Andrew’s ex-girlfriend to get damages from Mail publisher over porn reference

A former girlfriend of the Duke of York will receive “substantial damages” from the publisher of the Daily Mail over an article that wrongly referred to her as a “porn star”.

Photographer Koo Stark, 66, brought legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) as well as the then-editor and deputy editor of the Daily Mail – Geordie Greig and Gerard Greaves – over a November 2019 article in the paper.

Ms Stark, who has also worked as a professional actress, was in a relationship with Andrew in the early 1980s, the High Court in London heard on Friday.

The article referred to Andrew as a “Duke of Hazard” with “very shady friends” and included a photo of Ms Stark from the film The Awakening of Emily captioned “The prince and the porn star”.

It also referred to Andrew having had “an astonishing relationship with a soft porn actress”.

Francis Leonard, for Ms Stark, said: “The words at issue meant, and would have been understood to mean, that the claimant is a porn actress who has made her living participating in films which are made for distribution in the pornographic market.

“The true position is that Ms Stark has never appeared in a pornographic film or posed for pornographic photographs. None of her work could properly be described as pornographic or indeed as ‘very shady’.

“In particular, the film The Awakening of Emily is a coming-of-age drama and not a pornographic film.”

Mr Leonard said the article was also published on the MailOnline website, but was amended just over nine hours later to correct the reference to Ms Stark, before having all references to her removed in 2021.

He continued: “The defendant’s publication of the article and the false statements about her caused the claimant very considerable distress and upset.

“The defendant has accepted that the article’s reference to Ms Stark was defamatory and without justification … The defendant has agreed to pay the claimant substantial damages.”

Gemma McNeil-Walsh, for Associated Newspapers, Mr Greig and Mr Greaves, said: “The defendant through me offers its sincere apologies to the claimant for the distress, embarrassment and upset caused to her by the publication of the Daily Mail article.

“The defendant accepts there was and is no truth in the allegation advanced about the claimant and is happy to set the record straight.”

An apology was also published in Friday’s print edition of the Daily Mail.

Judge Mrs Justice Collins Rice said: “I note the very full apology, the payment of substantial damages and this statement.

“Ms Stark is entitled to consider herself, and be considered as, fully vindicated.”