‘The line between memory and fact is blurred’: Harry’s ghostwriter defends Duke from inaccuracies

The ghostwriter of Prince Harry has defended his book from the claims of inaccuracy, insisting that it was normal for memories to vary and emphasizing that Harry himself has sometimes said he was unsure of the details.

JR Moehringer, who has also authored autobiographies for Andre Agassi and Nike co-founder Phil Knight, came to his late collaborator’s defense on Wednesday.

Harry has been accused of a litany of factual errors, including the claim that he was a descendant of King Henry VI, that he was given an XBox before they were made, and that Meghan Markle’s father was bought a plane ticket between Mexico and London on Air New Zealand, which doesn’t fly that route.

Moehringer, however, stuck to the job.

He tweeted a quote from Mary Karr, author of The Art of Memoir, which read: “The line between memory and fact is blurred, between interpretation and fact.

There are inadvertent errors of that type out of the ordinary.

Another quote from Karr that he tweeted read: “Neurologist Jonathan Mink, MD, explained to me that with memories as vivid as David’s, we often register only emotion, all details blurred in an unreadable blur.”

The duke claimed that his aunt, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, gave him an Xbox for his 13th birthday in 1997, despite the fact that the best-selling device was first released in the United States four years later, in 2001.

He writes: ‘I tore the wrapping paper, the ribbon. I looked inside… It was an Xbox. I was pleased. I loved video games.

‘That’s the story, anyway. It has appeared in many accounts of my life, as gospel, and I have no idea if it is true. Dad said mom hurt her head, but maybe I was the one with the brain damage?

Moehringer, in response to the criticism, retweeted a commenter who said: “It is worth noting that IN THE BOOK when Harry talks about the XBox (which had not yet been released in 1997) he explicitly states that he has no idea if this memory in particular is true and explains that his mother’s death ruined his memories.

Moehringer also retweeted a commenter saying: ‘Right there he says he doesn’t know if it’s true. Read it again.’

The New York-born author noted that Harry himself admitted that his memories were sometimes hazy.

“Landscape, geography, architecture, that’s how my memory rolls,” said Harry.

‘Dates? Sorry, I’ll have to look them up.

‘Dialogue? I’ll do my best, but I won’t make any verbatim claims, especially when it comes to the 1990s.

Moehringer then tweets another passage from the book, in which Harry says: “Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, collects and selects as it sees fit, and there is so much truth to what I remember and how I remember it.” I remember as there is in the so-called objective facts.

“Things like chronology and cause and effect are often just fables we tell ourselves about the past.”

Several of the specific claims that Moehringer does not address.

Harry wrote that Meghan bought a first-class ticket from Mexico to Britain for Thomas Markle so he could escape concerns about bullying in his adopted homeland.

That ticket was with Air New Zealand, the Duke of Sussex claimed.

“We told him, get out of Mexico right now: a new level of bullying is about to befall you, so come to Britain. Now,’ revealed an excerpt from Spare.

‘Air New Zealand, first class, booked and paid for by Meg.’

Air New Zealand has said that it has never operated flights between Mexico and the UK, and that it does not offer first-class service.

“We have never had flights between Mexico and the UK. And we only have Business Premier,’ an Air NZ spokesperson told the New Zealand Herald.

Other questions about the accuracy of the explosive memories have been raised after eagle-eyed readers on social media found other inaccuracies.

In Spare, the duke writes of his ‘great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’, King Henry VI, who founded Eton College and died in 1471, even though Henry VI’s direct lineage ended after his son, Edward of Westminster. , he died when he was a childless teenager at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Prince Harry’s real great-great-grandfather was King George III, who reigned from 1760 to 1811, more than three centuries after Henry VI’s death.

Historians have been quick to take to social media to question the accuracy of Harry’s link to Henry VI, the last of the Lancastrian dynasty.

The royal correspondent Patricia Treble pointed out the genealogical error and the fact that Henry VI had no descendants after his son’s death in 1471.

The Duke’s account of how he learned of the Queen Mother’s death has also been disputed, with many arguing that he had been in Klosters, Switzerland, the weekend his grandmother died, and not Eton College in Windsor, England.

The Duke of Sussex wrote in painstaking detail about a call he received while studying at Eton College telling him that his great-grandmother had died on March 30, 2002.

He writes: ‘At Eton, while studying, I took the call.

‘I wish I could remember whose voice it was on the other end; of a courtier, I think.

“I remember it was just before Easter, the weather was bright and warm, the light was coming in obliquely through my window, full of vivid colours.”

However, resurfaced photos show Harry posing alongside his brother William and father Charles at a press call on March 29, having recently overcome a bout of glandular fever in time to hit the slopes.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: “It appears from the evidence that he was certainly at Klosters when the Queen Mother died.”

“This portrayal of being at Eton, ‘the bright warm weather, the slanting light… vivid colours’ is therefore inaccurate.”