Antonia de Sancha (born 14 September 1961 in Hammersmith, London) is an English actress and businesswoman known to have had an affair with British Conservative Member of Parliament and Cabinet member David Mellor in 1992. The affair led to Mellor's resignation from the cabinet on 24 September 1992.
Although she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, at the time of the scandal de Sancha was described by some news outlets as a "soft-porn actress" because she had played the part of a prostitute in a film in which she had simulated sex. The film "The Pieman" also featured John Hemming-Clark, leader of political party Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital, as de Sancha's husband.
Believing her acting career was ruined and aware that newspapers were making money out of the story and she wasn't, de Sancha hired publicist Max Clifford to sell her story to various newspapers. She made about £30,000 from those sales.
The furore that followed publication left her deeply unhappy. "It was emotional rape," de Sancha told an interviewer ten years after the scandal referring to the bugging of her flat which led to the affair being made public. She has had scarcely any work as an actress since the scandal, and considers the scandal as the reason a subsequent marriage failed.
She was the subject of an instalment of the Discovery Channel documentary series The Mistress in 2002.
De Sancha now runs an Indian textiles importing business in Portobello Road, Kensington, west London.