Woman who took Harry’s virginity explains why she has gone public

The “older” woman who took Prince Harry’s virginity has explained why she decided to go public, placing the blame squarely on him.

The woman who says she took Prince Harry’s virginity has explained why she decided to go public, saying the Duke of Sussex’s book turned her secret into a “ticking timebomb”.

In an interview with The Sun, published on Sunday, UK time, Sasha Walpolerevealed herself to be the “older woman” who had sex with Harry behind a busy pub in 2001.

Ms Walpole, 40, is two years older than Harry, who was 17 at the time of their coupling.

In his memoir Spare, the Duke described it as a “humiliating” episode and said the unnamed woman had treated him like a “young stallion”.

“I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and sent me away,” he wrote.

“One of my many mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a very busy pub. No doubt someone had seen us.”

Ms Walpole said her fears for her own privacy spurred her to come forward.

Prince Harry. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Sasha Walpole. Picture: The Sun

“I was shocked, and feel like he has brought this to my door,” Ms Walpole told The Sun, describing her reaction to Harry describing their encounter in his book.

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

“I was going to keep my head down and not talk about it. If it wasn’t in the book, none of this wouldn’t be happening.

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

Ms Walpole said her phone started to ping with dozens messages when the story of how Harry lost his virginity became public knowledge, many of them from people she hadn’t spoken to in years.

Worried about being approached, she went to a lawyer for advice.

“So many people realised it was me. I was shocked and didn’t know what to think. I hoped it’d go away but it didn’t,” she said.

Sasha (rears) looks on as Prince Harry greets another friend with a kiss at the polo. (Photo by Antony Jones/UK Press via Getty Images)

“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’d 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.

“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 with his wife, Meghan. Picture: Toby Melville/Getty Images

Recounting the tryst to The Sun, Ms Walpole said “one thing just quickly led to another”.

“I am the woman who took Harry’s virginity,” she said.

“It was wham-bam between two friends. The sex was passionate and sparky because we shouldn’t have been doing it.”

She said the pair had been drinking multiple shots of tequila at the Vine Tree Inn in Wiltshire as part of an event to celebrate her 19th birthday. They went outside for a cigarette, and ended up on the ground together.

“It was exciting that it was happening the way it was. We were away for 15 minutes, but the sex was about five minutes,” she recalled.

“We didn’t set out to do it and it wasn’t premeditated. He was young. We had been purely friends, and it was a little bit naughty, in the sense that it shouldn’t have been happening.”

The revelation in Harry’s book caused an avalanche of speculation about who the woman involved might be, with most people assuming she was significantly older than him. As it happens, Ms Walpole was only 19 at the time.

Actress Liz Hurley, now 57, was even asked whether she was the person in question during an interview.

“Not me. Not guilty. Ha!” Hurley responded.

“No. Not me. Absolutely not.”

In her interview with The Sun, Ms Walpole joked about being described as an older woman and said she’d shared a laugh with friends about it.

“I laughed about the older woman thing,” she said.

“He could have been throwing people off the scent or thought I was older, but we were young ... maybe he thought I was an older woman. When you’re 16 and somebody is nearly 19, you probably are seen as the older woman.”

She met her husband, Ian, later in 2001. They now have two children together.

“Ian is quite laid back, so he wasn’t bothered,” said Ms Walpole.

She said she harboured no bitterness for Harry, who was “entitled to write what he wants”, though she hoped outing herself would stop people from speculating about other women.

“With the other women who have been mentioned, I guess that’s the nature of the beast,” she said.

“But it would have kept going until people found me if I hadn’t spoken about it.”