'I was Prince Edward's unlikely girlfriend and made huge error when meeting the Queen'

'I was Prince Edward's unlikely girlfriend and made huge error when meeting the Queen' West End star Ruthie Henshall is preparing to release a tell-all book about her romance with Prince Edward, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son Ruthie Henshall has opened up about her relationship with Prince Edward – and what meeting the Queen was really like. The 59-year-old and the Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son struck up a romance while they were working for Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1988. Describing their relationship as her first love, the pair were together for five years before splitting amicably. Ahead of the release of her tell-all memoir The Showgirl and The Prince, the West End star reflected on what it was like dating a royal – and meeting the Queen for the first time. Recalling a particular moment that has stayed with her from that period, Ruthie admitted making a major blunder during her first encounter with the late monarch. "The late Queen in particular was lovely," she told Your Magazine. "I remember my dad had told me that if you ever met the Queen you curtsied and called her ma'am. "When I did meet her, I forgot to curtsy and grabbed her by the hand saying, 'I'm really pleased to meet you, really pleased to meet you'. Here I was, this chorus girl dating her youngest son - it must have been her worst nightmare!". Speaking about her relationship with Prince Edward, Ruthie described him as "kind and thoughtful" and "a lovely bloke". "I genuinely fell in love with him," she told the publication. "I suppose I was not like anyone he'd dated before, a warm and flirty leotard-clad chorus girl, prone to telling risque jokes and drinking and smoking too much." The pair eventually split due to Ruthie’s demanding schedule as a leading lady in the West End. However, they remained on good terms, and she was later invited to his wedding to Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, held at Windsor Castle in 1999. As for Ruthie, she married Canadian-born British singer Tim Howar in 2004, though the marriage ended in 2010. The former couple met while starring in the West End production of Peggy Sue Got Married and have two daughters together. Ahead of her book's July release, Ruthie teased what fans can expect. Sharing the cover on Instagram, she wrote: "To release another dream in my life is bonkers but here it is. My book. The Showgirl and the Prince. "A deep love, brutally honest and a life beyond my wildest dreams." Speaking to The Telegraph, she added: "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."