Spencer Pratt is revisiting one of his earliest Hollywood controversies in his new memoir, The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain, and it involves Mary-Kate Olsen long before his days on The Hills.
In the book, Pratt recalls attending school in Santa Monica alongside Olsen and her then-boyfriend, Max Winkler. Wanting money to fund a film project, Pratt said he took photos of Olsen from Winkler’s bedroom wall after the couple split. “I asked Max if I could take the photos off his wall, you know, for his healing process,” Pratt wrote. “He didn’t say no, so I took that to be a yes.”
Pratt said he later sold the images to a photo agency for $50,000, calling himself “rich” for the first time. The pictures soon appeared on the cover of a tabloid magazine.
“There it was at a gas station. ‘TEENS GONE WILD!’ with me in the background,” he wrote. “My face was now forever linked to Mary-Kate Olsen’s supposed wild phase.”
Looking back, Pratt defended his actions, writing, “When you really think about it, it was a win-win. Mary-Kate got her rebel rebrand, Max got closure.”
Olsen later referenced Pratt during a 2008 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. “He does not have a good temper,” she said of their school days. “He would walk off the field.”
The memoir arrives Jan. 27.