Hate the Game, Not the Player

Spencer Pratt's trajectory took him from reality-TV supervillain to a bid for L.A. mayor. In an exclusive interview with Us and a new memoir, The Guy You Loved to Hate, he attempts to set the record straight

- SARAH HEARON

It's been nearly two decades since Spencer Pratt was introduced to (or unleashed on) the world, as Brody Jenner's best friend via Fox's short-lived Princes of Malibu, a reality show that L.

A. native Pratt had developed and sold in his early 20s. Two years later, in 2007, Pratt and Jenner infiltrated season 2 of MTV's The Hills, the Laguna Beach spinoff about a glamorous friend group in the Hollywood Hills, by dating Heidi Montag and Lauren “LC” Conrad, respectively. That's where Pratt cemented his place as a chaotic reality-TV villain — the constant antagonist to star Conrad — and wrote a whole new blueprint. Since then, his arc has been unpredictable and surprising, most recently with the announcement on Jan. 7 — the anniversary of the Palisades Fire, which claimed his house — that he'd be running for mayor of Los Angeles.

Community activism may be top of mind these days, but Pratt is open about the fact that fame and money have driven most decisions he's made, from staging paparazzi shoots and faking divorce filings with Montag to appearing on shows like 2009's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! “I was never thinking of it like ‘villain’ in a negative way,” he tells Us. Then things got away from him. “Throughout the fame journey, it gets heightened, and then you're emotional and making emotional decisions. It goes sideways.”

"Heidi and I have been public figures for the majority of our lives, and we would offer a level of unfiltered access to the mayor's office that you've never seen before," Pratt tells Us of his aspirations. "The mayor's office shouldn't be a mystery to the public."

He points to a particularly low time after