The ghostwriter of Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare revealed some eyebrow-raising details about his time working for the Duke of Sussex. In a piece written for the New Yorker magazine, J.R. Moehringer claimed that the internactions between them were often tense and one incident had Moehringer shouting at 2:00 AM.

“I was exasperated,” Moehringer said, “My head was pounding, my jaw was clenched, and I was starting to raise my voice.”

According to the New Yorker piece, Prince Harry and Moehringer had multiple disputes during their collaboration. One incident, however, stood out as their worst.

“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. He was just glaring into the camera,” described Moehringer.

Midnight Brawl

The fight in question came when Prince Harry was retelling a time from his military training. The Duke claimed that during one kidnapping exercise, one of the fake captors voiced highly personal insults at him, some of which were a “vile dig at Princess Diana.”

Prince Harry at the time responded with a powerful comeback and wanted to conclude the chapter telling said story on that note.

Moehringer, however, found it “unnecessary and somewhat inane.”

Harry disagreed and continued to insist that it should be included. “For months, I'd been crossing out the comeback, and for months Harry had been pleading for it to go back in. Now he wasn't pleading, he was insisting, and it was 2 AM and I was starting to lose it.”

It was then that Prince Harry and Moehringer got really worked up. Things, however, were resolved quickly and in a peaceful manner.

Harry went on to explain why this detail was so important to him. As Moehringer remembers, “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.”

Despite having sympathy, Moehringer reiterated his stance and said, “You want the world to know that you did a good job, that you were smart. But, strange as it may seem, memoir isn't about you.”

He continued, “It's not even the story of your life. It's a story carved from your life, a particular series of events chosen because they have the greatest resonance for the widest range of people, and at this point in the story those people don't need to know anything more than that your captors said a cruel thing about your mom.”

Harry finally conceded after that and said, “I really enjoy getting you worked up like that.” And Moehringer claimed no hard feelings came from the incident.

Although described as a lighthearted quibble, critics of Prince Harry found this piece as proof that the Duke is “stubborn,” a “narcissist” and apparently “difficult to work with”.

Still a Bestseller

Spare was released on January 10, 2023, and continues to be at the top of multiple bestseller lists to this day. It has since been translated into over 15 languages and can be found in bookstores around the world. The controversial autobiography is also available as an audiobook, narrated in English by Prince Harry himself.

In it, Harry covers a wide variety of topics including his hardships growing up, the shocking dysfunction of the Royal household, and the reasons behind his departure from the Firm.

Although generally well-received by fans, plenty of critics say the book is nothing more than 400 pages of whining. Despite this, the media frenzy surrounding it does not appear to be fading.

It has been speculated by various royal experts and followers that Prince Harry will be releasing a second book later on. No official announcement, however, has yet been made.