The woman with whom Prince Harry had first-time sex in a field behind a pub—as recounted in his memoir Spare—has said she felt forced to identify herself to stop the “hunt” for her and to take back control of the situation. She added that she had kept the secret for over twenty years and would never have said anything had Harry not publicly recounted the episode.
Sasha Walpole, 40, who was a royal groom at King Charles’ home, Highgrove, when she had sex with Harry but now works as digger driver and landscaper, told her story to U.K. newspapers The Sun on Sunday and The Mail on Sunday.
She said: “At first I thought I could hide and that it would blow over. But as the names of different women, some of whom I know, became public I realized that to make the speculation stop, I needed to tell the truth.
“At least now I can tell my story, in my words, with the correct context and detail, and without panicking. I can stop looking over my shoulder. I wanted to take control of the situation before it took control of me…I would never have spoken out if Harry hadn’t. I’m not that sort of person. If I was going to talk about it, I could have done so a long time ago. He has brought it to my door by writing about it.”
Walpole added: “I kept this a secret for 21 years. I did it because Harry was a friend, regardless of whether he’s a prince or not. I didn’t invite any of this attention, but I know the hunt would have kept going until people found me. 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.”
Walpole said that she began to panic and worry that she would, “wake up one morning and find a barrage of cameras outside my house.” In his book, Harry described the “inglorious” encounter as “a quick ride, after which she’d smacked my rump and sent me off to graze.”
Walpole said: “I don’t mind him saying that because it isn’t really very glorious, is it? We were drunk and having sex in a field. It’s his sense of humor. [We were part of] a massive horse scene, and the slap happened in a horsey context, the book is a funny interpretation of that. His description is accurate—the real shock when I saw what he’d written was how true it was. That’s what took me back the most. I’m not offended. Afterwards I did grab his bum and give him a slap. I gave him a little squeeze as well. He had a peachy bum.”
She added: “I don’t think people will be amazed about me and Harry having sex in a field, but they are usually astonished by a woman driving a digger.”
