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Elizabeth Hurley reacts to rumour she took Prince Harry’s virginity

Model and actor has previously denied speculation she’s the unnamed ‘older woman’ who took Prince Harry’s virginity

Meredith Clark
New York
Thursday 04 April 2024 19:20 BST
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Related: Prince Harry jokes about virginity story with ITV’s Tom Bradby

Elizabeth Hurley has once again dispelled rumours that she took Prince Harry’s virginity.

The British actor, 58, recently addressed the speculation during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. During the 3 April episode, Hurley insisted she wasn’t the unnamed “older woman” who the Duke of Sussex wrote about losing his virginity to in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

“That was ludicrous!” Hurley said, in response to the speculation. “He said: ‘She was English. She was older than me. It was in Gloucestershire.’ And they were like: ‘Ah, it’s Elizabeth.’ It was absurd. It was ridiculous.”

The Austin Powers star told Bravo host Andy Cohen: “It was like saying: ‘He’s great-looking. He’s American.’ Oh, it’s Andy Cohen.”

Hurley even maintained that she’s “never met” the 38-year-old royal “in [her] life”.

The speculation began after Prince Harry detailed losing his virginity to an older woman in his bombshell memoir, Spare. The royal shared that the “humiliating episode” took place behind a “very busy pub” with an “older woman who liked macho horses and who treated me like a young stallion”.

Hurley has previously denied rumours she was the mysterious woman who took Harry’s virginity, telling The Times in December 2022: “Not me. Not guilty. Ha!”

Since then, former Highgrove staffer Sasha Walpole has come forward as the “older woman” who took the royal’s virginity. The now 40-year-old disclosed her identity in an interview with The Sun on Sunday following Spare’s release, revealing that the event occurred in summer of 2001 when Harry was 16 years old.

Walpole described the encounter as a “wham-bam between two friends,” telling The Sun: “The sex was passionate and sparky because we shouldn’t have been doing it. One thing just quickly led to another. We ended up on the floor.”

Walpole, who now runs her own groundworks company, claimed the pair had downed several shots of tequila at the time, with Harry’s security team out looking for him while they canoodled.

She said: “But we were both drunk. It wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t. It was just a moment of passion - spontaneous, wild, exciting. Obviously I must have fancied him on some level, as he was sparky and up for a laugh.”

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