Koo Stark wins libel damages after website article called her ‘porn star’

A FORMER girlfriend of the Duke of York has been given “substantial” damages after suing the owner of a website which suggested that she was a “porn actress”.

Koo Stark, 63, took legal action against Viacom International Media Networks, which owns MTV Networks, over an article online in 2018.

Detail of the litigation was outlined to a High Court judge yesterday by a lawyer representing Ms Stark, inset, who was in a relationship with the duke during the 1980s when he was known as Prince Andrew.

Solicitor Jonathan Coad told Mr Justice Warby at a High Court hearing in London that at one time Ms Stark had been widely expected to marry the prince.

He said allegations made against Ms Stark in the article, headlined “When Prince Andrew dated a porn star”, were defamatory.

Mr Coad said Ms Stark was an American photographer and actress.

He said she had never participated in “any enterprise” which could “properly be described as pornographic”.

Mr Coad said Viacom had undertaken not to repeat the allegations and had paid Ms Stark a “substantial sum of money by way of damages”.

He said the company had also agreed to pick up Ms Stark’s lawyers’ bills.

Ms Stark was not in court to hear Mr Coad read out a statement to the judge.

Mr Coad told the judge that the article concerned a forthcoming MTV series called Royal World, citing “dramatic moments” from the history of the royal family. One carried the headline “When Prince Andrew dated a porn star”.

Mr Coad said the allegations made against Ms Stark in the article were defamatory and published to a “very large number of individuals”. The judge was told that the “words at issue” meant Ms Stark was a “porn actress”.

“Ms Stark, who was at one time widely expected to marry HRH Prince Andrew, has never participated in any pornographic film, posed for pornographic photographs, or participated in any enterprise which could be properly described as pornographic,” said Mr Coad.