Socialite Sues Hubby, Says He Spied on Her, Prince

Today’s travel tip: Next time you’re in a beach bungalow in Hawaii enjoying a quiet dinner with a handsome English prince, draw the blinds. Melissa M. Lincoln may well wish she had.

The Newport Beach socialite, 40, has sued her estranged husband for allegedly invading her privacy and making her the subject of British scandal sheets, which are calling her the “hottest woman in England,” according to a Daily Mirror editor.

She contends in the suit filed this week that husband J.D. Lincoln, 63, videotaped her with Prince Andrew, whom she met on an airplane. She was “charmed,” her lawyer says, and had him over for dinner at a bungalow in Hawaii in June.

A few weeks later, the suit contends, she found herself pursued by relentless British tabloids and discovered that her husband had hired a private investigator to spy on her because he thought she might have an affair with actor Kevin Costner.

Lincoln’s husband had told the newspapers about the rendezvous, she says, sullying her name by giving them details about their sex life and nude photos of her, and insinuating that she had had sex with the prince--a claim she denies.

“This was a very, very big story in England,” said Victoria Newton, the correspondent for the British tabloid Sun who wrote the original story. “From a distance, she is quite elegant. . . . And of course Prince Andrew is single now. I don’t know what happened in that room that night; all you could see in the video was that they greeted each other with a kiss on the cheek.”

Though Lincoln is not filing for divorce, the lawsuit says her husband “acted with a wanton and reckless disregard of her rights and feelings.” The suit also alleges that her husband has physically and emotionally abused her over the course of their marriage since 1992. She is seeking unspecified damages.

Lincoln’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said that the mini-scandal is “objectionable and hurtful,” and that British reporters would not leave Lincoln alone.

According to the suit, Prince Andrew and Lincoln arranged dinner in her bungalow.

During the evening, according to those who wrote about the story, the prince’s bodyguards caught a private investigator outside in the bushes who allegedly was videotaping the pair for J.D. Lincoln.