SARAH VINE: If Harry had stuck with old friends like Sasha Walpole, he might not be so angry

The passage in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, where he describes losing his virginity “in an inglorious episode with an older woman” is itself one of the most inglorious passages in the book. “He was very fond of horses, and he treated me like a young stallion,” he wrote. ‘Fast ride, whereupon he patted me on the rump and sent me off to pasture. Among the many things that were wrong, it happened in a grassy field behind a busy pub.

It was a crude, thoughtless and totally unnecessary detail that sparked a wave of salacious speculation about the identity of the woman in question and proved that, whatever it is, Harry is no gentleman.

Turns out he wasn’t an especially considerate lover either. As bulldozer driver Sasha Walpole, now 40, reveals in her exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday today: ‘To tell the truth, he didn’t make sure he was happy. He was young. It’s not until you’re older that you understand those things. It really was just a moment of passion.

It’s the only weak dig in an interview that’s otherwise unfailingly generous about the Prince. Not in a fawning, leaning, scratching way, just in the sense that Sasha Walpole, now married and mother of two, comes across as a thoroughly decent woman, just someone who’s been put in an impossible position and has decided to , for the sake of his own sanity and everyone else’s, to speak.

She wasn’t the one who started all of this, it was Harry, and he did it, characteristically, without the slightest consideration of how it might affect his existence. It’s bad enough that he betrays someone like the Princess of Wales, but she has some degree of protection against her attacks. Sasha, by contrast, was totally exposed.

He may not have named her directly, but enough people knew who she was that her identity would inevitably be revealed.

She is not rich, famous or elegant, as many have speculated. She is the daughter of a cleaner and a gardener who left school at 15 and got a job as a stable boy in Highgrove, where she met the Prince.

She, like Harry, does not have access to security, money and status to insulate her and her family from the unwanted attention of the public and the press. No £1,000-an-hour legal muscle for her, no favorite journalists to rally the troops on Twitter.

You might have thought that he would have at least done her the courtesy of alerting her to his intentions. But not. She found out through a WhatsApp message from a friend. In typical Harry fashion, she apparently didn’t give a second thought to the chaos this particular ‘truth grenade’ of hers might cause, the unwanted exposure she might bring. Her feelings in all of this were simply irrelevant to him. Talk about princely rights, talk about droit du seigneur. What an absolute scoundrel.

What is extraordinary, then, given the circumstances, is how well she presents herself and how generous she is with him. Anyone else could justifiably have been bitter or angry. Certainly if she had had anything like Harry’s mentality, or Meghan’s, she would have presented herself as a victim.

But Sasha is cut from a different pattern. She is refreshingly optimistic about the whole thing, self-deprecating, and kind about their meeting and about their friendship in general. She comes across as a completely good egg, a simple, down-to-earth woman with her head on straight.

Frankly, Harry was lucky to meet her. And the fact that he decided to repay her friendship and loyalty by casually sharing intimate details of her sex life in such a rude way proves that actions, not titles, determine a person’s class.

And this lady is twice as royal as Harry could be.

Bulldozer driver Sasha Walpole, now 40, reveals in her exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday that having sex with Harry “was really just a moment of passion.”

Sasha Walpole was the first person to have sex with Prince Harry in a field near a pub

It’s also a reminder of the kind of life Harry once had, and might still have if he’d continued to surround himself with real people like Sasha and, later, his squadmates, whom he also shamefully betrayed in his book by revealing details. of how many enemy operatives he killed in Afghanistan, instead of being seduced by the bullshit and gibberish of Hollywood.

Harry never seems to tire of telling the world how much he values ​​authenticity and honesty. However, he chooses to live a life of artifice, where everything from the pictures he posts to the interviews he gives is strictly controlled.

All those good friends he had, many of whom were real people with ordinary, grounded lives like Sasha, people who could have told him when he was being a jerk, have been discarded in favor of…what? Courteney Cox and a talking trash can? James Corden, the kind of man who is famous for being rude to waiters?

And as for all that stuff about Prince Charles being a terrible, cold father, how many parents give their son his own private nightclub in the basement of their house, outfitted with Persian rugs and red Moroccan sofas, a electric darts and big money? of alcohol?

It seems that Harry had quite a special time as a teenager, surrounded by good friends, fun and laughter, dancing under the discreet but watchful eye of his protection officers.

As Sasha says, “He was outgoing, funny, absolute life and soul. Just a normal, cheeky boy, one of us. You would never have known there was something different about him, that he was a prince.

Where did it all go so wrong?

Of course, none of us are exactly the same as they were 20 years ago, and people change and grow, as they should.

Still, I can’t help but feel that if Harry had stuck closer to his old friends and chosen his new ones more wisely, he might not be the angry, bitter, lonely man he is today.

Still, it is what it is, I guess. Your loss, not theirs.

● Unsurprisingly, Welsh rugby fans ignored the directive to refrain from singing Tom Jones’ Delilah hit at yesterday’s game. According to the Welsh Rugby Union, the song ‘glorifies domestic violence’ by telling the story of a jealous man who stabs his ex-lover. By that standard, you would have to ban almost every movie, book, play, TV show, or opera ever written. Rugby fans are very loud, but I think even they can tell the difference between a catchy tune and real life.

● My local (labor) council has painted several rainbow crosses on the main street, trumpeting their commitment to LGBTQ values, etc. Forget potholes in surrounding roads, or creeping tree roots turning sidewalks into death traps, or constant fly tippers whose debris attracts vermin. Or, indeed, that other type of vermin, which roams at night assaulting the neighbors at knifepoint. None of that matters because, you know, rainbow. What unspeakable stupidity.

Brooke Shields (pictured) is the focus of a new documentary revealing an industry that saw her play a child prostitute and detailing her rape experience.

● Brooke Shields, above, is the latest star to come under the lens of documentary filmmaker Lana Wilson, who made Taylor Swift Miss Americana. In Pretty Baby, she lifts the lid on an industry that saw her play a child prostitute and details her rape experience. She’s not a million miles from the story of Pamela Anderson, who is also featured in a documentary currently on Netflix. Both women were ruthlessly sexualized and exploited for the benefit of others, then shamed into prostitutes when it got too much. I haven’t seen Shields’ show yet, but Anderson’s was an eye opener for me. I don’t always agree with everything the #MeToo movement stands for, but it’s heartbreaking to see the damage and how Hollywood treats beautiful young women with such cruelty and contempt.

● Shamima Begum poses for the cover of a glossy supplement with a sad smile. Who is worse: a girl who ran away to join ISIS or the publishers who glorify her in this way? I’m afraid she has a long way to go before she believes her regret is genuine and not just a ploy to return to the UK so her agent can land her on I’m A Celebrity.