A Royal crisis: The shocking moment King Edward VIII announced his abdication to the nation
BBC
On 11 December 1936, unable to reconcile his desire for US divorcée Wallis Simpson with his role as King, Edward VIII made the shocking decision to abdicate the throne, bringing an end to a crisis that tested the boundaries of duty, love and the monarchy itself.
"At long last I am able to say a few words of my own," was how the royal, who the day before was known as King Edward VIII, began a BBC radio broadcast that would not just stun the listening public but reshape the future of the monarchy. Over the next seven minutes he explained how he had decided voluntarily to abdicate the throne, the first English monarch to do so, in order to marry the woman he loved, US socialite Wallis Simpson.
Up until the week before the broadcast, most of the British public had known nothing about it. Edward was already a controversial figure, and while his relationship with Mrs Simpson had been openly reported in Europe and the US, an effective blackout on the story agreed between the government, the press and the BBC had meant that, in the UK, people were only just learning about it. The broadcast itself was the final act of what had become a constitutional crisis for the country.