Prince Harry's Spare ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer is opening up about working with the royal and staying with Harry and Meghan Markle at their Montecito home. Photos / Getty Images
Prince Harry's Spare ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer is opening up about working with the royal and staying with Harry and Meghan Markle at their Montecito home. Photos / Getty Images
The New Yorker published a piece on May 8 by author J.R. Moehringer about his experiences working with the Duke of Sussex on his memoir, including a fight that erupted between them over edits.
The argument - which took place at 2am over a Zoom call - started over a specific part of the memoir which elaborated on Harry’s “gruelling military exercises” in England that saw the prince captured by pretend terrorists who made a “vile dig” at Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
Prince Harry allegedly wanted to end the passage with the comeback he said at the time, however the author believed he should not include the response.
“Although this wasn’t the first time that Harry and I had argued, it felt different; it felt as if we were hurtling toward some kind of decisive rupture, in part because Harry was no longer saying anything,” Moehringer recalled.
“He was just glaring into the camera,” he added. “Finally, he exhaled and calmly explained that, all his life, people had belittled his intellectual capabilities, and this flash of cleverness proved that, even after being kicked and punched and deprived of sleep and food, he had his wits about him.”
Copies of Prince Harry's book called "Spare", released in January. Photo / AP
The author admitted the two didn’t agree on everything while working on the memoir but said there were a few lighthearted moments including how he and his family got close with the Sussexes while visiting their Montecito home.
During one of their visits, Moehringer joked that the Prince won over his daughter Gracie with “his vast Moana scholarship,” adding that the Duke of Sussex’s favourite scene from the film is “when Heihei, the silly chicken, finds himself lost at sea.”
The author also spoke about Meghan’s generosity, especially when he attended without his family and was struggling with homesickness.
“Harry put me up in his guesthouse, where Meghan and Archie would visit me on their afternoon walks,” he shared. “Meghan, knowing I was missing my family, was forever bringing trays of food and sweets.”
He said Meghan sent him home with loads of toys for his kids when he left her and Harry’s home.
Meghan Markle with her husband, Prince Harry, and their children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one. Photo / Twitter
Prince Harry and Moehringer shared a special bond over a shared trauma: they both struggled over the loss of their mothers, revealed the author.
The pair realised this bond in their first Zoom meeting.
“I wondered if we’d have any chemistry,” he said. “We did, and there was, I think, a surprising reason. Princess Diana had died twenty-three years before our first conversation, and my mother, Dorothy Moehringer, had just died, and our griefs felt equally fresh.
“I found his story, as he outlined it in broad strokes, relatable and infuriating,” he added. “The way he’d been treated, by both strangers and intimates, was grotesque. In retrospect, though, I think I selfishly welcomed the idea of being able to speak with someone, an expert, about that never-ending feeling of wishing you could call your mom.”
Diana, Princess of Wales with her son Prince Harry during a holiday with the Spanish royal family at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, August 1987. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Harry’s memoir Spare hit shelves on January 10 2023 and revealed an intimate look at the royal’s life in the spotlight.
The Duke of Sussex discusses his mother’s death in the book and its effects on him while he was growing up, while also commenting on his tense relationship with members of the monarchy, including his brother and heir to the throne, Prince William.
“While I know much of my life may seem unrelatable, I do think most siblings can relate to struggling with comparisons, and my brother and I are no exception,” Harry exclusively told People magazine ahead of the memoir’s release.
When speaking about what he hoped his family would take away from the book, Harry told People: “I don’t want to tell anyone what to think of it and that includes my family. This book and its truths are in many ways a continuation of my own mental health journey. It’s a raw account of my life — the good, the bad and everything in between.”
The royal family has declined to comment publicly on the memoir, however, a close source to the royals told People that the book was “ghastly” as it was a “massive shadow” over the King’s coronation, which Harry attended alone on May 6.
When Spare was released, a royal insider revealed to People that, out of all the members of the monarchy, Prince William was the most upset, presumably over Harry’s referral to him as his “arch nemesis” and his detailing of a physical altercation between the two.
Prince William was the most upset by the book written by his brother Prince Harry. Photo / AP
“William is the one who is most upset and needs time to calm down,” the insider shared. “He has been painted as hotheaded and unsympathetic. But I don’t think he will back down — it’s whether they can move beyond it and accept that they view things differently.”
