Mr Case left politics to be Prince William’s Private Secretary in June 2018, shortly after Harry and Meghan’s wedding. He apparently hoped for “a quieter life” after spending a year working as the Director General Northern Ireland and Ireland, the top civil servant working on the post-Brexit Irish border issue. He was responsible for running the day-to-day operations of Kensington Palace and is believed to have greatly helped William and Kate Middleton’s popularity with the public skyrocket.
However, life in the royal realm did not prove to be as quiet as he had hoped, with Meghan and Harry starting to feel unhappy, and reportedly even resentful towards William and Kate.
This problem escalated to the point of a real feud between the brothers, which played out in the press, and pushed Harry and Meghan towards their royal exit.
Royal expert Camilla Tominey said: “Little did he know that the deteriorating relationship between the royal brothers would explode into a constitutional crisis, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepping down as senior royals two years later.
“Case forged a close partnership with the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, the most powerful aide at Buckingham Palace, and became instrumental in elevating William’s image as statesman, to the disquiet of Harry, who felt pushed out.”
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Simon Case managed to alienate Meghan and Harry during his time at Kensington Palace (Image: GETTY)
Boris Johnson reportedly called Prince William to ask permission to pinch Mr Case (Image: GETTY)
She added in her article for The Spectator that it was on Mr Case’s watch that William and Kate were revealed to have flown by budget airline to Balmoral, after Harry and Meghan had snubbed the Queen to fly by private jet to Elton John’s mansion in Nice.
Indeed, this contrast at the time was striking, and highlighted the major differences between how the Cambridges were handling royal life amid public and press scrutiny and how the Sussexes were.
Ms Tominey went on to say that Mr Case helped modernise the Cambridges’ operation and made them “the Royal Family’s greatest PR weapon”.
However, according to a new book entitled ‘Finding Freedom’ by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, Harry felt he was being “thrown under the bus” by William’s team, who would do anything to make his brother “look good”.
Simon Case was private secretary to Prince William (Image: GETTY)
A source told the authors: “Harry was upset that it was playing out so publicly and that so much of the information being reported was wrong.
“There had been moments where he felt people working with his brother had put things out to make William look good, even if it meant throwing Harry under the bus.”
The authors are likely referring to Mr Case, who was the most senior royal aide to William and is seen as being key to the Duke’s rising popularity.
However, royal commentators have pointed out that it is a royal aide’s job to make their boss look good.
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Prince Harry felt like William’s aides were “throwing him under the bus” (Image: GETTY)
Pod Save the Queen is hosted by Ann Gripper and features Daily Mirror royal editor Russel Myers.
Last month, Mirror Online lifestyle editor Zoe Forsey was on the show to discuss Finding Freedom, and said: “One of the more upsetting claims I found was the details of the breakdown really of Harry and William’s relationship ‒ obviously it was quite widely reported, but there was a lot more of it from Harry’s side.
“There was the claim that Harry was worried that lots of William’s staff were actually putting out information, mainly just to make William look good even if it made Harry look quite bad.
“The quote was ‘even if it meant throwing Harry under the bus’ which is quite interesting, saying it was a very confusing time for Harry, his head was all over the place and he basically didn’t know who to believe when these different stories were coming out and the motives behind them.”
Mr Myers replied: “What I would argue is that these comments that William’s team threw Harry under the bus by essentially just talking up their boss… well that’s their job and that’s their role within the machine of the institution.
“I would argue against that I think that Harry’s being very very sensitive and it shows his mindset at the time.
“And certainly the courtiers, whoever they work for, whether it’s Harry and Meghan or Charles or the Queen or William and Kate ‒ that’s their job, they are there to publicise their boss’s roles, their boss’s charities, all their engagements.
“So the main point is that Harry and Meghan didn’t like playing second fiddle and that’s really surprising to me because the very concept of monarchy is a hierarchical structure.”
Nevertheless, Mr Case helped the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge navigate the ‘Megxit’ situation, after the Sussexes announced their decision to step down as senior royals.
He served as William’s right-hand man throughout the tumultuous events of the last two years, steering the ship through his fallout with his brother, Megxit and the release of Finding Freedom, as well as how to act amid other scandals such as the one around Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Tominey claimed that Mr Case’s “experience with the dysfunctional royal household will stand him in good stead” with his new role.
She claimed Prime Minister Boris Johnson actually telephoned William to ask his permission to pinch his private secretary to be the new Head of the Home Civil Service.
Mr Case has technically been “seconded” temporarily to the civil service, but he is not expected to return to the Palace.
