her children... She was also accused of writing for the purpose of revenge, rather than a need to express herself or process grief.

I remember the day I met a woman who was much richer than me. As we spoke she said, "Everyone has pain, including rich people." I agreed. I think how rare it is for a woman with her privileged background to reveal her truth. So very many people from her social-cultural group - men and women - friends and not so - went against her. Well educated, a lawyer who presently works pro bono on juvenile immigration cases (citizenship), a loving and responsible mother and wife, and an heiress with two substantial trust funds that allowed her to purchase two residents for her family - one in New York City - one on Martha's Vineyard island, Belle had a deep desire to remain married and have an intact marriage. She had witnessed her mother and grandmother's relationships with men. Both had infidelity in their relationships and protected the men. She wanted more and better.

Belle is eloquent and there are passages in the book that are beautiful as well as heart-rendering. She reveals the shock she felt and the many emotional and psychological - and eventually financial  and social - adjustments she had to make in order to get through a difficult time. She was deeply in love with her husband when he seemed to change overnight. 

A telephone message revealed that her husband was having an affair. He said it was brief, he said it was nothing, he said Belle - his wife and the mother of their three children - was his priority. But then he was out the door and didn't even want shared custody. On this, I would say that a man wanting freedom from fatherhood seems to be the worst of it.

Belle did not know if the woman she called her husband's "mistress" was or is still in his life. I simply do not think that a woman is a mistress because she had a brief affair with a man who is legally married at the time. She also does not understand what happened that her husband changed seemingly so drastically.

Although the husband of the woman Belle's husband had an extramarital relationship with might have well intended, I don't think he should have done that. Rather, I think

As for wives staying with husbands who have extramarital relationships - and actual mistresses - every individual has to decide that for themselves. I can say that many do. There are all sorts of agreements that people come to or negotiate in their relationships.

And as for her husband's only explanation being that something switched off in him, believe it or not, that does happen.  Perhaps it was actually happening slowly but the reckoning of it may be sudden. 

As my reader's know, I love to excerpt, but in this case, I will do only one.

Excerpt page 105:  (Belle wants to know more about The Other Woman. One of her daughters was given a name that doesn't match the name she was told, though he explains that it is the same woman.)

... "It was nit the alliterative one I knew, the name that had tormented me since he left, the one I googled multiple times a day, staring at her face on the screen, trying to understand why he had chosen her over me. In addition to having a profile on LinkedIn, she had posted three photos on Facebook - a vacation photo on a boat (her dark hair pushed back with sunglasses), a photograph of a tropical drink (served in a coconut and decorated with an orchid) and her profile photo (another vacation shot, this one at a zoon.) She was fifteen years younger than me, but not a younger version of me. We looked like the opposite of each other, in height, coloring, style.  I thought, he wants something different.

...

I had not reached out to the woman or her husband since the night of the voicemail and the ambulance. Her husband didn't text me or call me again either. An older friend, a lawyer, advised me against any contact.  He said, "It will become messy very quickly, and it will only lead to more misery. It could also, possible, make you look bad in front of a judge when you divorce."  His advice felt like a clear, defined path, one that felt dignified... "

Very many podcasts discuss this book. Here is one that focuses on the financial aspects" called

Thee Wall Street Skinny Ex-Morgan Stanley Bankers: "Strangers" by Belle Burden our HOT TAKE on the Real Finances

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BOUNTY

 

A GUSHING LETTER FROM PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT TO FREDA DUDLEY WARD IS FOUND

DAILY MAIL : GUSHING LOVE LETTER FOUND  and up for auction.

See what you think of this letter that was written when the future King was only twenty-five years old!

When is the last time you wrote and sent a love letter? Leave me a comment!

AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS AND ALL THAT INTENSITY THEY DID BREAK UP FOR GOOD : FREDA DUDLEY WARD AND PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT

Dear Readers, I don't know if you've ever been obsessed with someone or someone has been obsessed with you, but I just don't think of relationships like the Prince had with Freda or she him as at all healthy.

