SASHA Walpole kept details of her romp with Harry secret for nearly 22 years — but when the prince wrote about it in his book it became a “ticking timebomb”.
As news broke that he had included a lurid account of how he lost his virginity in memoir Spare, Sasha’s phone started to ping with messages.
Sasha Walpole kept details of her romp with Harry secret for nearly 22 years
Sasha feared it was only a matter of time before she was revealed as the ‘older woman’ who had sex with Prince Harry
She immediately felt her “world got smaller” as people started to gossip and joke about her romp with Harry in 2001.
And Sasha feared it was only a matter of time before she was revealed as the “older woman” who had sex with the young prince in a field behind a pub.
In an exclusive interview at her Wiltshire home, married mum-of- two Sasha, who at 40 is only a couple of years older than Harry, said: “I was shocked and feel like he has brought this to my door.
“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 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.”
Harry’s disclosure sparked a worldwide guessing game about the identity of his older lover.
Actress Liz Hurley, 57, even denied in an interview that she took the prince’s virginity.
Asked if she was responsible, she said: “Not me. Not guilty. Ha!”, before going on to add: “No. Not me. Absolutely not.”
Sasha said: “I can sit quietly and hope it goes away, but then it is like a ticking timebomb and you’re looking over your shoulder.
“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 — who now lives in Montecito, California, with wife Meghan, 41, and their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, one — has repeatedly said he moved to the States to “protect” his family.
The Duke of Sussex has complained about being buzzed by photographers.
And in the past he has said: “Everyone has a right to privacy. Sadly, that line between public and private life is almost non-existent any more.”
Sasha found true love with hubby Ian – pictured at their wedding in 2016
Sasha got messages from pals, and people she hadn’t heard from in years, after Harry’s book release. She said: ‘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’
Yet Harry wrote about losing his virginity in eye-popping detail in the book.
He explains how in 2001 — while still a student at Eton College — a royal aide, Mark Dyer, quizzed him.
Harry wrote: “I suspected he was referring to my recent loss of virginity. Inglorious episode, with an older woman. She liked horses, quite a lot, and treated me not unlike a young stallion.
“Quick ride, after which she’d smacked my rump and sent me off to graze. Among the many things about it that were wrong, it happened in a grassy field behind a busy pub. Obviously someone had seen us.”
Other women linked to Harry’s virginity loss were former model Suzannah Harvey, 44, and polo-playing Emma Tomlinson, 47.
Interior designer Catherine Ommanney, 51 — who admitted snogging Harry when he was 21 — also ruled herself out.
Sasha was watching Disney+ series Willow at her home near Warminster when the first message arrived about the story at 9.55pm on Thursday, January 5.
The text — a screenshot of a newspaper story from an Instagram site called Dapper Laughs — read: “Prince Harry lost his virginity in a field behind a pub to an older woman who treated him ‘like a young stallion,’ he reveals in his autobiography.”
Sasha, who grew up with a close circle of friends who knew her secret, replied to her pal Gemma: “F**************CK.”
Another friend, Bryony, also sent a message mocking Sasha about the story, which wrongly said the romp took place behind the Rattlebone Inn in Sherston, Wilts.
Sasha replied: “It’s in his book apparently . . . wrong pub!”
And Bryony said: “Yeah in the book, you older woman you.”
She also sent Sasha emojis of elderly, grey-haired ladies.
Sasha explained: “That was a laugh on social media, everyone making fun of everything.
“My friend, who I had lived with a few years, knew about it.
“Obviously a lot of people back home know. I laughed about the older woman thing.
“He could have been throwing people off the scent or thought I was older, but we were young.
“I knew Harry was writing a book. But that was the first I’d heard about this.
“Panic cut in. I was just like, ‘s**t’, disbelief. I wasn’t cross, but astonished — and wondered why he needed to put it in there.
“I don’t mind him saying ‘inglorious’ as it really isn’t glorious being drunk in a field and having sex!
“And 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.
“Maybe he was trying to throw people off the scent a bit in the way that he described me.”
Sasha shares her family home with hubby Ian — who she started dating in late 2001 and married in 2016 — and their two young girls.
She told racing driver Ian about Harry after his pals pointed out polo pictures showing her alongside the young prince.
Sasha broke her silence to ‘take back control’ of the situation
Sasha said: “When I showed him the message, he just laughed. Luckily he knew about it. Ian is quite laid-back, so he wasn’t bothered.”
He had known from the start of their relationship.
Sasha said: “I think we were out for a drink and I just kind of mentioned it. He didn’t know Harry as he’s from a different area and was never part of that scene.
“When I first met him the polo pictures came out.
“We went to his friend’s house for a cup of tea and they rang Ian later and said, ‘Does that girl you brought round know Prince Harry?’
“He said, ‘I don’t know, why?’
“He said he’d been reading a magazine and there was a picture of me in there with Harry.”
After she told Ian that night she told her sister.
Sasha said: “I left and came back and rang my sister Jodie.”
She said of the recent royal rumpus: “It flared up because of the way Harry has written it.
“That is why I am in this situation. But there is no bitterness.
“It is his story, and he’s entitled to write what he wants.”
As it developed on January 6, Sasha received dozens of messages, including from people she had not heard from in years.
She was worried about being approached and consulted a solicitor for advice.
Sasha has now taken the spotlight off other women who were linked with Harry
But by telling her story, Sasha has now taken the spotlight off other women who were linked with Harry.
She said: “With the other women who have been mentioned, I guess that’s the nature of the beast that they were approached.
“But it would have kept on going until people found me, if I hadn’t spoken about it.
“I knew Emma Tomlinson back then. We were friends, she is lovely. She was more of William’s friend than Harry’s. I don’t know how much she’s been questioned.
“But to make it stop you need to rip off a plaster and tell the truth.”
She added: “Possibly, Harry could have taken a thought about this before writing it.
“It would have been different if he just talked about losing his virginity, but he went down the road of describing what happened.
“I was going to keep my head down. It is only four lines in the book, but the way they were written created curiosity.
“So I decided to come forward and gain control over something that could spiral out of control.”
