He claims to have graduated from the Denison University and that he attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His first novel "A Million Little Pieces," was published by Doubleday in Spring 2003, after deceiving the editors into believing that it was an accurate memoir of his life as an addict. Its followup, "My Friend Leonard", was also first published as a 'memoir' by Riverhead in 2005. Journalists later discovered that both bestselling books are fiction and that Frey lied to everyone. He apologized live on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006 and later confessed in writing. The resulting scandal largely destroyed his career as a serious writer.