Prince Harry's not the first royal to write a tell-all book. Let's revisit Edward VIII.

If I told you there was a tell-all book about a rebellious prince who gave up his title and his royalty for an American divorcee your mind would immediately gravitate towards Prince Harry and Meghan Markle… and I wouldn’t blame you.

We’re all waiting with bated breath for the release of Harry’s memoir Spare which drops on the 11th of January. But that's not the book I'm referencing.

Cast your mind further up the family tree to Harry’s great-grand uncle, King Edward VIII, who released the story of how he abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the love of his life, Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. 

Watch: Four revelations from Prince Harry's memoir. Post continues after video.

The book titled A King’s Story, was originally published in 1947 with ghostwriter Charles J.V. Murphy, who released his own tell-all of the experience The Windsor Story. 

In it, he wrote of the Duke’s intentions for his story’s publication, "To arrest this process, to restore the luster of his reputation, to assure that his side of the story was presented fairly, and to regain some measure of his self-respect, he decided to write an apologia, although it would be disguised as his autobiography."

Sounds similar to Harry’s own experience. 

Whilst A King’s Story touches on Edward's childhood with his cruel nanny, it mainly focuses on the Duke’s worldly travels where the similarities with Harry become more evident. 

Edward, who was the Prince of Wales in the 1920s, was a strapping, young and very handsome man who was beloved by the people for his informality and charm, where on occasion he shook commoners' hands.

His biography talks about his desire to fight in the war alongside his generation, but instead, was kept safe at a military desk job.

"The concept of duty was drilled into me, and I never had the sense that the days belonged to me alone," he wrote.

In 1931, he met Wallis Simpson, an American socialite and divorcee, at a country house one weekend. She was married to her second husband, Ernest Simpson, at the time.

In the book Edward recalls their first encounter: "Having been informed that she was an American, I was prompted to observe that she must miss central heating, of which there was a lamentable lack in my country.

"I am sorry, Sir.. But you have disappointed me."

"In what way?"

"Every American woman who comes to your country is always asked the same question. I had hoped for something more original from the Prince of Wales."

It seemed that Simpson’s brash 'American' personality is what enchanted Edward to begin with.

"[She was the] most independent woman I had ever met… If she disagreed with some point under discussion, she never failed to advance her own views with vigour and spirit. That side of her enchanted me. A man in my position seldom encountered that trait in other people," he wrote.

Image: Getty.

However, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies despite that being how they wanted to be remembered in history. 

There are many who believe that Simpson planned to wriggle her way into royalty. 

Not only was she still married to her second husband when she began her relationship with the Prince, there were also reports of Simpson sending a letter to her aunt after meeting him that say, 'mission accomplished'.

Edward and Simpson's romance was kept private until the 20th of January, 1936, when he became King Edward VIII.

His reign only lasted one year when he abdicated his titles on the 11th of December, 1936, so he could marry her.

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"A few hours ago I discharged my last duty as king and emperor, and now that I have been succeeded by my brother, the Duke of York, my first words must be to declare my allegiance to him. This I do with all my heart," he said in his radio broadcast to the Commonwealth.

"You all know the reasons which have impelled me to renounce the throne. But I want you to understand that in making up my mind, I did not forget the country or the empire, which, as Prince of Wales and lately as king, I have for 25 years tried to serve," he continued.

"But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love. And I want you to know that the decision I have made has been mine and mine alone. 

"This was a thing I had to judge entirely for myself. The other person most nearly concerned has tried up to the last to persuade me to take a different course. I have made this, the most serious decision of my life, only upon the single thought of what would, in the end, be best for all."

Edward, much like Harry, had huge issues with the press and how they destroyed him and his family. 

"The press creates; the press destroys. All my life I had been the passive clay that it had enthusiastically worked into the hackneyed image for a Prince Charming… Now it had whirled around and was bent upon demolishing the natural man who had been there all the time," he wrote in the book.

Simpson, in her own biography, described her experience of the press as being "chased like a hunted animal".

Eventually the two got married, Edward lost his royal title, his duties and his father forbade his siblings from attending the wedding. 

Their marriage, surprisingly, lasted till death although it seemed far from a ‘happily ever after’. 

Edward eventually died of throat cancer in 1971 and Wallis didn’t bother to visit him in his final weeks, although she was buried next to him when she eventually passed 14 years later. 

Let's hope this is where the parallels between him and Harry end!

Feature Image: Getty.

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