The West End legend lifted the lid on her five-year romance with the royal

Ruthie Henshall has opened up about her romance with Prince Edward, detailing the “promise” she made to the Duke of Edinburgh ahead of her new memoir.

Speaking on ITV's This Morning, the musical theatre legend insisted her upcoming book, The Showgirl and the Prince, is not a malicious “kiss-and-tell”.

She said: “My love story with Edward… I believe I’ve been very respectful about it because we are still friends, and I gave him a heads-up about it. I said, ‘I am doing this, and I promise you’ll come out of this well,’ because I have nothing bad to say about him.”

Praising her former partner, Ms Henshall added: “He was not only a prince, he was a prince of a man.”

The star reflected fondly on her five-year relationship with the royal: “What a life to have seen, to have met and spent time with Princess Margaret, who was such a laugh, and the Queen and the Queen Mother - this was an era that is long gone, and Charles giving me my first Martini.”

Describing their first date, Ms Henshall noted: “He said, ‘Would you like to come round mine and watch A Star is Born?’ How much camper does it get? You’re at Buckingham Palace with Prince Edward… and I remember thinking, ‘How did I get here?’”

Ms Henshall admitted: “All I ever wore were leotards with a pair of jeans or a pair of dungarees over them, and that’s how I rocked up. It was one of those really bizarre moments.”

The stage star praised the duke's gentlemanly approach: “I was a naughty girl, I was used to starting relationships off the wrong way.

“As opposed to this lovely man who said, ‘Let’s take this slowly and see where it’s going,’ which was just a beautiful thing to do, rather than what I would’ve done, where I was like, ‘When is he going to kiss me? When’s things going to hot up?’”

Recalling her initial, surprise meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, she admitted: “I grabbed her hand and just shook it! I didn’t curtsey; my father had said, ‘If you meet the Queen, you curtsey, and you say Ma’am as in spam.’

“And did I? I didn’t know I was going to see her, and I think Edward did that on purpose so that I wouldn’t freak.”

She added: “There was a table in the gardens and they were all having tea and it was like you’d imagine - sandwiches with the crust cut off, and I just thought, ‘What am I doing?’”

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Reflecting on their five-year relationship, she said: “It was a beautiful thing; he was my first real love.”

Host Ben Shephard noted that the book contains some “explicit" details, including a scene on a “kitchen counter.”

Defending the book, Ms Henshall said: “But we were young! I wouldn’t say it’s a kiss-and-tell; it’s not ‘Let’s rake it all over the coals!’

“We were 20 and 23, you’re going to find lots of places to get romantic.”

Ms Henshall concluded that the royal has not asked to read the book, but hopes it brings back fond memories: “He has not read it, and he never asked to read it. I do not doubt he might blush a couple of times.

“I don’t want to make him feel uncomfortable in any way, but if he reads it, I think he will go down memory lane in a major way because we did have such a laugh as well.”