Before his antics were documented on MTV’s The Hills, Spencer Pratt was causing drama with celebrities in the early 2000s Hollywood scene.
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In his newly released book, The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain, Pratt shared details about attending school in Santa Monica, California, alongside celebrities such as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
The reality TV star recalled selling pictures of Mary-Kate partying with her former boyfriend, Mark Winkler, the son of Harry Winkler, to celebrity tabloids.
Pratt stated that, in an effort to raise the funds to make his own film, he tapped into a “wasted source”: Max’s bedroom “photo shrine” of the Full House star. The then-teens had just broken up.
The Hills star went on to describe the photos as of “young love documented in European hotels, Hollywood parties, stolen moments.”
“I asked Max if I could take the photos off his wall — you know, for his healing process,” he wrote. “He didn’t say no, so I took that to be a yes.”
Pratt said after taking the photos, he left the Winkler residence. He then took them to a photo agency and received $50,000. Upon receiving the money, he wrote that he felt “rich.”
The Photos Surfaced on a Celebrity Tabloid Days Later
The Hills star said it didn’t take long for celebrity tabloids to get ahold of the photos.
“Less than a week later there it was,” he revealed. “Evidence of my entrepreneurial genius staring back at me from the InTouch cover at a gas station: ‘TEENS GONE WILD!’ across the cover,” he wrote. “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.”
Pratt further wrote, “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.”
The Hills castmate defended his actions, stating that the photos benefited Mary-Kate and Max. “When you really think about it, it was a win-win. Mary-Kate got her rebel rebrand, Max got closure.”
Although she hasn’t publicly spoken about the photo leak, Mary-Kate has commented on Spencer.
“He does not have a good temper,” she said during a 2008 interview with David Letterman.
When asked whether she was ever friends with Pratt, Olsen replied, “No.”
Along with his book release, Spencer Pratt is currently running for mayor of Los Angeles.