turning my buddy's romantic misery into startup capital
In the long tradition of those who orbit fame without fully inhabiting it, Spencer Pratt has written a memoir that doubles as a map of proximity — charting the distance between himself and the famous, and what he did with that distance. At 42, the former reality television antagonist is running for mayor of Los Angeles while cataloguing encounters with Ryan Gosling, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Taylor Swift, each story a small monument to the peculiar currency of being near greatness. His book raises a quiet question that haunts the celebrity age: what does it mean to have been in the room, and what are we willing to do with that fact?
- Pratt claims Ryan Gosling once literally fled upon seeing him at a Los Angeles hotel — a wordless verdict on a friendship Pratt still describes with pride.
- At 20, he converted a friend's heartbreak into $50,000 by selling paparazzi photos of Mary-Kate Olsen, an act he frames as startup capital rather than betrayal.
- Olsen later appeared on national television to clarify she was never actually his friend, describing a man prone to storming off soccer fields when the game turned against him.
- He turned down Kris Jenner's early pitch for what became Keeping Up with the Kardashians — a decision he now eulogizes with the rueful humor of someone who knows exactly what it cost him.
- After losing his Malibu home to wildfires and receiving quiet encouragement from an unnamed A-list star, Pratt is positioning the memoir as a reclamation — a bid to be remembered as a witness rather than a punchline.
Spencer Pratt has spent two decades as a figure people loved to dislike, and now, at 42, he has written a memoir to tell his side of that story. Titled The Guy You Loved to Hate, the book catalogs his proximity to the famous with a tone that hovers between self-awareness and self-promotion.
Among his most discussed claims is his account of Ryan Gosling. The two were neighbors at USC, Pratt writes, their lofts connected, their social circles overlapping. He suggests, with characteristic boldness, that Gosling absorbed something useful from his company. Years later, they crossed paths at The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles — and Gosling, according to Pratt, simply ran. No explanation. Just the image of an Oscar nominee choosing the exit.
The memoir is equally candid about his own moral shortcuts. At 20, while attending Crossroads School in Santa Monica, he sold tabloid photographs of Mary-Kate Olsen — then dating his friend Max Winkler — for $50,000. He describes it as startup capital. Olsen, appearing on Letterman in 2008, described him as someone she was never actually friends with, and remembered him as a person of volatile temperament.
There are lighter moments too. Pratt landed on Taylor Swift's PR mailing list after posting dance videos to her music, and now quietly hopes for a wedding invitation. He remembers declining Kris Jenner's pitch for what became Keeping Up with the Kardashians — a decision he marks with the self-deprecating clarity of hindsight.
What emerges is a portrait of a man who has always been adjacent to the story rather than inside it, and who is now, as a mayoral candidate and memoirist, attempting to reframe that adjacency as a vantage point. After losing his Malibu home in last year's wildfires, he found unexpected comfort in quiet gestures from the famous — proof, in his telling, that the room still has a place for him.
Spencer Pratt has spent the better part of two decades in the public eye, and now, at 42, he's decided to catalog his brushes with celebrity in a new memoir titled The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain. The book is already generating the kind of attention Pratt seems to crave—stories about famous people, told by someone who claims to have known them, or at least been near them.
One of those stories concerns Ryan Gosling. According to Pratt, the two were neighbors during his time at USC, where he spent a decade working toward a degree in political science between 2003 and 2013. Their lofts were connected, Pratt writes, and they occupied the same social orbit. "I had a crew that he was a part of," Pratt explained in an excerpt shared with Us Weekly. "We were a crew, and I think he learned a lot for his future roles from my posse." It's the kind of claim that sits somewhere between memory and mythology—the suggestion that a three-time Oscar nominee benefited from proximity to a reality television personality. But Pratt's account of their later encounter tells a different story. Years after their USC days, the two crossed paths at The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles. "I swear to God, he ran when he saw me," Pratt wrote. No explanation offered. No context provided. Just the image of Gosling apparently choosing flight over conversation.
