While Prince Harry is the author of Spare, his memoir was ghostwritten by J. R. Moehringer. Employing a ghostwriter is common practice for celebrities or public figures who wish to publish a memoir but lack the time or skills to write a full-length book. A ghostwriter’s involvement in a project can vary from writing the entire memoir, based on interviews, to editing and shaping the author’s work into a more coherent and engaging whole. Ghostwriters aren’t publicly credited as authors and often remain completely anonymous. However, they‘re sometimes referenced in the acknowledgments of a memoir, as Moehringer is in Spare.

J. R. Moehringer is a celebrated ghostwriter known for accurately reproducing his subject’s tone of voice. He was the ghostwriter of Andre Agassi’s 2009 memoir, Open. Moehringer’s own memoir, The Tender Bar (2005), was adapted into a movie starring Ben Affleck. A respected journalist as well, Moehringer won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2000.

Following Prince Harry’s departure from the royal family, the publication of a memoir was highly anticipated. Preceding its release, Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey caused considerable controversy because the couple claimed a royal family member had expressed “concerns” about their baby’s skin color.