The American actress to whom Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew are referring to in their lunch meeting is Koo Stark (born Kathleen Norris Stark), who dated Prince Andrew for eighteen months, from February 1981 until 1983, and also starred in the film Emily (1976). In 1997, Prince Andrew became the godfather of Stark's daughter.
This was Gillian Anderson's winning submission for the 2021 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
At his lunch with the queen, Prince Andrew takes glee in shocking his mother with a plot summary of The Awakening of Emily, the "blue" movie (as he describes it) in which his girlfriend, Koo Stark, had starred. He says, "[The movie] follows an impressionable, nubile 17-year-old girl, Koo. The story is that she returns home from a finishing school in Switzerland to her mother's country house....Anyway, there she meets several twisted and perverted older predators who seduce the vulnerable, helpless young Emily." Queen Elizabeth conveys her distaste for the subject: "Seventeen? I'm not sure I want to know more.... Are you sure it was even legal?" When Andrew responds flippantly, "Who cares?" she responds, "it might come as a shock to you to know that I care." This episode aired a decade into a long scandal that Prince Andrew has been embroiled in since the early 2010s: Andrew's widely reported friendship with and connection to disgraced American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In 2011, the scandal caused Andrew to have to resign from his position as the UK's special envoy for trade and investment. In 2014, a Florida court filing alleged that Prince Andrew was one of several prominent men who engaged in sexual activities with a then-seventeen-year-old minor who was allegedly sex-trafficked by Epstein. At the time this episode aired, a number of TV writers and critics noticed that this mention of a 17-year-old girl having sex with a number of "twisted and perverted older predators" seemed to be a reference to the Epstein scandal. In her article about the episode in "The Wrap," Margeaux Sippell wrote, "Yes, that really is the plot of 'The Awakening of Emily,' but if it sounds otherwise familiar, take a look back at the testimonies of some of Epstein's victims." In "The Cut," Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz writes, "The whole scene seems to be thinly veiled nod at the real-life prince Andrew, who was friends with Epstein for decades, even after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution." Caroline Siede's AV Club recap of the episode notes, "Andrew's giddy excitement over his girlfriend's movie about a 17-year-old being seduced by 'twisted and perverted older predators' is The Crown's somewhat clunky way of acknowledging his present-day circumstances. (As of 2019, Prince Andrew has suspended all public duties over his involvement with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.)" In January 2022, Buckingham Palace announced that Andrew had further been obliged to relinquish all his military titles and royal charities, as well as the title "His Royal Highness," and he would have to defend the case against him "as a private citizen."
By most accounts, the Queen spent more time with Andrew and Edward. She was more comfortable playing the mother to them than she had been with Anne and Charles. Edward's wife, Sophia, is a favorite of the Queen's. She is often afforded time with the Queen in ways the other daughters-in-law never were.
Prince Andrew being the Queen's favourite is not universally agreed-upon. Although it is floated around after every scandal he's embroiled in, among the family and close staff Prince Edward has always been viewed as Elizabeth's favourite. Edward is also the only one of her sons that didn't inherit a dukedom upon marriage (she did make him Earl of Wessex). In 1999, at the time of Edward's marriage, it was announced that he was due to receive his father's title of Duke of Edinburgh upon Prince Philip's death, further cementing the notion that her favourite child would receive the dukedom she perceives as the most honored. But when Philip did die on April 9, 2021, the title was instead inherited by Prince Charles; it was reported by some media that the title will now instead go to Edward upon the queen's death.