The 'older woman' who took Prince Harry's virginity is being exploited
Like Sasha Walpole, I was forced into the spotlight over a romantic relationship by the media and Hollywood
Just like Prince Harry’s first sexual partner Sasha Walpole, I never wanted to be a public figure. We were both forced into this world by the actions of our former romantic partners. We both enjoyed normalcy until powerful forces invaded our privacy and changed our lives forever.
Walpole was outed when Harry wrote in his memoir “Spare” the specific details about the “older woman” (by two years) who took his virginity. I was thrust into the spotlight when The Street Journal and a Hollywood movie used my real name in stories about my former fiancee.
Exposed by Harry
Walpole, 40, has been “panicking” for the past month since Harry, 38, published his book which gave a detailed account of having sex with her in 2001. The mother of two said she was embarrassed to have to tell her father about having the fling with the prince before he read it in the paper.
Harry was paid $20 million for a multi-book deal and the memoir has been a massive, global bestseller.
“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,” Walpole told The Daily Mail. “I didn't invite any of this attention, but I know the hunt would have kept going until people found me.”
The reason she waited a month is that she thought she “could hide and that it would blow over.” But as names of different women became public, she “realized that to make the speculation stop, I needed to tell the truth.” She finally decided to do two interviews with British papers.
“He has brought it to my door by writing about it,” said Walpole, who works as a “digger” (excavator driver.) “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.”
Walpole said someone could have warned her it was coming, whether Harry or high-powered teams of lawyers and publicists. “If you're me, then you suddenly feel as if your world is getting a little bit smaller,” Walpole said.
Like a virgin
In Harry’s 408-page book, the only* time he writes about having sex was the one time with Walpole (page 70):
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.
Walpole explained to The Sun that they had jumped over a wall to a field for the unexpected romp. But when they came back, the pub was closing so everyone was outside.
"My friends saw me and started laughing. I didn’t have my belt and it’s obvious when you come back a bit disheveled from a field,” she recalled. Harry was hiding from his security in a phone booth.
Walpole said Harry could have respected her privacy by simply writing that he lost his virginity, without giving the specific details that identify her.
The prince also decided to add the tantalizing tidbit about “an older woman,” which created the media spectacle. Multiple, high-profile women who are significantly older have been asked by reporters if they were Harry’s “older woman”, and all denied it.
Spotlight on me
My stepfather called me one morning in 2006 to tell me I was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal with my ex-fiance. My stepdad was panicking and upset for me. He had helped me get through my heartbreak when Mike Scanlon called off our wedding four years earlier.
The headline was this:
There was a dot matrix picture of me (below) in the center and above the fold of the newspaper. This was the first line:
WASHINGTON -- The engagement of Emily Miller and Michael Scanlon was supposed to mark the coming out of a new Washington power couple.
I hadn’t told my stepdad that I might be in his morning newspaper because I thought I could kill it….