For the next thirty years the Duke and Duchess lived in Paris. They gave parties and travelled round the world, but they never went back to Buckingham Palace.

When King George died in 1952 and Queen Mary died in 1961, Edward returned to Windsor for a few days. But Wallis stayed in France. "It's your family," she said. "Not mine."

But then, in 1966, the Duke and Duchess met Queen Elizabeth (the daughter of King George) at a small party in London. After thirty long years it was time to forget the past. Elizabeth kissed the Duchess and touched her arm. Then she turned to the Duke and said: "Wallis is so beautiful, uncle. I think you're a lucky man."

On BBC television in 1969 the Duke and Duchess spoke about their life together.

"That day Elizabeth was very kind to us," Edward wrote later. "But why couldn't my mother or my brother say those words to me?"

"Do you argue?" someone asked them.

"No, not really," the Duchess replied. "But there's one thing about my husband that I really don't like. He is always late. It doesn't matter if he's meeting a queen, a president, or a film star. He can never arrive on time. I don't know why. I have tried to change him, but it's just not possible."

"You could see real love in their eyes," one newspaper wrote. "They were on television, but they forgot about the cameras and the millions of people who were watching. They were just two people in love."

The Duke smiled and touched her hand. "I know that I'm often late," he said. "But on our wedding day, I arrived at the church twenty minutes before you. I was early and you were late."

"Yes, that's true," the Duchess said. And they both laughed.

The Duchess was famous for her jewellery. "After my husband," she once said, "I love jewellery more than anything else in the world." And after thirty-five years with the Duke she had hundreds of pieces, which came from all over the world.

"I have never met a more beautiful woman than Wallis," Edward wrote, "and I love giving her presents. She has given me so much happiness. I buy her jewels to say 'thank you'."

In May 1972 the Duke became ill. When the doctor arrived, he listened to Edward's heart and then said: "How many cigarettes do you have a day, Sir?"

"About forty or fifty," the Duke replied. "But please don't ask me to stop. I've smoked for sixty years and I cannot change now."

"Yes, of course,"she said. And they both began to cry.

That night Edward called Wallis into the room. "I feel very tired," he said. "And I'm afraid. I love you. I have been very happy with you, and you have been a wonderful wife. When I die, I want you to take my body back to Windsor. Will you do that for me?"

The Duke of Windsor died one hour later with Wallis by his side.

Three days later, a blue aeroplane arrived in Paris. Wallis went back to England with the Duke's body and, for the first time in her life, she entered Buckingham Palace.

But then, in 1986, Wallis became ill. She went to a small hospital near the house, and a few days later she died. "Without Edward," she once wrote, "my life was empty."

A week later the Duchess returned to France, and for the next fourteen years she lived alone in Paris. The big house was dark. The doors were locked and she did not go out.

In the afternoons she sat in the dining room with Edward's love letters. "They were so beautiful," she said. "I read them again and again."

She was buried in England next to her husband at Windsor. "It's a strange thing," one newspaper wrote. "When they were alive, the Duke and Duchess could never live in Britain. It was only in death that they could be there together."