Excerpt page 378-379/1074 e-book: For years Duddie (William  Dudley Ward), Michael, Freda, and the prince were locked in a toxic cycle that made none of them happy. the prince continued to be away often.  In 1924 and 1925 he toured America, South Africa, and South America  Since 1915 less than a third of his life had been spent in England, and such long absences were difficult for Freda and Edward.

***

Freda stopped writing to him while he was on tour in South Africa. Michael got blamed. But he already had another woman writing to him, another mistress named Audrey Coats.  (She was not a challenge and bored him.) Freda felt trapped in her marriage and was depressed, wondering which of her lovers she should choose. Her parents did not approve of the way she had lived her life. ...  Perhaps Edward was actually obsessed with himself!

In 1927 the Prince, though he had Audrey also as a mistress, and also married, was still in love with Freda. Audrey's husband died and was available to be remarried but not to the Prince. She eventually married in 1930 to an American, Marshall Field III of the Chicago department store family and moved to New York!  

Freda also had an affair that year with a rich American, the heir to the Wanamaker department stores! Michael thought she was being cruel to him.  And on it went.  Then Freda did divorce but it made no difference. She and the Prince had always known they could not marry. 

What happened was Thelma Morgan Furness.

For all the intensity and all the years that Freda and the Prince were involved with each other, they finally let go. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if they had wisely done so years earlier.  Breaking up is hard to do, and reading this account, it sounded like torture to me.

I ask YOU, if you've ever been locked into a relationship that should have ended years before!

Missy

GARNERING

 

AN EXTENDED TOUR MEANS THAT FREDA DUDLEY WARD AND PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT MUST BE APART: HE WAS MORE IN LOVE WITH HER THAN SHE WITH HIM

In March of 1920, after the war had ended, Edward was sent on a 7 month tour of Australia and New Zealand. Parting was sweet sorrow and may have made his love for Freda stronger. He continued to depend on her letters to lift his spirits. He also hoped she might be pregnant with his child. Possibly the prince was not able to beget a child. And one does wonder if she had any desire to have another child at all, let alone with a man she could never marry. Even if she was widowed, rather than divorced, there would have been objections to her becoming his wife and eventual Queen.

Excerpt page 287/1074 e-book : Separated from the flesh-and-blood Freda, he idolized her; she became his Madonna or goddess whom he worshipped. ...

Excerpt page 289/1074 e-book:  Edward believed  that Freda was good for him. He claimed that she had set him high standards that he tried to live up to. In both his private and public life. She had made him more of a man and less of a boy. He wrote to her that if only they could live together, "I would become of some use perhaps and have a will of my own and be strong!'...

*****

Back at the palace, the King and Queen - and his brother Bertie - who would eventually take the throne after he abdicated - were concerned that Prince Edward Albert continue to be groomed for his eventual role as King and they wanted him to break with Freda. Freda knew it and believed she should let him go but he wouldn't allow it.

Excerpt page303/1074 e-book:  As with Wallis during the abdication crisis, Edward just would not let Freda go, and bit by bit he eroded her resolve. He used every form of emotional blackmail he could muster....

*****

Back from the tour he wanted to spend every moment with Freda. They tried to be 'just friends' but the passion and love was too strong.  Maybe Freda was tiring of his devotion, for she went ahead and had an intense affair, beginning in 1918, with a man named Michael Herbert, a rich banker with a high status in society, a good reputation and connections and had also fought in World War I. Throughout the 1920's she continued have both lovers. It would seem Michael Herbert was as obsessed with her as the Prince. The two men knew of each other, were jealous of each other, and Freda juggled them, prioritizing the Prince when he was not away on a tour. 

Michael wanted to marry Freda and in 1922 there was talk of the Dudley's divorcing.  But she decided against it because the law at the time was such that she might loose custody of her daughters. Divorces were rare, there was a stigma to it and consequences. 

The Prince had many affairs including with women who were in Freda's social circle. It was clear that these relationships were becoming impossible.

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