Prince Harry’s ghostwriter has opened up about the process of writing the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare, and the comfort both Harry and his wife Meghan Markle provided during the project.
Author JR Moehringer opened up about the conversations and work that went into writing the duke’s best-selling, tell-all memoir in an essay published by The New Yorker on 8 May.
In the piece, Moehringer recalled visiting the couple at their home in Montecito, California, and how the Sussexes treated both him and his family.
Moehringer said that when he visited the duke and duchess in California with his wife and children, his daughter Gracie’s heart was “won over” by Harry’s love of Moana.
“As the pandemic waned, I was finally able to travel to Montecito. I went once with my wife and children. (Harry won the heart of my daughter, Gracie, with his vast Moana scholarship; his favourite scene, he told her, is when Heihei, the silly chicken, finds himself lost at sea),” the author wrote.
Moehringer also recalled two other trips to Harry and Meghan’s house during which he stayed in the couple’s guest house. He claimed that Meghan and the duke and duchess’ now-four-year-old son Prince Archie would visit him during their afternoon walks.
The author said Meghan, knowing that he was homesick during the trips, would also bring him food and desserts.
“Harry put me up in his guesthouse, where Meghan and Archie would visit me on their afternoon walks,” he wrote. “Meghan, knowing I was missing my family, was forever bringing trays of food and sweets.”
The novelist said that the duchess also sent a gift of toys to his children.
Moehringer also wrote how, after Spare was published on 10 January 2023, a friend of Prince Harry’s hosted a book party to celebrate the memoir’s success, to which Moehringer and his wife were invited.
The author said he was initially hesitant about attending the party due to the criticism that the memoir’s contents received since the release of the book. He also claimed that in the days before the party, he and his wife had been “stalked” and “followed” by paparazzi.
Moehringer said he ultimately called up his “friend” Prince Harry, who he knew would understand.
“It was like telling Taylor Swift about a bad breakup,” he wrote of the duke’s response. “Harry was all heart. He asked if my family was okay, asked for physical descriptions of the people harassing us, promised to make some calls, see if anything could be done. We both knew nothing could be done, but still.”
The novelist said he and his wife ultimately attended the book party, during which Harry thanked him for all his help.
The duke recently returned to the UK where he reunited publicly with members of his family for the first time since the release of Spare for the coronation of his father, King Charles III. Notably, Harry’s visit was brief; he arrived a day before the coronation ceremony and then returned to California shortly after the crowning concluded.
