“Suddenly you realise that it’s getting closer, your world’s getting smaller, a lot more people are talking about it.”
From the death of his mother Princess Diana to his marriage to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, the highly anticipated memoir of 2023, Spare, tells Prince Harry’s side of the story. Harry’s directness has stunned many as he shockingly leaves no stone unturned, revealing his experiences with sex, drugs and fights with the heir to throne. One story in particular has amused many on social media: when the prince lost his virginity to an “older woman” in a field behind a busy pub.
Prince Harry described this experience as “a humiliating episode with an older woman who liked horses a lot and treated me like a young stallion”. Whilst this appears innocent enough and fair to said “older woman” (her name not mentioned) she has not remained anonymous. The identity of this woman was soon revealed by the press, as paparazzi footage of herself and Harry in 2001 resurfaced. This left the “older woman,” Sasha Walpole, with no choice but to come forward and speak her truth. She said in an interview with Piers Morgan for Piers Morgan Uncensored: “it’s been a whirlwind week and hopefully it’s a means to an end and I can get back to normality”. She went on to say “at first I was a bit like ‘no just hide, it’ll be fine, it will go away’ like I have done, you know, in the past and then suddenly you realise that it’s getting closer, your world’s getting smaller, a lot more people are talking about it. Friends from back home are getting questioned, accused. And I was like ‘do you know what? A way to stop it is just to come forward and say it’s me and then hopefully the sooner it’s come out, the sooner it’ll go, and I can carry on with my little life”. Walpole also claims that she was never told she would be mentioned in the book prior to it being published, only hearing about it through a WhatsApp screenshot from a friend. The fact that Prince Harry and his team did not ask for her consent before publishing this intimate experience to the world could be considered extremely problematic. To only refer to her as an “older woman” is not protecting her anonymity. Prince Harry is greatly aware of the lengths the British press will go to and thus he should have considered how this confession would impact Walpole’s life.
Harry’s explicit description of the episode could also be deemed derogative and disrespectful as he notes she “treated [him] like a young stallion” and that he “mounted her quickly, after which she spanked [him] on the backside.” This graphic depiction of an intimate experience between two young people should have only been published to the world given that both parties had consented to it. Walpole also said to Morgan that she was in “disbelief [that] he went into so much detail because then it’s obvious who it was. So for [her] that was like a huge thing because then suddenly [she] was like ‘oh no everyone’s going to know ’and then yeah next day all the messages started flooding in”.
Personally, I feel that just because someone’s name is kept out of a story does not mean their anonymity is protected. To publish this personal experience without asking for Walpole’s consent before doing so is what makes Prince Harry’s Spare problematic.
Written by: Lara Gallop
Edited by: Stephanie Young