Prince Harry and His Ghostwriter Bonded Over Shared Grief

Publish date: 2024-05-04

Now that most of the world has devoured Spare, Prince Harry's explosive tell-all memoir, the man who helped him bring the words to life, ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer is giving everyone a little insight into the process. In a new piece published by The New Yorker, Moehringer shared his experiences with the prince — and his wife, Meghan Markle — as they worked to fine-tune his biography and, in turn, connect with each other. Moehringer explained that at first, he wasn't sure if he and Harry would have any common ground, but noted that during their first Zoom call together, they bonded over the fact that they'd both lost their mothers. Moehringer's mother had just passed, he said, and of course, Harry's mom, Princess Diana, had died back in 1997.

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"I wondered if we'd have any chemistry," he said. "We did, and there was, I think, a surprising reason. Princess Diana had died 23 years before our first conversation, and my mother, Dorothy Moehringer, had just died, and our griefs felt equally fresh."

Moehringer went on to say that he managed to relate to a lot of what Harry was saying, surprisingly, but that as they worked together, things got easier and easier.

"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."

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Moehringer also explained how Meghan visited him every day and offered up snacks during her daily walks with Archie.

"Harry put me up in his guesthouse, where Meghan and Archie would visit me on their afternoon walks," he added. "Meghan, knowing I was missing my family, was forever bringing trays of food and sweets."

And the ghostwriter also shared that Harry managed to cement a bond with his daughter, Gracie, too. It was thanks to the prince's "vast Moana scholarship." Gracie fell head-over-heels for the prince when he shared that his favorite part of the film was when "when Heihei, the silly chicken, finds himself lost at sea."

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