Spencer Pratt Details Selling Mary-Kate Olsen Photos In New Tell-All Book

Before Spencer Pratt became reality TV’s resident villain on "The Hills," he says his first Hollywood fallout happened years earlier, and it involved Mary-Kate Olsen. In his new memoir, "The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain," Pratt rewinds to his pre-fame days growing up in Santa Monica, California, where celebrity classmates were the norm. Among them were Olsen and her then-boyfriend, Max Winkler, the son of actor Henry Winkler. According to Spencer Pratt, his ambition to direct his own film, without the money to fund it, pushed him toward a move that would later make tabloid headlines and permanently link his name to Olsen’s.

According to PEOPLE, Pratt writes that after Olsen and Winkler broke up, he noticed what he described as a bedroom “photo shrine” dedicated to the former child star. He characterized the images as “young love documented in European hotels, Hollywood parties, stolen moments,” and claimed he suggested they be taken down.

“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 returned to the Winkler family home, greeting Winkler’s famous father on his way in, and left with all the photos.

Those photos, Pratt admitted, were eventually sold to a photo agency for $50,000, a payday he says made him feel “rich” at the time.

“Less than a week later there it was, evidence of my entrepreneurial genius staring back at me from the InTouch cover at a gas station: ‘TEENS GONE WILD!’ across the cover. A shot of Mary-Kate with a constellation of empties ‘LOOK AT ALL THE EMPTIES!’ and there I was in the background, frozen mid-shaka. I hadn’t sold that frame. Someone else was shopping, and now I wasn’t just the seller, I was part of the merchandise. My face was now forever linked to Mary-Kate Olsen’s supposed wild phase, preserved in grocery store checkout lines across America.”

Despite the backlash, Pratt defended his decision years later in the memoir. “When you really think about it, it was a win-win," he wrote. "Mary-Kate got her rebel rebrand, Max got closure.”

While neither Olsen twin has publicly commented on the photo scandal itself, Mary-Kate did bring up Pratt during a 2008 appearance on David Letterman’s show. “He does not have a good temper. He walked out of a few games; he’d walk off the field,” she said, recalling Pratt’s behavior while playing soccer at their school.

When Letterman asked if they were friends, her response was brief. “No,” she replied simply.

Elsewhere in the memoir, Pratt claimed Olsen later referenced that soccer incident, writing that she “would weaponize that incident against me when she was feeling petty.”

Pratt’s renewed headlines over Mary-Kate Olsen also arrive at a moment when he’s placing himself back into the public spotlight for an entirely different reason: Politics.

On Wednesday, January 7, the 42-year-old "The Hills" alum announced he is officially running for mayor of Los Angeles. The following day, Pratt addressed his political affiliation, revealing that he is a registered Republican and has no intention of changing parties as his campaign gets underway.

“I’ve been in the public eye most of my life, and there isn’t any dirt you can find on me that hasn’t already been aired,” he wrote on Thursday, January 8. "Seems like the only thing people don’t know is my voter registration, so here go: I registered Republican in 2020 and never changed it.”

Pratt also explained that he won’t “change it now just to check a different box.”

Pratt’s memoir doesn’t shy away from controversy. Instead, it reframes the moments he believes helped cement his reputation, long before reality TV fame amplified it. From tabloid scandals to fractured friendships, the book leans fully into the persona that followed him into the spotlight.

"The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain" is available now.