Ruthie Henshall, the West End star and former girlfriend of Prince Edward, has released a tell-all memoir titled The Showgirl and the Prince. The book details the couple's five-year relationship, which began in secret and included visits to Buckingham Palace and tea with the late Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.
Relationship Origins and Timeline
Henshall and Edward met in 1988 while both were working for Andrew Lloyd Webber. Henshall has described the relationship as her first love. They dated for five years before splitting amicably, and Henshall even attended Edward's wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones (now Duchess of Edinburgh) in 1999. The pair remained good friends after the breakup.
Royal Expert Reaction
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond expressed sympathy for Edward and Sophie. According to Bond, "Everyone has to make their own decision about revealing details of past love affairs. Personally, I feel sorry for Edward and Sophie having to see these headlines and read these stories from so long ago. They have a loving and solid marriage, but no-one needs extremely intimate details like this raked up from an earlier relationship. I think the King and everyone in the family will feel a great deal of sympathy for Edward and Sophie."
Media Context at the Time
Bond noted that during the late 1980s, the media was focused on Prince Charles and Princess Diana, allowing Edward and Henshall's relationship to remain largely under the radar. "The big news of the day back then was always Diana and Charles, so not much attention was paid to Edward," she said. "There was media interest in the fact that he'd quit the Marines and decided to try to make a career in entertainment, working for Andrew Lloyd Webber and there were rumours that he was going out with someone from that world. But his love life wasn't a big news story. We were all too bound up with Charles and Diana. It obviously wasn't surprising that a young man should have a girlfriend, but – beyond vaguely knowing her name, I knew nothing about Ruthie Henshall. Until now."
Inspiration for the Memoir
Henshall, a five-time Olivier Award winner, said she was inspired to write the book after finding boxes of memorabilia while clearing out her garage five years ago. She stated: "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."
