TK Maxx ‘tried to discredit Spare because of link to King’

TK MAXX tried to discredit Prince Harry’s memoir because of the company’s links with the King, the book’s ghostwriter has claimed.

In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he would regularly shop at the discount store for his “everyday casual clothes” and was particularly fond of its “once-a-year sale”.

A spokesman for TK Maxx was quick to point out that the company did not do sales, but rather offered great value savings “all year round”.

JR Moehringer, the Duke’s ghostwriter, highlighted the response in a lengthy article he wrote for The New Yorker magazine 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 is also the main sponsor of the Prince’s Trust Awards.

The writer also 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 23 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 the Duke 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.

The writer revealed that the Duke had initially wanted the book to act as “a rebuttal to every lie ever published about him”.

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.

TK Maxx has yet to comment.