Wallis's relationship with the King 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 the King. On 7 December 1936, Lord Brownlow read to the press her statement, which he had helped her draft, indicating Wallis's readiness to give up the King. 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 VIII was determined." This seemingly indicated that the King had decided he had no option but to abdicate if he wished to marry Wallis.