Spencer Pratt Leaked Photos of Mary-Kate Olsen for $50K and Doesn’t Regret It

Long before the term "troll" became part of pop culture's vernacular, Spencer Pratt paved the way for men who hate women to have someone to aspire to. Spencer gained his reality TV fame after starring in MTV's as Lauren Conrad's arch enemy and, eventually, the show's villain. His ability to troll anyone who crossed him or his wife, Heidi Montag, created historical moments fans are still quoting today. Douche canoe, anyone?

While Spencer's time on The Hills and his subsequent reality shows (where he also played the villain) made him a star, as it turns out, he wasn't pretending to be a troll when MTV came calling. In his own words, Spencer shared how he had already found himself on Mary-Kate Olsen's "ick" list before he joined The Hills.

Here's the scoop.

In his memoir, The Guy You Loved to Hate: Confessions from a Reality TV Villain, which debuted on Jan. 27, 2026, Spencer recalled being in the same social circle as Mary-Kate. He and the former child star attended Campbell Hall School in Studio City, Calif., a school of choice for celebrity kids and children of wealthy parents. Spencer shared in his memoir that Max Winkler, son of the legendary actor Henry Winkler, also attended the same high school.

Spencer shared that he was friends with Max at the time and was supporting him through his and Mary-Kate's breakup. He said he was also an aspiring director at the time and found a "wasted resource" he could take advantage of. The resource was a "photo shrine" he dedicated to his and the Billboard Dad star's relationship, which included photos that showed “young love documented in European hotels, Hollywood parties, stolen moments."

Spencer said he insisted that Max let him take the photos down for him to help him "heal" from his breakup, adding "He didn’t say no, so I took that to be a yes.” He then took them and sold them to a photo agency for $50,000.

"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,” he recalled of the tabloid story.

"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.”

While Spencer admittedly invaded his former friend's privacy, he said he doesn't regret the decision. Elsewhere in his memoir, he said he doesn't think what he did was particularly controversial and that it allowed Mary-Kate to move beyond her child-star image.

"When you really think about it, it was a win-win," Spencer said. "Mary-Kate got her rebel rebrand, Max got closure.”

Mary-Kate and Max, who have moved onto other relationships, haven't shared their side of the photo controversy. However, the Full House alum briefly addressed going to the same high school as Spencer. According to her 2008 interview with David Letterman, she said they were never friends, she remembered him as having a bad temper when he played soccer at the school.

"He does not have a good temper. He walked out of a few games, he’d walk off the field,” Mary-Kate recalled.

Spencer briefly discussed the actor's comments about him in his memoir, stating she "would weaponize that incident against me when she was feeling petty.”

Would love to be a fly on the wall for that high school reunion!