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RICHARD EDEN: Why Palace insiders are unimpressed by Harry's 'tasteless' attempt to claim his grandmother's support in his continuing 'crusade'
One of the most unedifying aspects of Prince Harry's feud with his brother has been his apparent desire to claim ownership of his mother's legacy. Scarcely a speech or interview can pass without a reference to the late Princess Diana and his claims about her wishes.
Harry's latest television interview suggests that he is now trying to invoke the memory of his late grandmother, too.
Courtiers I've spoken to in the last few days are distinctly unimpressed.
In last Thursday's interview with simpering ITV News correspondent Rebecca Barry, Harry claimed that Queen Elizabeth had fully supported his legal battle against the popular Press and had personally urged him on.
'We had many conversations before she passed and this is very much something that she supported,' he declared in a documentary, Tabloids on Trial.
'She knew how much this meant to me and she's very much up there saying 'see this through to the end'.'
In last Thursday's interview with ITV News' Rebecca Barry, Harry claimed that Queen Elizabeth had fully supported his legal battle against the popular Press and had personally urged him on
Sadly, the Queen is no longer available to support Harry's claim or deny it. So, perhaps it would be instructive to look at her actions.
It is a tribute to the late Queen's warm relationships with her grandchildren that all eight felt deeply loved.
Harry, though, was convinced that he was in some way unique. For example, in an interview with an American journalist five months before her death, he claimed that he enjoyed a 'special relationship' with the monarch.
Preposterously, he declared he was 'protecting' Queen Elizabeth from the people around her, even though he had been living in North America for more than two years.
Convinced he was, indeed, special, Harry had become increasingly frustrated that he was unable to see his grandmother in person to discuss his plans to move abroad with his new wife, Meghan.
In his bestselling memoir, Spare, the prince portrayed the Queen as a frail, elderly woman manipulated by officials, to whom he gave a series of childish nicknames such as 'The Wasp' and 'The Fly'.
In fact, as the two prime ministers she met just days before her death have testified, the Queen was as sharp as a tack until the end. And, even as her physical strength deteriorated, she was prepared to speak her mind – whether it suited Harry and Meghan or not.
One courtier Richard Eden spoke to is far from happy with Harry's 'tasteless' attempt to claim his grandmother's support in his continuing 'crusade', adding: 'There is something distinctly 'off' about it'
Harry had become increasingly frustrated that he was unable to see his grandmother in person to discuss his plans to move abroad with his new wife Meghan in 2020
For example, instead of backing their plans for a 'half-in, half-out' role with the Royal Family, she made it clear that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, would not be allowed to combine a life of public duty with money-grubbing in Hollywood.
What, then, do we make of Harry's bold new claim that the late Queen had supported his controversial legal campaign against the Press?
Did she really take such a gung-ho view of these things?
It was certainly true that the late Queen approved a decision in 2018 to threaten News Group Newspapers with legal action over its apparent lack of response to hacking claims – as emails disclosed to the High Court have made clear.
But Harry has also alleged in court documents that his grandmother knew about a so-called 'secret agreement' between Buckingham Palace and the publisher of The Sun newspaper, under which – he claimed – the royals agreed not to sue.
Not only was the allegation strongly denied by all sides, Harry's claim was rejected by a judge as not 'reaching the necessary threshold of plausibility and cogency'.
One courtier I spoke to this week was far from happy with Harry's 'tasteless' attempt to claim his grandmother's support in his continuing 'crusade'.
As he told me: 'There is something distinctly 'off' about it.
'We'll never know what was said between grandson and grandmother. What we do know is that we will only ever know one side of the story.'
Harry's attempts to use the memory of the late Queen for his own ends is likely to be viewed by many as distasteful – particularly given his disruptive behaviour in her final years.
The facts speak for themselves: Meghan and Harry conducted an explosive interview with America's chat-show queen, Oprah Winfrey, even though the Duke of Edinburgh was aged 99 and his health was deteriorating.
The royal couple made deeply hurtful claims, including an accusation of racism against unidentified senior royals. By the time the interview was broadcast, Philip was already in hospital with his final illness. Incurably sick, he died four weeks later.
The California-based couple spent the following 17 months until the Queen's death working on projects that ended up inflicting further damage on the Royal Family.
Just two months before our beloved monarch died at Balmoral aged 96, her 'special' grandson announced the forthcoming publication of his 'intimate' memoir, Spare.
Shame on Harry for now trying to use the memory of a grandmother he did so much to hurt in her final years.
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