Prince Harry's ghostwriter takes aim at TK Maxx's 'monarchist' press …

TK Maxx tried to discredit Prince Harry's memoir because of the discount store's charitable links with the King, the book's ghostwriter has claimed. In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he would regularly head there for his "everyday casual clothes" and was particularly fond of its "once-a-year sale". But a spokeswoman for TK Maxx was quick to point out that it did not do sales but rather offered savings "all year round".

The Duke's ghostwriter, J R Moehringer, highlighted the response in a lengthy article he wrote for the New Yorker in which he claimed that within days of the book's publication, an "amorphous campaign" was launched by critics who insisted it was rife with errors. "In one section of the book, for instance, Harry reveals that he used to live for the yearly sales at TK Maxx, the discount clothing chain," he wrote. "Not so fast, said the monarchists at TK Maxx corporate, who rushed out a statement declaring that TK Maxx never has sales, just great savings all the time!"

Mr Moehringer noted that people all over the world retaliated by posting images of TK Maxx touting sales on its official Twitter account. He added: "Surely TK Maxx's effort to discredit Harry's memoir was unrelated to the company's long-standing partnership with Prince Charles and his charitable trust." TK Maxx has supported The Prince's Trust since 2013 through its Get into, and Achieve programmes, which help young people get jobs, and it is also the main sponsor of the Prince's Trust Awards.

The store has yet to comment on Mr Moehringer's remarks.

The writer described how he had first come to be involved in the book in summer 2020 after someone texted him to ask if he would be interested. Despite having vowed to his wife that he would "never again" ghost write another book, he agreed to a chat with the Duke out of curiosity. "I wondered what the real story was," he admitted. "I wondered if we'd have any chemistry.

"We did, and there was, I think, a surprising reason. Princess Diana had died twenty-three years before our first conversation, and my mother, Dorothy Moehringer, had just died, and our griefs felt equally fresh." Mr Moehringer eventually agreed to take on the project despite initial reservations.

He was concerned that Harry was unsure about how much he wanted to say and about the inevitable storm that would meet the finished product, regardless of its contents. "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," he added.

Harry 'wanted to rebut every lie'

The writer revealed that the Duke had initially wanted the book to act as "a rebuttal to every lie ever published about him". "As Borges dreamed of endless libraries, Harry dreams of endless retractions, which meant no end of revelations," he said.

Although the Duke knew it would look odd to include certain anecdotes, he was convinced that when it became clear he was correcting the record, readers would understand. "He was joyful at this prospect," Mr Moehringer said. It was not all plain sailing, however.

The writer admitted that he and the Duke almost came to blows after clashing over an "inane" comment Harry wanted to include because he thought it was clever. The Duke, he said, was desperate to include a witty retort he had delivered to an Army boss following a gruelling military exercise in which he was captured and hooded before being stripped and beaten. A female captor taunted him about his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, saying: "Your mother was pregnant when she died, eh?

With your sibling? A Muslim baby!" In the book, Harry claimed that he did not respond and said he remained tightlipped during the debrief when the participant apologised, explaining that they had wanted to shock him.

Mr Moehringer said: "Harry always wanted to end this scene with a thing he said to his captors, a comeback that struck me as unnecessary, and somewhat inane. "Good for Harry that he had the nerve, but ending with what he said would dilute the scene's meaning: that even at the most bizarre and peripheral moments of his life, his central tragedy intrudes."

Argument lasted for months

The pair argued about it for months as Harry continued to insist it be included. The row came to a head last summer, as the writer was making the final edits.

"Although this wasn't the first time that Harry and I had argued, it felt different; it felt as if we were hurtling toward some kind of decisive rupture, in part because Harry was no longer saying anything," Mr Moehringer said. "He was just glaring into the camera. 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."

Although the writer now understood where the Duke was coming from, he won the battle.

The Duke's witty one-liner remains a mystery.