for divorce. Since she had divorced her first husband on grounds of "mutual incompatibility", there was a possibility that her second marriage, as well as her prospective marriage to Edward, would be considered bigamous if her first divorce had been challenged in court. The British and Dominion governments believed that a twice-divorced woman was politically, socially, and morally unsuitable as a prospective consort. Wallis was perceived by many in the British Empire as a woman of "limitless ambition" who was pursuing the King because of his wealth and position. Wallis had already filed for divorce from her second husband on the grounds that he had committed adultery with her childhood friend Mary Kirk and the decree nisi was granted on October 27, 1936. In November, the King consulted with the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, on a way to marry Wallis and keep the throne. Edward suggested a morganatic marriage, where he would remain king but Wallis would not be queen, but this was rejected by Baldwin and the prime ministers of Australia, Canada, and the Union of South Africa. If Edward were to marry Wallis against Baldwin's advice, the government would be required to resign, causing a constitutional crisis. Wallis's relationship with Edward had become public knowledge in the United Kingdom by early December. She decided to flee the country as the scandal broke, and was driven to the south of France in a dramatic race to outrun the press. For the next three months, she was under siege by the media at the Villa Lou Viei, near Cannes, the home of her close friends Herman and Katherine Rogers, whom she later thanked effusively in her ghost-written memoirs. On her instructions, according to Andrew Morton on the basis of an interview with Rogers's stepdaughter-in-law 80 years later, the ghost-writer made no mention of her confession that Herman Rogers was actually the love of her life. At her hideaway, Wallis was pressured by Lord Brownlow, the King's lord-in-waiting, to renounce Edward. On December 7, 1936, Brownlow read to the press Wallis's statement, which he had helped her draft, indicating her readiness to give up Edward. However, Edward was determined to marry Wallis. John Theodore Goddard, Wallis's solicitor, stated: client was ready to do anything to ease the situation but the other end of the wicket [Edward VIII] was determined." This seemingly indicated that Edward had decided he had no option