Woman Prince Harry lost his virginity to Sasha Walpole says search was 'never ... trends now

The 'older woman' described by Prince Harry in his explosive memoir Spare as the person he lost his virginity to, Sasha Walpole, has told Piers Morgan the Duke of Sussex 'could have given [her] the heads up' that he was going to include their tryst in his book.

The 40-year-old mother of two revealed her identity in this week's Mail on Sunday after keeping their moment of passion a secret for 21 years - and has now explained why she felt the need to come forward.

In an interview with Piers Morgan to be aired tomorrow, Ms Walpole said she realised after the memoir was released that speculation over the incident was 'never going to stop'.

At just over two years the Prince's senior, she is much younger than most of the women whose names had been suggested in the frenzy of curiosity about her identity. 

Sasha had invited Harry, then a 16-year-old Eton schoolboy, to the pub to celebrate her 19th birthday when a quick cigarette turned into a romp in the field, that ended their two-and-a-half year friendship and the pair did not speak to one another again. 

In a clip of an interview with the former Good Morning Britain host, Ms Walpole described fearing constant 'flare ups' unless she spoke out publicly about her identity.

She said: 'People are asking, family and friends. We know who it is, and then suddenly it's just a reality of "This isn't going to go away".

'Forever this is going to flare up. Until they know who it is, they're going to be questioning people. 

'And yes I could not have said anything but then it's never going to stop.'

She added: 'He could have given me the heads up that you know, "I'm going to put it in the book".'

It echoes her comments to the Mail on Sunday, when she said: 'It is his story, and he's entitled to write what he wants. 

'He didn't name me but people who were there that night, or simply part of that social circle, would be able to work out it was me.

'Possibly, Harry could have thought about that before publishing. He could have found me if he had tried.'

Ms Walpole met Prince Harry when she began working at Highgrove as an assistant groomer, aged just 17.

They quickly became friends out of a common understanding, Ms Walpole said: 'Everyone was equal in the world of horses.

'Our group was a very mixed bunch of polo players, grooms, hunt staff and racing people, a cosmopolitan crowd. 

'It didn't matter if you were a groom, a Royal or a rider. There was no judgment.

'Harry didn't act like a Prince, there wasn't any snobbery. Honestly, we were just two mates who talked horses.' 

Ms Walpole claimed that Harry made the first move, leading to their 'spontaneous and sparky' sex in a field behind The Vine Tree pub in the Wiltshire village of Norton. 

The pair were such close friends that Harry had brought her a stuffed Miss Piggy and a comedy birthday card with a joke about a flatulent whale on the front. 

He added to that with a tray of ten shots - five each - which saw the pair very drunk by closing time.

As last orders were called, she says the young prince asked her: 'Should we go for a smoke?' and they crept into an adjacent field to have a cigarette out of sight of his security detail.

'He started to kiss me,' she remembers. 'It was passionate, intense. We both knew. It went from a kiss on to the floor pretty quickly.

'It was instant, fiery, wham bam, between two friends. It was sparky because we shouldn't have been doing it. He wasn't Prince Harry to me, this was Harry, my friend, and the situation had got a little bit out of control. It felt naughty, I suppose, in the sense that it shouldn't be happening.

'We didn't set out to do it – it wasn't premeditated and I didn't know he was a virgin. There were no virgin vibes – he seemed to know what he was doing. It was quick, wild, exciting. We were both drunk. It wouldn't have happened if we weren't.'