Sasha Walpole – the woman who came out as Prince Harry’s virginity in a field behind a pub and then slapped his bum like a “stallion” – is back to business as usual today.
The mother-of-two, now 40, had said all she wanted was to “hide under my rock” and get her job done after the Duke of Sussex named her the first person he’d ever had sex with had helped.
And today she did just that, expertly driving a digger and a dump truck at a Wiltshire construction site while her royal former lover was more than 5,300 miles away with his ex-actress and their two children at a $14.6 million Californian mansion reveled.
Wearing a black top with a pulled-up hood, Ms Walpole was moving rubble and earth with heavy machinery on a cold winter morning in south-west England.
Sasha Walpole, the woman who took Prince Harry’s virginity in a field behind a pub, is back at work today driving her digger
The mother of two drove a digger and a dump truck on a construction site in Wiltshire
Sasha said she was forced to speak out, claiming that Harry effectively outed her
Sasha was thrust into the limelight after Harry (pictured together in 2001) decided to share in his book how he lost his virginity to her, which gave big clues as to who she was. They are here together in the same year that they became intimate after a night out in a pub
Sasha was thrust into the limelight by Harry, who wrote in his memoir how he lost his virginity in a field behind a busy pub with an older woman with a love of horses who treated him like a “cold stallion”.
She and other women involved were shocked and saddened by his decision to record the most intimate details of his love life.
Harry wrote of how a horse-loving “elderly woman” treated him “like a young colt” and after a “fast ride” “slapped me on the rump and sent me to graze”. Harry was 16 at the time and Mrs Walpole was celebrating her 19th birthday.
His vivid description of the “inglorious episode” provoked international intrigue over the identity of the mysterious lover, leading to a number of women becoming self-excluded.
Knowing it was only a matter of time before her name was leaked, former Highgrove groom Mrs Walpole decided to tell her story to The Mail on Sunday.
It wasn’t until July 2001 that she told her mother and sister about the liaison. But her father remained clueless for 21 years – until the release of Spare sparked a worldwide guessing game and forced her to tell him.
“It’s something your parents should probably never read,” said Ms. Walpole, a mother of two and a veteran backhoe operator.
“The day after I had sex with Harry, I was at home in the kitchen and told my mother, but I didn’t give any details. I think she just said, “OK.” She trusted me, she knew I was on the pill.
“I thought we told Dad too, but now I realize he wasn’t listening because he didn’t want to hear what his teenage daughter was doing.”
The family never spoke of the encounter again until Harry released his infamous description last month.
Shortly after Spare came out, Mrs. Walpole telephoned her father to ask if he should submit her version of events to the press.
“I was on my way to Morrisons to get groceries,” she said. “First we talked about a job and then I said, ‘I just don’t know what to do when I have to speak up.’ He didn’t respond. Normally Dad would give his advice. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he just didn’t know.
“I thought, ‘I’m sure he knows.’ The next day I spoke to Mum and said, “Does Dad know?” She said, “I think so.” She spoke to him and he said, “I didn’t know.” He explained that he probably wasn’t listening [back in 2001] because he didn’t want to know.’
Sasha is one of several women discussed by Harry when describing his love life
After various interviews, Sasha said that she wanted to work again – and she does
Mum-of-two Sasha Walpole (pictured in her bagger) claims Harry kissed her after he asked her if she wanted to go outside for a cigarette during her 19th birthday party in 2001
Backhoe driver Sasha says she was forced to say she was the mystery horse lover who had a “passionate” five-minute sex session with the Duke in Pub Field
The Vine Tree Pub, Norton, Wiltshire, where Prince Harry had sex with Sasha Walpole in a field, which the Duke sensationally revealed in his bombshell memoir Spare
Aerial photos of the Vine Tree pub show the surrounding fields, where Sasha says the couple had sex
This meant Mr Alvis was then forced to read and listen to all the details about his daughter.
Mrs Walpole said: “It’s embarrassing because of what Harry wrote about me slapping his butt, really spasmodic.
“It flared up because Harry wrote it. That’s why I’m in this situation. Harry posted it there.
“If Dad has an opinion on what Harry did, he wouldn’t say it. He wouldn’t stew on it as long as I’m fine. My parents’ concern is for my safety. They just want me to be okay.’
Although it is a “private” couple, Ms Walpole’s parents supported her decision to comment.
She said she was “relieved” that the truth was finally coming out. “I don’t have to worry anymore and I can go back to my life,” she said.
“There are no regrets. It was a moment of madness and life is about experiences.
“I have no idea what Harry was thinking when he read it. He hasn’t contacted me and I don’t think he will. I’m not the same girl as I was then and he’s not the same boy anymore. As far as I’m concerned, it’s done and I don’t have to live in fear of it coming out.
Sasha and Prince Harry pictured as teenagers. Left to right: Emma Lippiatt, Sasha Walpole (née Alvis), Prince Harry and Lizzie Ward at Beaufort Polo Club near Tetbury, Gloucestershire
The Miss Piggy Toy that Harry bought Sasha for her birthday. The Duke bought it at Thorpe Park and gave it to her at her party with a card
The birthday card Prince Harry wrote to his close friend Sasha Walpole in 2001. It reads, “Sasha, happy birthday and don’t get too mad! Luckily I’ll be there to take care of you, love, Baz… PS. Thank you for everything’
Ms Walpole has received hundreds of messages of support from the public, calling her “authentic” and praising her for making history her own – away from Prince Harry.
“I’m so grateful that people understood that I had to do this,” she said. ‘I’m so happy.’
Ms Walpole was also dubbed a “dark horse” by her shocked friends, who had no idea she had slept with Harry until her revelation.
She told how she and the young prince became friends when she was groom at King Charles’ future Gloucestershire estate of Highgrove. Ms Walpole had invited the then 16-year-old to her 19th birthday party at The Vine Tree pub in the village of Norton, Wiltshire, in July 2001.
Harry came with a stuffed Miss Piggy and a comedy birthday card with a joke about a bloated whale on the front.
When she was down over an ex, Harry cheered her up by giving them ten shots. But when they snuck out of the pub for a sly Marlboro Light cigarette, they eventually climbed over a fence to make love in a field.
“He started kissing me,” she told the Mail on Sunday. “It was passionate, intense. We both knew. It went from a kiss to the floor pretty quickly.
“It was instant, fiery, wham bam, between two friends. It was sparkling because we shouldn’t have. He wasn’t “Prince Harry” to me, that was Harry my friend and the situation had gotten a little out of hand. I suppose it felt naughty in the sense that it wasn’t supposed to happen.
“We didn’t intend to do that – it wasn’t intentional and I didn’t know he was a virgin. There were no virgin vibes – he seemed to know what he was doing. It was fast, wild, exciting. We were both drunk. It wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t.”
She then returned to the pub while Harry hid in a phone booth where his security detail found him.