Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress

TX: April

This is the extraordinary story of Edward VIII’s first love affair, involving a murder trial, a secret cache of vanished letters, and a cover-up to save the reputation of the future King.

On Monday 10 September 1923, a mysterious woman in black, known as ‘the Princess Fahmy Bey’, was escorted to the dock of London’s central criminal court to face a charge of murder. Two months before at the Savoy Hotel, she had shot dead her husband, an Egyptian prince.

But six years earlier, she’d had a secret affair with another prince: the future Edward VIII.  Back then the Princess Fahmy Bey had been plain Marguerite – or Maggie – Meller, a high class courtesan in World War One Paris. As Maggie Meller went on trial for her life, this reckless episode from Edward’s past threatened to expose the heir to the throne to disgrace.

Behind the trial lies a long-buried story of royal infatuation and scandal. Edward’s affair with Maggie finally exploded in a toxic cocktail of sex, blackmail, and murder. New evidence, unearthed over a decade by the historian Andrew Rose, points to an establishment cover-up to protect the reputation of the future King and save his first, secret, mistress from the gallows.

Prod co: Telesgop