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Daily Inspiration Quote by Wallis Simpson

"PS: It's all gossip about the prince. I'm not in the habit of taking my girlfriends' beaux"

About this Quote

It’s a line that tries to sound breezy while frantically nailing the door shut. “PS” is the tell: an afterthought that isn’t an afterthought at all, a strategic add-on meant to redirect the reader’s attention and drain a rumor of oxygen. Simpson frames the whole scandal as “gossip,” not allegation, which is a social move as much as a factual one. Gossip is petty, feminine-coded chatter; to call it that is to demote it from political crisis to drawing-room noise.

Then comes the sharper instrument: “the prince.” No name, no specificity. It’s both coy and protective, as if anonymity can launder the intimacy. In the era’s press climate, where every phrase could be read like evidence, vagueness is a kind of self-defense.

The knockout is the moral posture: “I’m not in the habit of taking my girlfriends’ beaux.” That word “habit” matters. She’s not denying a single act; she’s claiming a character. It’s also a carefully chosen social code. “Beaux” signals a world of manners and courtship, the acceptable vocabulary of elite romance, which makes the accusation sound like a tacky misunderstanding of how “our set” behaves. She positions herself as loyal to female friendships, a direct counter-narrative to the “predatory divorcée” caricature that haunted her.

Context does the rest: when a prince’s attachment could destabilize a monarchy, denial has to be legible, witty, and class-coded. Simpson isn’t just rebutting rumor; she’s trying to keep the affair in the realm of etiquette instead of constitutional rupture.

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TopicFriendship
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Wallis Simpson on gossip and loyalty
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About the Author

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Wallis Simpson (June 19, 1895 - April 24, 1986) was a Royalty from USA.

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