In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry referred to Simon Case as the Fly. Case was Prince William’s private secretary from 2018 through 2020, a brief reprieve between his work as a Tory political operative. One could argue – as I have – that Case was absolutely doing Tory Party political work as William’s private secretary as well, that Case was there specifically to groom William to be the British conservatives’ useful-idiot heir and king. In Spare, Harry detailed at length his complaints about Case’s maneuvers and machinations, and Case was also a huge part of the Sandringham Summit in 2020, in which Prince William and then-Prince Charles decided that the Sussexes needed to be thrown out, without security. Under Case’s watch, Harry and Meghan were scapegoated and mercilessly attacked to keep the heat off Prince William and Kate for years. Case also oversaw the absolute mess between Dan Wootton and Kensington Palace staffer Christian Jones, which is still a shocking story which should have been much, much bigger news.
After Case left KP, he went straight to work for Boris Johnson and the Tories. He’s managed to fail upwards ever since, and he currently has a life peerage and sits in the House of Lords. All of that slithering, conspiring and maneuvering and he came out ahead. Well, Case recently chatted with the Telegraph and they asked him about Prince William and Prince Harry.
Working in Downing Street, says Case, was about “managing the downside risk of everything”. He had far more fun working for Prince William as his private secretary from 2018 to 2020, a job he says was “a lot more optimistic and positive”.
William, he says, “is very, very personable behind closed doors, very relaxed, really caring about the team, but very open to challenge and really wants a real team ethos. And he is a great team captain. I was struck when he told stories of his time as an air ambulance pilot, and what kept on coming back was the importance of being part of a close-knit team that did these things, got through them and then coped together with sort of dealing with the aftermath.”
Case thinks that “each generation defines monarchy for its time” and that, when William becomes king, he and Catherine will at times “be much more accessible and relaxed in public settings than his father and certainly his grandmother would ever have been”.
Prince Harry is expected to bring his two children to England next month, and I ask Case whether he thinks William will meet his estranged brother. “I don’t know. Probably, like most people deep down, you sort of hope one day there’ll be a reunification. It’s just real sadness seeing a family sort of break up. That was definitely not fun to watch and witness. I hope one day they can be brothers in arms once again.”
It’s chilling, when you really think about it. Case was a huge part of the larger effort to destroy Harry and Meghan (mostly Meghan) and Case was also a huge part in driving that wedge between Harry and Prince William, not to mention co-authoring the terms of the Sussexit. And now, six-plus years removed from his actions and choices, Case sits there, oozing and sanctimoniously declaring that “It’s just real sadness seeing a family sort of break up.” The thing I always wonder about all of these conservative plans for William is… are these people ever worried about the monster they’ve created and enabled at every turn? After all of those years of trying to groom the doltish heir for the throne, are they ever disappointed with just how horrible he’s turned out?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
