Prince Edward's ex-girlfriend to release bombshell memoir about their romance
Prince Edward’s former girlfriend is set to release a tell-all memoir, outlining the details of her previous relationship with the late Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child. West End star Ruthie Henshall is known to have had an on-and-off relationship with Edward several years prior to him meeting his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
Ruthie said that her book, titled
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Edward and Ruthie met in 1988 when Henshall’s West End career was starting out as she had a role as a chorus girl in Cats and the young prince was working as a production assistant for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The five-time Olivier winner claimed that she had been inspired to write the book, which will be released in July, after finding boxes of memorabilia as she cleared out her garage five years ago.
She said of the book: "I found old diaries which I began writing in the 1980s and then found all my letters from Prince Edward, and I was struck by how precious this time in my life was. I was on the West End stage - my dream since I was a girl - and shared a love with a man very few people even know.
"If this was someone else’s story, I would think they had made it up. So here it is - a look behind the curtain of a crazy life in musical theatre and what happens next when a showgirl falls in love with a prince."
Speaking of Edward, Henshall said that she fell for the prince because he was "kind and thoughtful," adding that while she was "not like anyone he’s dated before".
She said that she "genuinely fell in love with him [Prince Edward] and added about the royals: “I have nothing but nice things to say about them all. The Queen, in particular, was lovely. Here I was, this chorus girl dating her son – it must have been her worst nightmare!"
Ruthie is said to have remained good friends with Edward after they broke up, even attending Edward and Sophie’s wedding at Windsor Castle in 1999.
Her multi-award winning career has seen her star in the most popular musicals of the past thirty years, including Cats, Miss Saigon, Crazy For You, She Loves Me, Marguerite, Oliver!, A Chorus Line, Les Misérables, Billy Elliot and Chicago.