Biography “Reserve”
The man behind Prince Harry’s memoir: JR Moehringer is a specialist in screwed up families
No ghost at all: Prince Harry’s ghostwriter JR Moehringer
© Hutchins Photo/ / Picture Alliance
JR Moehringer had other celebrities on his therapy couch before Prince Harry. They all share a complicated family history.
JR Moehringer, 58, does it like the big ones: he doesn’t call himself by his full name, but has his two first names, John Joseph, melted down to JR. But unlike JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin, he is not a fantasy writer. His area of expertise is very real subjects that he shouldn’t think up: Moehringer has specialized in memoirs. Current case: Prince Harry’s biography “Spare” (German: “Reserve”).
It will be released on January 10th and will dominate the headlines even before it is published: King’s wife Camilla is a “wicked stepmother”, Prince William “aggressive” and Prince Andrew “shameful”. Roughly every member of the royal family is heavily dealt out.
While some details may be below the belt, the writing style is top-notch. Finally, in 2000, JR Moehringer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the world’s most important journalism award. He had already been nominated two years earlier. His articles appeared regularly in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Prince Harry: Certainly not an easy case for his biography writer
Afterwards things went up for the journalist: With his own biography “Tender Bar” he landed on the international bestseller lists. In 2021 it was even filmed by George Clooney. If that wasn’t a crowning glory. Moehringer wrote about his father-son relationship. His father, a radio DJ named Johnny Michaels, is said to have tried to suffocate Moehringer’s mother. He reportedly cornered her with a razor in the bathroom. Moehringer was still a toddler when his father eventually left the family, as the “express” reported.
Other important men also became aware of Moehringer through his biography: tennis star Andre Agassi entrusted him with his most intimate details and childhood traumata, which Moehringer wove into a highly acclaimed athlete’s biography in “Open”. The “Daily Mail” reports on his working methods: Moehringer therefore created a classic therapy setting. He was sitting in a chair with a pad on his lap and Agassi was lying or sitting on a couch.
However, working with Prince Harry, who is 20 years his junior, may have been a little more difficult: Shortly after the Queen’s death, he wanted to row back in some spicy scenes, as the British “Daily Mail” quoted a source as saying: “It could be that “Some things in the book don’t look so good being published so soon after these events. He (Prince Harry) wants sections to be changed now. It’s by no means a complete rewrite. He desperately wants to make changes, but it might be too late.”
Whether and how much was actually defused is not known. In any case, the layout of the two books about Agassi and Harry is very similar: The face in close-up, on top of it a short, concise title in white capital letters. Both look directly at the viewer – and you can’t miss them in the bookshop.
Sources: “express“, “Daily Mail“