‘Ghost Writer’ close with Prince Harry over media callousness

Helping Prince Harry write the book of his controversial memoirs, J.R. Mehringer, says he became close to his “collaborator” due to media interference. The author says the paparazzi and reporters started following him in his car and sniffing around his house.

Prince Harry’s ‘ghost writer’ says he bonded with his charge due to paparazzi and media ‘heartlessness’ after the ‘frantic crowd’ surrounding the book ‘Spare’ led photographers and journalists to invade his personal life, writes The Guardian.

In a first-person article for The New Yorker, J.R. Mehringer, the famed “ghost writer” behind The Spare One, revealed that he agreed to write Harry’s memoir because he “just loved this dude” and had recently lost his own mother.

“I wondered if there would be any chemistry between us. We did just that, and I think there was a surprising reason for that. Diana, Princess of Wales, died 23 years before our first conversation, and my mother, Dorothy Mehringer, had just died, and our grief was just as fresh,” he wrote. “I think I selfishly welcomed the idea of ​​being able to talk to someone, an expert, about this never-ending feeling of wanting to call my mom.”

The book took more than two years to write, with Mehringer and Harry meeting on Zoom during the pandemic and texting “around the clock.” As travel restrictions eased, Mehringer moved into a guest house on Harry and Meghan’s California ranch in Montecito, where “Megan and Archie visited me on their afternoon outings. Megan, knowing that I miss my family, constantly brought trays of food and sweets.”

When news of the memoir leaked, Mehringer writes, “one royal expert warned that because of my involvement in the book, Harry’s father should ‘look for a bunch of coats to hide under’, due to what Mehringer describes as his own” daddy issues.

Spare Memoirs became the best-selling non-fiction book of all time. The success of Prince Harry’s memoirs has also led to increased media attention, with Mehringer revealing that paparazzi and reporters began invading his privacy, following him in his car, appearing outside his son’s kindergarten and snooping around his house.

When he complained to Harry that “things about me are spreading and becoming orthodox” – including that he was introduced to Harry by George Clooney – the Prince “tipped his head: Welcome to my world, man. By this time, Harry was already calling me dude.”

Writing for the New Yorker, Mehringer, who also worked as a ghostwriter for Andre Agassi and Nike founder Phil Knight, reveals that Harry, in his words, “couldn’t get rid of wanting Spare to ‘Spare’ by debunking every lie, ever.” published about him.

The book contains explosive details, including Harry’s drug use as a teenager, a fight between Harry and his brother Prince William, fights between Meghan and the Princess of Wales over bridesmaids’ dresses, and allegations that William and Kate were behind Harry’s choice of a Nazi costume at a 2005 costume party.

Prince Harry accused his family of “huge levels of unconscious bias” and said it failed to protect Meghan from attacks in the press.

Harry traveled alone to his father’s coronation on May 6, which took place on the same day as his son Archie’s birthday, and thereafter quickly left the UK, returning to the US.