Alexandra Escat - the thriller from Manila

Alexandra Escat looks suspiciously at me when, after she tells me London is her favourite city in the world, I ask if she has ever been to the East End of London. 'What does "the East End of London" mean?' she asks. Her gorgeous eyes narrow. 'What is that? A place?'

This Spanish-Filipina model is lissom, lovely and would do well to make herself better acquainted with the intricacies of London geography, for she may be about to spend a lot more time here. The focus of much intrigue and mystery, she insists she has never married, contrary to initial reports ('I'm such a bad bride. There was no wedding!'), nor has she ever had Botox: 'I'm just a young girl,' she announces three times during our interview. But she is, undeniably, a great friend of Prince Andrew.

The princely association began in August last year when Alexandra, 25, and Andrew, old enough to know better, were photographed on the deck of a mutual friend's yacht off Sardinia, her cutaway one-piece glinting in the sunlight as he clasped her hand in both of his and kissed it passionately. They were talking about military history, she explains. 'I got a question wrong and he took my hand and said, "You're lovely."It's a friendship,' she says. 'Natural, relaxed, summertime friendship.'

But the world took a less languid approach to Andrew and Alexandra's sunshine shen-anigans. The photographs were printed in papers around the globe. 'We got the newspapers on the yacht every day and when we saw the pictures, I was super-shocked,' she trills. New pictures emerged of them boarding a private jet together: 'The stories went on for weeks. It was so draining.' In interviews she reported the contents of their private conversations, such as how 'lucky' he had been to find Fergie to 'share his cross' and so forth. Alexandra insisted that it was not a romance. Andrew started 'bombarding' her with text messages. They all said one thing: 'Please hold your tongue.'

This is difficult for Alexandra. 'I'm a people person. Communicating with people gives me energy.' She is a natural on Twitter, and shares her thoughts 'without even thinking about it'. Composed in her own idiom, with original spelling, her Tweets meditate upon the ups and downs of life as an It-Girl. 'S jetsettin unhealthy or jst stresful?' she ponders. She wishes she could teleport: 'That wud be a dream. Scooty, beem me up!' Next she turns to the hazards of working in fashion PR in Milan, her current job: 'Got almost killed in a stampede when George Clooney entered!! My gosh!'

She grew up between Manila and Madrid, the daughter of a Filipina mother Sandra, a business
graduate, and Spanish father Javier, who works in import-export. 'After high school in Manila I stayed there for a year and I did some modelling and I became quite popular in the media – cocktail party here, fashion show here, Alexandra goes out with her girlfriends there My parents became used to seeing me in the newspapers. They have a whole cabinet of my articles and shoots.' As the only daughter, is she treated like a princess by her family? 'Yah. Exactly!'

A bottle of champagne arrives courtesy of the hotel we are in, The May Fair, and when the cork pops, she cries 'Hallelujah!' 'In the Philippines the woman has to be very polite, demure, feminine. I always have to remember that I am the daughter of my parents. It's a nice, collective mentality. Over here or in Spain you can be more independent, you can think about who you are as an individual. I can be more wild and drink wine.' She clinks glasses with me. 'Cheers, London girl!'

In Manila, she modelled for Pond's face cream and became the face of a mobile phone company. But bigger things beckoned. 'It's a bubble society. You're big in Manila and you think you're on top of the world but no, it's just Manila.' She went to Madrid to study business and communications ('I have a double family: two Filipina sisters married two Spanish brothers, so when I was studying in Madrid I had, like, another set of parents looking after me there'). Next she did some promotional work for Formula 1 – and met Flavio Briatore? 'Of course. You can sit me next to a president or a philosophy student and I'm not intimidated.' Has she met Goga Ashkenazi, the Kazakh It-Girl who also befriended Prince Andrew? 'She's a hi-bye friend. "Hi, how are you?""Great. Bye."She has style, but how can I be compared to Goga? I'm learning. I'm still a little girl.' Alex is proud not to own any diamonds. 'Diamonds when you're under 30 are tacky.' She lives for what she calls the 'cherry-on' moments, such as pitching herself into the sea off a superyacht. 'I'm a jumper!'

Spontaneously, Alexandra starts tossing her hair. 'I have super-thick hair,' she exclaims. 'And my eyelashes are super-long. Look!' She shuts her eyes and juts her long face towards me rather like a hungry foal. 'I should get a contract from a mascara company!' She flutters her eyelids hopefully. Watch out world, Princess Catherine might have some competition on her hands.