The actress disclosed that the Duke of Edinburgh maintains regular contact
Prince Edward thanked his ex-girlfriend during a private phone conversation, it has emerged.
Ruthie Henshall reached out to the Duke of Edinburgh ahead of her forthcoming memoir to inform him about its contents, receiving an unexpectedly warm response from her former partner.
The West End performer, who maintained a clandestine five-year romance with the royal, telephoned Prince Edward after signing with Pan Macmillan for the book titled The Showgirl and the Prince.
Speaking on Hello!'s A Right Royal Podcast, Ms Henshall revealed: "I called Edward up, and I said, 'Look, I need to give you a heads up.' And he said, 'Thank you for giving me the heads up. You know, you have every right to tell your story.'"
The 59-year-old performer was keen to stress that her upcoming publication should not be viewed as a sensationalist exposé of their time together.
"It was a real relationship, even if it was kept a secret," she explained. "We were very much in love and could not put each other down."
Ms Henshall attributed their prolonged attachment partly to Edward's understanding that she could not abandon her theatrical career.
The couple's romance eventually concluded naturally as their paths diverged professionally and personally.
"I started doing She Loves Me, and he met Sophie," she shared. "And then, so we could actually let go."
Though both went on to marry different partners and start families, Ms Henshall and the duke have preserved their bond over the decades.
The actress disclosed that Edward maintains regular contact, making a point of reaching out on a significant date each year.
"He still calls me every year on my birthday because his birthday is two days after mine," she said.
"So he has called me every single year on my birthday without fail, including this year."
Their friendship has endured through the years, with the pair previously speaking by telephone every six months before their respective children arrived.
