The Duchess's Shadow: Uncovering the Secret Life of Suzanne Blum

The Duchess's Shadow: Uncovering the Secret Life of Suzanne Blum

Joan Collins stars as the Duchess of Windsor in the new biopic 'My Duchess', but what she didn't know was that her French-born 'jailer' played by Isabella Rossellini spied on her for almost 40 years.

Documents uncovered by the Daily Mail reveal the shocking truth about Suzanne Blum's involvement with the CIA and her controlling behavior towards the Duchess.

A 40-Year Spy Operation

In the summer of 1942, Maitre Blum, as she was known, approached the CIA's forerunner, the OSS, seeking employment. she was recommended by William Bullitt, the swanky US Ambassador to France who's said to have been the Duchess's lover in Paris and was also close to Blum.

Blum was taken on for the modern-day equivalent of £50,000, and when peacetime came, returned to Paris where her husband acted as the Duke and Duchess's lawyer. Over the years that followed, she snooped on the royal couple for the Americans , and after the Duke's 1972 death took complete control of the Duchess's affairs.

A small and ferocious woman, she was disliked by all who came into contact with her.. The writer Caroline Blackwood, sent with Lord Snowdon as her photographer to interview the Duchess, loathed Blum on sight, writing of the 'murderous' look in her eyes.

The CIA's Secret Files

Many of the CIA files on the couple are so heavily redacted it's impossible to know who was feeding information back to Washington about the ex-royals. But one file uncovered by the Daily Mail points the finger directly at Suzanne Blum - a woman eager to climb aboard the American secret service and one who energetically maintained her close connections with them once the war was over and she was back in Paris.

Blum came into the Duchess's world in the pre-war years as the wife of the Duke's Paris attorney Paul Weill, and also because she was a friend of US Ambassador Bill Bullitt, rumoured at the time to be having an affair with the Duchess.

The Duchess's Descent into Madness

When the Duke died in 1972, Wallis retreated and went rapidly downhill. It was as if, with no ex-king around to boss about, her life had lost its purpose. 'She had no inner resources, no hobbies,no pastimes, no interests except clothes and no talents except for wearing them,' wrote one biographer.

'My ship is without a captain,' Wallis agreed plaintively. Soon her memory began to fail and she would forget names and faces. She became obsessed with a fear of burglars and kept a revolver on her bedside table, unaware it was a replica.

The Legacy of Suzanne Blum

The writer Caroline Blackwood,sent with Lord Snowdon as her photographer to interview the Duchess, loathed Blum on sight, writing of the 'murderous' look in her eyes. 'If you do not write a favourable article about the Duchess ,' Blum hissed at Blackwood, 'I will kill you!'

Onscreen Collins and Rossellini will act out what happened next - the once-powerful Duchess's swift decline, and her losing control of her affairs to the rapacious Blum - but not Blum's secret telephone calls and letters to Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, to whom she had reported back on every aspect of the Windsors' life since 1945 .