Stark met Prince Andrew in February 1981, and they were close for some two years, before and after his active service in the Falklands War. Tina Brown has claimed that this was Andrew's only serious love affair. In October 1982 they took a holiday together on the island of Mustique. According to Lady Colin Campbell, Andrew was in love, and the Queen was "much taken with the elegant, intelligent, and discreet Koo". However, in 1983, after 18 months of dating, they split up under pressure from the Queen. In 1988, she brought a successful libel action against "The Mail on Sunday" over an untrue story headed 'Koo dated Andy after she wed'. In 1989, "The Spectator" reported that she had received £300,000 from one newspaper "for years of inaccurate persecution" and was also collecting money from others. In 1997, Prince Andrew became the godfather of Stark's daughter, and in 2015, when the Prince was accused by Virginia Roberts over the Jeffrey Epstein connection, Stark came to his defence, stating that he was a good man and she could help to rebut the claims.