‘Spare’ Ghostwriter ‘Exasperated’: Prince Harry ‘Enjoyed’ Getting Him ‘Worked Up’ Over Emotional Book Passage

Prince Harry‘s ghostwriter revealed that their relationship had its ups and downs throughout the writing of Spare. In an essay, writer J. R. Moehringer admits he and Harry had many difficult conversations. However, after being at odds over one emotional book passage, Harry admitted he “enjoyed” getting the writer “worked up.”

Prince Harry’s ghostwriter was ‘exasperated’ during one of their encounters

Over two years, writer J.R. Moehringer spent time with Prince Harry as he penned the Duke of Sussex’s memoir, Spare. He and Harry discussed his life and the experiences he wanted to highlight in the book.

Moehringer told The New Yorker that one encounter left him “exasperated” with Harry. It came on the heels of a late-night Zoom meeting in the summer of 2022.

“I was exasperated with Prince Harry. My head was pounding, my jaw was clenched, and I was starting to raise my voice,” Moehringer wrote. “And yet some part of me could still step outside the situation and think, This is so weird. I’m shouting at Prince Harry.”

Furthermore, the men discussed a challenging passage in the book where Harry discussed his challenges during a military drill. The duke was a member of the Army Air Corps. During his training, he subsequently gets captured by pretend terrorists. 

Harry’s captors reportedly threw him against a wall, choked him, and screamed insults into his face. But the drill ended with a “vile” comment regarding his late mother, Princess Diana.

As a result, Harry wanted to end the passage with a bold statement to his captors. “Finally, he exhaled and calmly explained that all his life, people had belittled his intellectual capabilities. Subsequently, this flash of cleverness proved that, even after being kicked and punched and deprived of sleep and food, he had his wits about him.”

However, the writer stood his ground that the statement should be left out of the finished manuscript. After haggling back and forth, the writer believed Harry would fire him. He wrote the Duke of Sussex “shot me a mischievous grin” and said, “I really enjoy getting you worked up like that.”

Prince Harry’s ghostwriter connected with him via text

J.R. Moehringer revealed he was contacted about working on Prince Harry’s book via text. In The New Yorker, he wrote of their first encounter.

“Would you be interested in speaking with someone about ghosting a memoir? I shook my head no. I covered my eyes. I picked up the phone and heard myself blurting, Who? Prince Harry.”

For this reason, he said he agreed to the meeting out of curiosity. But he also believed they had a kinship having both lost their mothers.

However, the author understood that whatever Harry said “would set off a storm.” But, he also shared how difficult it was to meet Harry face-to-face as the world was amid a global pandemic. Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, at that time, lived in California.

“I found his story, as he outlined it in broad strokes, relatable and infuriating,” Moehringer wrote. Therefore, he agreed to work with the Duke of Sussex on the book.

‘Spare’ broke a Guinness World Record

Prince Harry’s biography Spare would go on to break a Guinness World Record. Additionally, the memoir sold 1.43 million copies in just 24 hours in the UK, US, and Canada. It sold a record for the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever.

Spare broke a previous record held by its publisher, Penguin Random House, for non-fiction sales set by former US President Barack Obama’s book, A Promised Land, in 2020. Subsequently, Obama’s book sold 887,000 copies on its first day of publication.

In The New Yorker essay, Moehringer wrote, “He [Harry] was overjoyed by many things. The numbers, naturally. Guinness World Records had just certified his memoir as the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the history of the world.”

“But, more than that, readers were reading, at last, the actual book, not Murdoched chunks laced with poison, and their online reviews were overwhelmingly effusive. Many said Harry’s candor about family dysfunction, about losing a parent, had given them solace,” he explained.

Reportedly, Prince Harry had enough material left over from his first book for a second. However, there will not be a sequel to Spare.

Elements of this story were first reported by Business Insider.