Prince Harry's ghostwriter had explosive bust-up with Duke in row over Diana
Prince Harry's ghostwriter has recalled shouting at him during a late night disagreement
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Prince Harry's ghostwriter has recalled shouting at the Duke of Sussex during a late night disagreement over including an anecdote regarding his mother Princess Diana in his memoir Spare.
J R Moehringer said he became “exasperated” with Prince Harry and feared being fired following the fight on Zoom last year.
The Pulitzer prize-winning journalist also explained that the pair called each other "dude" and the duchess brought him trays of sweets when he visited their home in Montecito, California.
Moehringer, who also wrote memoirs of Andre Agassi and Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, said that during the summer of last year he and Harry were reviewing edits when it came to a passage discussing his mother.
Moehringer explained that the pair called each other 'dude' and the duchess brought him trays of sweets when he visited their home
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The Duke shared details of gruelling military exercises, where he was captured by fake terrorists and underwent torture.
Harry was hooded, stripped and beaten in an underground bunker in a test to see if he could survive being captured on the battlefield.
Moehringer claims that towards the end of the exercise, one of the soldiers aimed a “vile dig” at Diana.
According to his ghostwriter, Harry wanted to include his reply in Spare, but Moehringer refused, leading to an argument.
Writing in The New Yorker, Moehringer said: “I was exasperated with Prince Harry. My head was pounding, my jaw was clenched, and I was starting to raise my voice.
“And yet some part of me was still able to step outside the situation and think, ‘This is so weird. I’m shouting at Prince Harry.’
"Then, as Harry started going back at me, as his cheeks flushed and his eyes narrowed, a more pressing thought occurred: ‘Whoa, it could all end right here.’ ”
The 58-year-old said it was not the first argument he'd had with Harry but “it felt different”.
He said: “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.
Moehringer said he refused to include an anecdote about Diana in Prince Harry's book
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“Finally, 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.”
The journalist refused to back down and insisted that including the anecdote in the memoir was unnecessary.
Moehringer wrote: “Strange as it may seem, memoir isn’t about you. 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.”
The Duke eventually gave in and according to Moehringer said, “I really enjoy getting you worked up like that” with a “mischievous grin”.