Born in 1901 Edwina Ashley met Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1920. They got married in 1922 at St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
Lady Mountbatten a fashionable lady lived in pursuit of pleasure. Janet Morgan in her biography of Lady Mountbatten writes, “Edwina Ashley wed Lord Louis (’Dickie’) Mountbatten in 1922 at the age of 20, then embarked on two decades of frivolity. Not satisfied having two well-behaved daughters and an ‘enthusiastic boy’ of a husband, she took refuge in lovers and sparked scandals.”
But the IInd World war changed her outlook and purpose in life. She dedicated herself to the service of others.
During the pre-partition period Lord and Lady Mountbatten served as the last Viceroy and Vicereine of India. It was here that she met Jawaharlal Nehru, and since then the rumors of their affair have been discussed.
A letter written by Nehru to the Lady depicts his feelings for her: “Suddenly I realized (and perhaps you also did) that there was a deeper attachment between us, that some uncontrollable force, of which I was dimly aware, drew us to one another, I was overwhelmed and at the same time exhilarated by this new discovery. We talked more intimately as if some veil had been removed and we could look into each other’s eyes without fear or embarrassment.”
Although Eminent author Nayantara Sehgal says ‘theirs was a platonic relationship’. She shuns any physical intimacy between them as mere speculations. It was pure love and friendship.
While Mountbatten’s daughter Pamela in her memoir mentions that Nehru always considered her, “as the lady on the pedestal, unobtainable,” and her father always found them ‘sweet as they doted on each other.’
Hollywood tried to encash this relation and make a film on Alex von Tunzelmann’s book on the Mountbattens, the ‘Indian Summer’, with Hugh Grant and Cate Blanchett in the lead roles.
The film has been stalled. Reason? The Indian Government wants it to be less of a love story, while the financers of the film, the Universal studios want it to be more of a love story with intimate scenes, as the film will cost them $ 40 million…
…..And the Indian government wants some scenes to be cut and the plot rewritten as it cares for public sentiments.