Joan Collins transforms into Wallis Simpson as new biopic explores Duchess’s tragic final years in Paris mansion

Long before Meghan Markle became a household name, another American divorcee found herself at the heart of a royal storm.

Her name? Wallis Simpson. Her story? A whirlwind of scandal, glamour, and exile — one that’s being revived once more in a new biopic that promises to dig into the darker, lesser-known chapters of her life.

The Duchess Who Sparked a Royal Crisis

Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up the British throne, is back in the spotlight with The Bitter End, a new drama directed by Mike Newell and starring the iconic Dame Joan Collins as the controversial Duchess of Windsor.

Unlike many past portrayals, this one zeroes in on the final years of Wallis’s life, painting a more haunting picture of decline and control — especially under the manipulative grip of her lawyer, Suzanne Blum.

Legends Playing Legends

Joan Collins, now 92, steps into Wallis’s stilettos after more than three years away from acting.

Taking on this complex figure, Collins has said she was compelled by what she saw as an unfair treatment of Wallis by the press and public.

Playing opposite her is Isabella Rossellini as Blum — the woman who allegedly isolated the Duchess in her Paris mansion after Edward’s death in 1972.

This film, Collins says, is her chance to tell “the real story.” And for a woman who has weathered her own media storms, it’s a role that hits close to home.

A Woman Forever Misunderstood

Back in the 1950s, Wallis herself told her ghostwriter Charles J.V. Murphy that she felt publicly flogged by a nation that never tried to understand her.

“It’s as though I committed some horrible murder,” she said, reflecting on the backlash she received after Edward’s abdication.

Her 1956 memoir A Heart Has Its Reasons was an early attempt to reclaim her narrative — in some ways a precursor to the modern media plays we’ve seen with Meghan and Harry’s interviews, Netflix specials, and bestselling books.

Meghan and Wallis: Unfair Comparisons?

Despite the obvious surface similarities — American, divorced, royal — insiders say Meghan and Wallis couldn’t be more different.

Johanna Schutz, who was private secretary to the Windsors, rejects the comparison outright.

“Meghan doesn’t come close to the Duchess in terms of style and sophistication,” she said.

Even royal biographer Anna Pasternak, author of The American Duchess: The Real Wallis Simpson, believes Wallis wanted Edward to remain in the royal fold — unlike Meghan, who many believe led Harry in the opposite direction.

A Cautionary Tale, Not a Glamorous One

Although early images from the film suggest another glossy, theatrical take — with Collins dripping in jewels and heavy furs — some fear it could once again tip into caricature.

Wallis has often been portrayed as a seductress or villain.

From The King’s Speech to The Crown, previous dramatizations have often overlooked her reality in favor of sensational myth.

But The Bitter End sets itself apart by focusing on the aftermath of her fairytale-turned-tragedy — a slow descent into isolation, illness, and exploitation in a grand Paris home once filled with life and luxury.

A Life That Ended in Isolation

After Edward’s death in 1972, Wallis, already suffering early dementia, was left almost completely alone.

Despite decades as a socialite, she spent her final years cut off from friends, speechless, bedridden, and, many say, under the tight control of Blum — who is believed to have redirected the couple’s fortune to French causes, even while denying Wallis her final dignity.

The Myth That Won’t Die

Wallis’s story has been warped for decades by everything from political conspiracy theories to costume-drama embellishments.

Whether it’s her alleged Nazi ties or her role in Edward’s abdication, the real woman often gets lost behind the legend.

Even today, as Meghan Markle faces her own brand of scrutiny, it’s hard not to wonder whether Wallis — like Meghan — is still more defined by the stories told about her than the truth she lived.

Will the New Film Do Her Justice?

There’s hope that The Bitter End will finally shift public perception.

But judging by the early film stills and Hollywood’s past tendencies, that hope may be misplaced.

If Wallis’s last chapter is framed as just another example of her supposed flaws, the opportunity to tell her real story might slip away once again.

As with Meghan, history may continue to cast Wallis as a cautionary tale rather than a complex woman shaped — and ultimately undone — by love, power, and a monarchy that never truly accepted her.