‘I would never have told’: Prince Harry’s lover opens up about tryst

The woman to whom Prince Harry lost his virginity has said she is “shocked” the royal described their secret encounter in such detail in his controversial memoir.

The woman who Prince Harry lost his virginity to has opened up about the “shock” she feels after the prince laid bare details of their intimate encounter in his memoir, Spare.

Sasha Walpole kept details of her tryst with Prince Harry secret for nearly 22 years — but when the prince wrote about it in his memoir it became a “ticking time bomb”.

The Duke of Sussex, who at 38 is just two years younger than Ms Walpole, sparked a frenzy after his explosive memoir Spare revealed that he had first had sex with an older lover when he was aged 17.

Sasha Walpole, second from left, with Prince Harry and friends in June 2001 at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire, weeks before her encounter with the royal. Picture: Getty Images

Sasha Walpole looks on as a teenage Prince Harry kisses a friend. Picture: Getty Images

Prince Harry has a laugh with a friend as Sasha Walpole, on left, looks on. Picture: Getty Images

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Sun, Ms Walpole said her phone started to blow up with messages after the prince described the incident in detail.

She immediately felt her “world got smaller” as people started to joke about her intimate moment with Prince Harry in July, 2001.

Ms Walpole, a former Highgrove groom, told the Sun she feared it was “only a matter of time” before she was revealed as the “older woman” who had sex with the prince in a paddock behind a pub.

“I was shocked and feel like he has brought this to my door,” she said.

“I don’t understand why he went into such detail. He could have said he lost his virginity and left it at that.

Sasha Walpole has revealed to The Sun on Sunday that she is the older woman Prince Harry lost his virginity to. Picture: The Sun/screen grab

“But he described how it happened — in a field behind a pub.

“That’s fine if you’re not the other person involved.

“But if you’re me, then you suddenly feel as if your world is getting a little bit smaller.

“He has done this to my privacy because I was going to keep my head down and not talk about it.

“If it wasn’t in the book none of this would be happening.”

Prince Harry’s candid disclosure kicked off a global guessing game about the identity of his older lover.

“I can sit quietly and hope it goes away, but then it is like a ticking time bomb and you’re looking over your shoulder,” Ms Walpole said.

Prince Harry shocked Sasha Walpole with his intimate revelations. Picture: Supplied

“The issue is that people know because they were part of that night or part of our original social circle. Possibly, Harry could have thought about that before publishing. He could have found me if he had tried.

“I wanted to take control of this before it took control of me.

“I kept it a secret for more than 21 years, because it came from a good place.

“It was just a nice, funny thing that happened when we were teenagers after a night of shots.

“It was literally just something that happened. And I would never have talked about it if the book hadn’t been published.

“I’m not that sort of person. I don’t really seek fame or fortune.

“If I was going to talk about it, I could have done so a long time ago. When it came out, I was like, ‘Just hide, it can be fine’.

“I thought it might blow over but then I gradually started hearing stories. So I had to take a degree of control and tell my story, in my words, with all the correct context and detail.

“There was talk that the woman was some kind of supermodel — I am not a supermodel, we were just friends.”

Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. Picture: Netflix

DRUNKEN ENCOUNTER

The drunken encounter — which she said took place after they had downed ten shots of tequila, Baileys and Sambuca — took place when Prince Harry was just 16, a year younger than his autobiography claims, The Sun on Sunday reports.

Ms Walpole told The Sun on Sunday: “I am the woman who took Harry’s virginity. It was ­literally wham-bam between two friends.

“The sex was passionate and sparky because we shouldn’t have been doing it.

“One thing just quickly led to another. We ended up on the floor.”

Ms Walpole said she and Prince Harry had been friends before the incident.

Prince Harry with Prince William at a polo match in July 2001, when the alleged encounter took place. Picture: Getty Images

“It wasn’t Prince Harry to me. It was Harry, my friend — and something that got a little bit out of control. It just so happened that he was a prince,” she told The Sun on Sunday.

“Afterwards I did grab his bum and gave him a slap. It was with one hand. He had a lovely peachy bum — but he was young.”

Prince Harry in 2003, when he was a student at Eton. Picture: AP

Ms Walpole, a mother of two who now works as a digger driver, said she was speaking out as she had been shocked by the revelations in Spare.

She told The Sun on Sunday: “No one warned me about the night being included in the book – and Harry, or his people, could have found me to tell me if they had wanted to do so.

“I lead a peaceful life — I didn’t invite this.”

The revelations come amid reports the Sussexes’ friendship with Oprah Winfrey is on the rocks.

Prince Harry with Prince William, the then Prince Charles, and the Queen Mother in August 2001. Picture: Getty Images

Prince Harry in New York while promoting his tell-all book, Spare. Picture: Gotham/GC Images

The Times reports that Meghan Markle’s glaring absence from the talk show guru’s 69th birthday celebrations has raised eyebrows in Hollywood.

Some believe that the Sussexes’ star is waning in power circles following the release of Spare and the pair’s Netflix series, The Times reports.

“I think people are starting to hesitate in associating with them because they seem to be a dramatic pair that fixates on the negative,” Kinsey Schofield, an American royal commentator and podcast host, told The Times.

But the Sussexes were present at Portia de Rossi’s 50th birthday celebration in Montecitio last week where the former Geelong actress renewed her vows to wife, Ellen DeGeneres in a ceremony officiated by Kris Jenner.

– with the Sun