A woman who claims she is the person the Duke of Sussex lost his virginity to has spoken of her surprise that he included the detail in his recent book.

In his controversial memoir Spare, Harry recounted how he first had sex in a field behind a busy pub with an older woman.

Sasha Walpole, who has been interviewed by the Mail on Sunday, said she is that woman and has told the story in her own words to the newspaper.

In a video interview, the 40-year-old said: “I’ve kept this a secret for 21 years. I would never have said anything if he hadn’t put it in his book.

“I’m here to tell my story in my words. I am the lady that Prince Harry wrote about in his book who he lost his virginity to.”

Describing Harry as a “good friend”, she said they shared an interest in horses and her first job as a groom had been at Highgrove - the King’s Gloucestershire estate.

She said that a lot of people in their circle of friends would have been aware of what had happened at the time.

Ms Walpole told the Mail on Sunday: “I’m surprised Harry put it in his book. It was such a long time ago, we were teenagers. It just doesn’t really seem a bit deal to me because I’ve obviously known for so long.

“Nobody from back then would be surprised that it was me and Harry - a lot of people knew about it.”

In her interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ms Walpole claimed Harry made the first move, leading to their encounter in a field behind a pub in the village of Norton in Wiltshire.

She told the newspaper: “It was passionate, intense. It went from a kiss on to the floor pretty quickly.

“It was instant, fiery, 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.

“Our lives have gone in different directions since then. If I saw him in the street, I would like to think that we could go for a drink. We were really good friends back then and I wish him all the best.”

In his book Spare, Harry described the event of losing his virginity as an “inglorious episode”.

He recounted how a bodyguard for the Royal Family paid him a visit at the end of 2001 when he was still a pupil at Eton College and told the prince he had been sent to “find out the truth”.

Harry wrote: “I suspected he was referring to my recent loss of virginity. 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 pub.”