Spencer Pratt Recalls Teen Photo Scandal Involving Mary-Kate Olsen

Long before he became one of reality TV’s most infamous villains on The Hills, Spencer Pratt says he crossed paths — and lines — with another future star: Mary-Kate Olsen.

In his newly released memoir, The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain, Pratt revisits his teenage years in Santa Monica, California, where he attended school alongside celebrity kids. Among them were Olsen and her then-boyfriend Max Winkler, the son of actor Henry Winkler.

Pratt writes that at the time, he dreamed of directing his own film but didn’t have the money to get started. Inspiration — and opportunity — struck in Max’s bedroom, where a wall was covered with photos of Winkler and Olsen taken during their relationship. According to Pratt, the couple had recently broken up, and he suggested removing the pictures “for healing.”

“He didn’t say no,” Pratt wrote, adding that he took the silence as permission.

Pratt claims he later visited the Winkler family home, greeted Henry Winkler — best known for Happy Days — and left with the photos. He then sold the images to a photo agency for $50,000, a sum he says made him feel “rich” at the time.

Within days, the pictures appeared on the cover of InTouch magazine under the headline “TEENS GONE WILD!” One image showed Olsen surrounded by empty bottles, while another unexpectedly included Pratt himself in the background.

“I hadn’t sold that frame,” he wrote. “Suddenly I wasn’t just the seller — I was part of the merchandise.”

Pratt admits his face became permanently linked to Olsen’s so-called “wild phase,” preserved on tabloid covers across grocery store checkout lines nationwide. Still, he defends his actions in the book, calling the incident a “win-win.”

“Mary-Kate got her rebel rebrand,” he wrote. “Max got closure.”

The Olsen twins have never publicly addressed the photo leak, but Mary-Kate briefly mentioned Pratt during a 2008 interview with David Letterman. Asked about playing soccer with Pratt at school, she didn’t mince words.

“He does not have a good temper,” she said, adding that he would walk off the field during games.

When Letterman asked if they were friends, her response was blunt: “No.”

Pratt, for his part, claims in the memoir that Olsen later used one of those soccer incidents against him when she was feeling “petty.”

The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain is out now and available wherever books are sold.

Source: People