Who Is Prince Harry's Spare Ghostwriter? All About J.R. Moehringer
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Get to know the person Prince Harry turned to when it came time for him to write his memoir Spare.
The Duke of Sussex's upcoming book gives readers an inside look at his life in the royal spotlight — and though the story is told in first person, he collaborated with acclaimed ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer.
"Ghostwriters channel someone else's voice — often, someone else's very recognizable voice — and construct with it a book that has shape and texture, narrative arc and memorable characters, all without leaving fingerprints," per the New York Times.
For Moehringer, that collaborative assignment came as a familiar task. The award-winning writer has ghostwritten various memoirs for notable figures throughout his career, in addition to penning one about himself.
RELATED: The Biggest Revelations from Prince Harry's Book 'Spare'
The acclaimed writer's best-selling memoir, The Tender Bar, touches on aspects of Moehringer's past childhood challenges — including his relationship with his mother, growing up without a father and struggling with alcohol.
Those themes nearly align with that of Harry's Spare. In addition to discussing his mother Princess Diana's death and how it affected him growing up, he also details his strained relationship with various members of the royal family, including his brother Prince William.
Here's everything to know about Moehringer.
He began his journalism career at the New York Times
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Moehringer is a New York native who was raised by a single mother in Manhasset before moving to Scottsdale, Arizona where he attended high school. In 1986, he received a B.A. from Yale University.
One of the writer's first journalism jobs was as a New York Times copyboy, of which the outlet itself described his gig as "an ill-fated stint." He wrote for several publications including the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado — where he penned his best-selling memoir, The Tender Bar — before landing at the Los Angeles Times where he worked as a national correspondent.
RELATED: Prince Harry Drove Through Tunnel Where His Mother Died at Same Speed: 'I Want to Go Through It'
He's a novelist
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While Moehringer's ghostwriting has recently been highlighted as a result of his latest collaboration with Prince Harry, the author has penned books under his own moniker as well. He wrote Sutton in 2012, a speculative biography of the bank robber Willie Sutton.
However, The Tender Bar was the work that earned him critical success. From an early age, Moehringer grew up fatherless. His dad, a disc jockey, passed away before his son spoke his first words. The 2005 memoir is a portrait of self-invention that details one boy's struggle to become a man.
It was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, among others. Furthermore, a film adaptation of the same name starring Ben Affleck and George Clooney was released on Amazon Prime in January 2022.
He's ghostwritten other memoirs in addition to Prince Harry's Spare
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In addition to collaborating with Prince Harry on Spare, Moehringer has ghostwritten memoirs for other notable figures as well. He worked on Olympic tennis gold medalist and eight-time major champion Andre Agassi's Open in 2009 and Nike co-founder Phil Knight's Shoe Dog in 2016.
He has a specific ghostwriting process
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During a 2012 interview with NPR, Moehringer explained how his ghostwriting process differs from penning memoirs about himself. While he noted that he tends to think of himself in the third person when writing in the first person, Moehringer does "just the opposite" when ghostwriting.
"You try and inhabit their skin, and even though you're thinking third person, you're writing first person, so the processes are mirror images of each other, but they seem very simpatico," he said when talking about the writing process for Agassi's Open.
He also detailed his collaboration process with the tennis star. "I had the wonderful perk of being able to call him, sit down with him, every time I came to something and didn't know what it looked like or smelled like," Moehringer revealed.
He's a Pulitzer Prize winner
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Moehringer's career at the Los Angeles Times flourished, for which he was recognized for his feature writing. In 1998, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for his article "Resurrecting the Champ." In 2000, Moehringer won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for his article "Crossing Over."
