Wallis & the Duke; Meghan & Harry

The last living man to have sat on the throne of England died in 1972 at 77:

"the Duke of Windsor, who gave up the British throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, died in his home near Paris carly today....
The Duke defied the British Establishment to marry Mrs. Bessie Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice‐divorced American.
The couple lived in virtual self‐exile from Britain since the abdication....
Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, became the first monarch in British history to voluntarily abdicate his throne, which he did 11 months after assuming it....
Edward had been determined to marry Mrs. Simpson, although Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin had tried to dissuade him, on the ground that the King, as head of the Church of England. would be violating the church's doctrines against divorce....
He was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI. The new King made his predecessor the Duke of Windsor....
He remained in virtual exile from Britain ever since, estranged from the royal family until recently. It was not until 1965 that Queen Elizabeth II met the Duchess of Windsor at the bedside of the Duke while he was in London for eye operations.
Two years later, the Duke and Duchess were formally received by the Queen at a memorial ceremony for Edward's mother, Queen Mary. Last May 18, Queen Elizabeth visited her ailing uncle at his Paris home.
After the abdication, the Duke and Duchess attracted wide publicity as they traveled about. They often attended charity balls and other events in New York, where they stayed at the Waldorf‐Astoria.
The Duke performed some official duties in World War II, when he was appointed governor and commander in chief of the Bahamas...." (NY Times, 5/28/1972)

As I recall, the tale of the Duke and Wallis was widely perceived in the U.S. of the early 1970s as one of history's great love stories.  As the Duke's death in 1972 coincided with liberalization of divorce laws in the U.S., he seemed to be a "poster child" for putting amorous feelings before all else.  While I cannot speak to their historical accuracy, neither  The King's Speech (2010) nor 17 Carnations (2015) continued to romanticize the relationship.

More than eight decades after the abdication, Prince Harry, the great, great nephew of the Duke seems to be charting a similar course:

"When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex begin their transatlantic 'progressive new role' at arm’s length from the royal family, as they announced this week, they will continue to use as their British home Frogmore Cottage, the Windsor property given to them by the Queen last year.
Just a few minutes’ walk from Meghan and Prince Harry’s house, along the western edge of Frogmore Gardens, is the final resting place of another duchess of American descent who, were she alive today, would surely find the current brouhaha highly reminiscent. Wallis Simpson lies in a grave beside that of her husband, the Duke of Windsor, who shocked the world in 1936 by abdicating as Edward VIII to 'marry the woman I love'.
Much newspaper acreage has already been devoted to comparing the duchesses who at face value appear to have so much in common. Both were American born and raised (Wallis in Baltimore, Meghan in Los Angeles), both met their princes aged 34 and both were divorced" (The Guardian, 1/9/2020)