Wallis Simpson and her royal hubby left the high life to pretend to be everyday people in America sound familiar?

European royalty stories brought memories back to my earliest news interview.Like me back with some long-gone journalistic op that left us when Coolidge was in kindergarten.

My interviewee? Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, who had the warmth of an avalanche.The suite? No.25A.

She and the Duke of Windsor roughed it in a six-room Waldorf palace.The silk couch? Covered with a giant-size leopard skin that once covered a giant-size live leopard.

Said the duchess: “It’s ours.The duke himself shot it.

We always take it with us.”OK.“The hotel once decorated specially for us and we’d ship furnishings back and forth, but it’s now getting too expensive.And that’s even though the hotel gives us a discount rate.”Yeah.Her lifestyle?“Paris is home.

Weekends we go to our country house.But we live simply.

Quietly.I even sometimes cook.“His Royal Highness handles his own investments.

More than half a day’s job keeps him very busy.I don’t know why anyone’s interested in us.

Suppose His Royal Highness sold cars for a living — would that detract from his position? Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Never miss a story.“People think I do nothing but shop.

Untrue publicity about our so-called wealth is harmful.Prices then always get proportionately upped.

Such rumors could end up busting the duke and I.We’re everyday kind of people.”OK.Commoner me, I’d been told that whenever this HRH appears at some major function, her thank-you is jewelry.

Real jewelry.Serious jewelry.

Like maybe possibly could be of the diamond variety.Also, since just for me she was done up like for a Rembrandt sitting.A Balenciaga suit.

Even the eyebrows were on alert.Each hair at attention.

And the beautician who arrives daily to do her up?“I brought my own personal hairdresser in from Europe only because I...