Rupert Everett has claimed he knows the identity of the older woman Prince Harry claims to have lost his virginity to.
In Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare released last month, he wrote that the event took place in a field behind a “busy pub”, and that the woman treated him like a “young stallion”. He did not reveal her name or any details about her.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Everett alleged that the duke’s account is not completely true and that it did not happen in the UK.
The 63-year-old actor said: “By the way, I know who the woman he lost his virginity to is.”
“And it wasn’t behind a pub. And it wasn’t in this country,” he added.
When asked if he was suggesting the duke had tried to change the narrative to protect the identity of the woman involved, Everett reportedly replied: “I’m just putting it out there that I know.”
The Independent has contacted the Duke of Sussex’s representatives for comment.
The event of losing his virginity, which Harry recounted as an “inglorious episode” in his memoir, is discussed in the duke’s book when he recalls a time when one of the royal family’s bodyguards, Marko, paid him a visit in 2001 when he was a student at Eton College.
Marko told the prince he had been sent to “find out the truth”.
Harry writes: “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,” he added.
“Among the many things about it that were wrong: It happened in a grassy field behind a busy pub. Obviously, someone had seen us.”
The book reveals that the bodyguard was actually enquiring about the prince’s wellbeing after Charles’s press office had been informed that a newspaper had evidence of him taking drugs, which Harry said was “all lies”.
Elsewhere in his interview, Everett said that the memoir made him feel “sad” and “sympathetic” towards Harry.
“It’s made me change my view,” he said. “I was angry before, and now I just feel very sad – sad for Harry. I felt so sympathetic towards him for years and I still do now.”
He said he though Harry “put his foot in it” with “the Taliban thing”, referring to when the duke was widely criticised for revealing that he killed 25 people in military service.
“That changed everything and loses him the one group that still loved him,” Everett said.
Additional reporting from PA.