Publication June 2, 2026-Ballantine, Delacorte Press-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

A scandalous affair. A power struggle for the throne. A sensational rivalry between an English queen and an American social climber. In this electrifying novel, the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue tells the story of the Abdication of Edward VIII—and the two women at the center of it all.

Feuding Windsor brothers and their wives—some things, it seems, never change. The Men: Edward David Windsor, heir to the British throne, and younger brother Albert, aka Bertie, “the spare.” The Women: Edward’s wife Wallis, an American divorcée, and Bertie’s wife Elizabeth, daughter of Scottish nobility. The Feud: a rivalry that will last all their lives, make headlines, and still fuel gossip pages a century later.

The Windsor Affair recreates the cataclysmic events that nearly toppled the monarchy and incited the power struggle between Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the queen-to-be, and Wallis Simpson, aka “That Woman,” who fell into a calculated love affair with Prince Edward. Told from the perspective of both women, the novel propels readers into the fabulous world of the debonair Prince of Wales, café society of the 1930s, and the glittering private lives of the Windsors.

The first novel dedicated to the infamous rivalry between these two world-famous women, The Windsor Affair brings us all the gossip and intrigue between the two very different—yet perhaps more similar than they would admit—wives of royals. As Queen, Elizabeth would become the symbol of British pluck and courage during World War II and remain a British institution for the rest of her long life. Wallis would be forever forced to enact the World’s Greatest Love Story even after it sours, as she goes from being admired to vilified and, ultimately, pitied.

Against the backdrop of the Abdication Crisis, World War II, coronations, funerals, births, and deaths, these two women maintain a bitter, biting, sharp-tongued feud—until age and the long arm of history bring about a kind of understanding. For the last communication between these bitter rivals was a simple, surprising message: “In friendship, Elizabeth.”

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The royal name of Windsor conjures many names and events. Perhaps the most acrimonious is the decades long, ongoing feud between the English Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and the American, Mrs. Ernest Simpson. A royal feud known as the “Windsor Affair!”

Melanie Benjamin opens The Windsor Affair with the theft of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewelry at an estate in the outskirts of London. Benjamin vividly recreates the animosity between Queen Elizabeth I, “Cookie,” and Wallis Simpson, known as “That Woman,” from 1936-1976.  Laced with plenty of British history and details, Benjamin explores the royal feud from several points of view, including the Abdication and the war years, 1940-1945. Royal readers follow the feuding women to London, Scotland, the Bahamas, and Windsor.  Details of Bessie Wallis’ childhood, born without money and privilege, her marriages, her travels to Hong Kong, and her quest to be wealthy, attempt to explain this complex woman.  Likewise, Benjamin covers Elizabeth’s early debutante years, courtships, proposals, and finally marriage to the “spare” Bertie. She adds plenty of queenly maneuvers, conniving conversations, and society gossip to add fuel to the fiery feud!

For the first time in history, the King of England voluntarily abdicated the throne. Also, for the first time, the two women at the center of the abdication come face to face for readers’ examination; saintly or manipulator, victim or heroine? The Windsor Affair has “castles, jewels, the Blitz; scandal and designer clothes!”  A novel for readers with a royal fascination with two “Kingly” brothers; the heir in love with an American divorcée and the spare, the daughter of a Scottish earl. The women become sisters-in-law, but would they ever be friends? An insightful peek behind the royal gates and straight into the breakfast room, dining room, and dressing room conversations of the royal families.

Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of nine works of historical fiction: Alice I Have Been, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, The Aviator’s Wife, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Girls in the Picture, Mistress of the Ritz, The Children’s Blizzard, California Golden and The Windsor Affair.