Pratt's memoir is also a reckoning with his own choices, some of which he seems to view with a mixture of pride and self-awareness. In 2002, while attending Crossroads School in Santa Monica, he befriended Mary-Kate Olsen, who would later become a co-founder of The Row. Olsen was briefly dating Pratt's friend Max Winkler at the time. A year later, when Pratt was 20 years old, he sold photographs of the couple to a tabloid for $50,000. "Here I was, 20 years old, turning my buddy's romantic misery into startup capital," he wrote. Olsen herself addressed this years later, appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2008 to say she was never actually friends with Pratt, describing him as someone with a volatile temperament who would storm out of soccer games when things didn't go his way.
The memoir reveals a pattern of Pratt attempting to leverage his proximity to famous people and his willingness to capitalize on connections. He recounts how he landed on Taylor Swift's PR merchandise mailing list in 2018 after posting videos of himself dancing to her song "Look What You Made Me Do." Now he's hoping for an invitation to her wedding with Travis Kelce, viewing it as a potential social prize. He also remembers Kris Jenner pitching him on a reality show concept that would eventually become Keeping Up with the Kardashians—a show he declined, he notes, "with the kind of confidence only available to people about to make the worst decisions of their lives."
There are moments in the memoir where Pratt seems genuinely moved by gestures of support from the famous. When he lost his $3.8 million Malibu home in last year's wildfires, Scott Disick was among the first to reach out with a supportive message. More recently, while dining with his family, an unnamed major movie star approached his table to offer encouragement and validation, spending twenty minutes pumping him up about his various endeavors. The fact that this celebrity doesn't even follow Pratt on social media makes the gesture, in his telling, somehow more meaningful—proof that there are A-list figures quietly rooting for him to "call these people out."
Pratt's life has been defined by The Hills, the MTV reality show that ran from 2006 to 2010 and was frequently criticized for manufacturing drama and fabricating storylines. He's been married to Heidi Montag for 17 years and they have two sons, Gunner, 8, and Ryker, 3. The Hills: New Beginnings, a continuation of the original series, was canceled in 2022 after two poorly received seasons. Now, as a 42-year-old LA mayoral candidate writing a memoir about his celebrity encounters, Pratt seems to be attempting a kind of reclamation—a chance to tell his own story before someone else does, and to position himself not as a villain or a footnote, but as someone who was always in the room where it happened.
Notable Quotes
I had a crew that he was a part of. We were a crew, and I think he learned a lot for his future roles from my posse.— Spencer Pratt, on Ryan Gosling
I swear to God, he ran when he saw me.— Spencer Pratt, describing an encounter with Gosling at The Standard Hotel
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Pratt keep bringing up these celebrity encounters? What's he actually trying to prove?
I think he's trying to establish that he was never just a reality TV guy on the margins. He was in the room. He knew these people. He mattered.
But the Gosling story—the one where he supposedly ran away—that actually undermines that claim, doesn't it?
Exactly. It does. Which is why it's interesting that he included it. He's not trying to hide from the awkwardness. He's saying, "Look, even when it went wrong, it was real."
What about the Mary-Kate Olsen situation? Selling those photos for fifty thousand dollars when he was twenty. Does he seem to regret that?
He frames it as youthful opportunism, almost with a wink. "Turning my buddy's romantic misery into startup capital." He's not apologizing. He's explaining how he thought at the time.
And now he's hoping Taylor Swift invites him to her wedding because he danced to one of her songs online?
That's the pattern throughout the memoir. He's always looking for the next connection, the next way to be seen as part of something bigger. It's not cynical exactly. It's just... that's how he moves through the world.
Do you think anyone actually cares what he has to say about Ryan Gosling?
Probably not. But that's not really the point. The point is that Pratt gets to tell the story now. He gets to be the one who says what happened.