Inside Prince Andrew's fling with actress Koo Stark whose topless scenes rocked Palace after he introduced her to Queen

AMERICAN-born actress Koo Stark seemed to be the perfect match for the dashing Duke of York after the pair were set up for a blind date, and charmed the Queen when they had tea together.

But when it was revealed she had appeared topless in an arthouse film in the late 1970s, the pressure on the couple became too much and they split up.



The pair were set up on a blind date in 1981 when she was 24 and he was 21.

Koo, real name Kathleen, had been cast in a minor role in Star Wars as a friend of Luke Skywalker, in a scene that was sadly cut out.

Their attraction, Koo later said, was instant.

"He walked into my life and that was it, he was my life," she recalled in 2015.

Andrew soon introduced her to his mother, who was said to be taken with her favourite son's new beau, regularly inviting the bubbly brunette to tea, according to reports.

It was in Koo's Belgravia flat in 1982 when Andrew received a phone call telling him he had been called up for military duty to serve in the Falklands War.

After serving in daring helicopter raids as a co-pilot, he returned to the UK where Koo was "waiting in his rooms at Buckingham Palace… the returning hero with a red rose between his teeth".

But sadly, their relationship would become strained later that year while the couple were holidaying in the royal hotspot of Mustique.

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Topless photos were published of Koo from a 1976 coming-of-age arthouse film called Emily, which also featured a lesbian shower scene.

It was a moderate box office success in the 1970s but had a revival in the 1980s off the back of Koo and Andrew's relationship.

The chaos of dating a prominent royal came with other dangers, such as when she was told she was on an IRA hit list.

Princess Diana also came to her aid, offering "valuable advice" on how to cope with royal life.

"Diana was very concerned, kind, and supportive," Stark wrote. "She was under stress, too, even though she was safely behind palace gates."

He walked into my life and that was it, he was my life

As media interest in the couple continued, Andrew reportedly pleaded in vain for the Palace to help her. But it proved to be too much, and the pair split up in 1983 after 18 months.

"The amount of attention and pressure on me became unbearable," she said in 1988. "It was a nightmare."

Following their split, she married a photographic gallery manager Tim Jeffries in 1984, but the couple broke up a year later.

Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in 1986, separating in 1992 but remaining good friends.

After largely maintaining her silence on the relationship, and reportedly rejecting a £1m bid to write her memoirs, last year, Koo finally opened up about the "scandal".



She told Tatler magazine how she was supported by Princess Diana during the crisis and was even invited to a picnic by the Queen so they could be photographed together by the paparazzi.

"Her Majesty made a point of snapping open the News of the World ['Queen bans Koo' front page]," she said. "Her actions spoke volumes as she poured tea. Her only verbal comment was, 'Oh, I do wish they would call you Kathleen and Andrew'."

However, the "notoriety took its toll," she said, which she blames for the breakup.
Koo has been strident in her defence of Prince Andrew, slamming the allegations that he slept with a teenage "sex slave".

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said: "My first reaction was fury, then disbelief, at the lurid allegations being made against a man I have known well for more than 30 years."

She added that "innocent" Andrew was "a good man", and said she was challenging Virginia Roberts' description of the Duke.

Roberts accuses Andrew of sleeping with her on three occasions when she was under 18 after she was sex-trafficked by paedo financier Jeffrey Epstein and his "pimp" Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Duke has strongly denied all the allegations against him and maintains his innocence.

Last month, Maxwell was found guilty of five out of the six sex abuse charges facing her in a New York court.

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