'I had dinner with royals - one thing King Charles did left me screaming the place down'

'I had dinner with royals - one thing King Charles did left me screaming the place down' The West End star reflected on her encounters with the Royal Family, including King Charles, following her five-year relationship with Prince Edward Ruthie Henshall has opened up about falling victim to a hilarious prank by King Charles and her ex-partner Prince Edward. The West End performer was in a relationship with Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son for five years following their introduction while working for Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1988. In her new memoir, she revealed that Edward was her first love before the couple ultimately separated on good terms. Throughout their time together, the 59-year-old spent time with various members of the Royal Family and suggests they were surprisingly informal in private. Recounting one particularly memorable visit to Balmoral Castle, Ruthie disclosed how Prince Edward and King Charles played a practical joke on her. In an extract from The Showgirl and the Prince, serialised by the Mail on Sunday, she wrote: "At 8.15pm, we went into dinner in the candlelit dining-room, hung with portraits of ancestors, and sat down at a long table. I was seated between Edward and [Prince] Philip, who was always easy to talk to." As the night progressed, Ruthie said it was Charles who prepared her very first martini, which she characterised as "a polite way of having large amounts of vodka with a bit of vermouth waved at it". Following several of these drinks, she remembered excusing herself to visit the bathroom, only for the trip to take a surprising twist. "As the martinis were whizzing through me, I went to the loo with a candle," she revealed. "Edward and Charles told me they hoped I wouldn't bump into the ghosts that lived in the house (they'd spent some time frightening me with ghost stories). "They then waited outside the loo and jump-scared me as I came out," she added. "I screamed the place down. They were hilarious." Ruthie and Edward ultimately parted ways, with the pressures of her career as a West End leading lady placing strain on the relationship. Despite their separation, they stayed on friendly terms, and she was subsequently invited to his wedding to Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in 1999. "I genuinely fell in love with him," she revealed. "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." She continued to describe her ex-partner as "kind and thoughtful" and "a lovely bloke". Ruthie later moved forward and wed Canadian-born British singer Tim Howar in 2004, though the marriage concluded six years afterwards. The former pair met while performing in the West End production of Peggy Sue Got Married and share two daughters. Before the book's release on 17 July, she revealed on Instagram: "If you love the golden age of musicals in the 80s and 90s and a love story then this is your jam. "I am so proud of this book because it was something I wanted to write when I started my diaries aged 15. "I have had a hell of a life. I am luckier than a girl should be. I hope you enjoy the book."