Actor Rupert Everett Refutes Prince Harry’s Claims About Where Harry Lost His Virginity

(Image credit: Getty)

published 4 February 2023

Prince Harry’s memoir Spare goes there on a number of occasions—one notable one is when the Duke of Sussex opens up about how he lost his virginity, which he wrote happened “in a grassy field behind a busy pub” with “an older woman” around 2001.

But actor Rupert Everett counters that in a new interview with The Telegraph, where the My Best Friend’s Wedding star reveals that not only does he know who Harry lost his virginity to, but that Harry’s telling of this very personal moment in his life isn’t true: “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,” Everett said, “with a twinkle in his eye,” The Telegraph reported Thursday. “I’m just putting it out there that I know.”

According to the outlet, Everett gave the interview on the same day that Spare was published—January 10. In the book, Harry, then 17, remembers royal aide Mark Dyer coming to visit him at Eton, where he was in school. The two met up for lunch at a café, and Harry wrote he was surprised when “Marko” arrived “looking grim” and said he came to learn the truth.

“I suspected he was referring to my recent loss of virginity,” Harry wrote. “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 that he believed “someone had seen us” and that is why Dyer had come to speak to him. Instead, Harry wrote that Dyer was sent to ask if he had been doing drugs—a tabloid editor had contacted the then Prince Charles’ office claiming she had proof that he was. Harry disputed the claims as false and defamatory.

And of Everett’s recent claims, a source close to Harry told The Telegraph “Amazing that he would know such a personal detail better than Prince Harry himself.”

To think we’re even talking about this at all…

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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