Prince William and David Beckham were seen sharing a private joke at RAF Northolt, west London, this week as they inspected two London air ambulances purchased with money they had helped raise.
No one knows what was so amusing to the former England football captain and heir to the throne, who served as an East Anglian Air Ambulance pilot from 2015 to 2017.
But Prince Harry will hope it wasn’t a joke at his expense.
David, 49, was once so close to Harry, 40, that he and his wife, Victoria, were among the guests when the prince married Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018.
But the Beckhams have now distanced themselves from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for reasons that are even more fascinating than anyone outside their circle realizes.
David and Victoria, who have a combined fortune estimated at £455million, were once so close to the Sussexes that they made a very generous gesture in the run-up to their wedding.
Prince William and David Beckham were seen sharing a private joke at RAF Northolt, west London, this week as they inspected two London air ambulances purchased with money they had helped raise.
When Meghan returned to her native Los Angeles to find paparazzi camped outside her mother’s home, the Beckhams offered the former actress the use of their six-bedroom Italianate villa in the city, where their staff looked after her. .
And after Meghan moved into Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, Victoria, whose fashion brand was expanding into beauty products, gave her makeup advice and a member of her staff provided help with facials and hair styling. Free, of course.
However, when news of the Beckhams’ generosity hit the press, Meghan was said to be outraged. The Beckhams denied leaking information, but the hypersensitive Harry and Meghan reportedly distrusted them.
While David and Victoria attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding ceremony, they were not invited to the evening reception, which was attended by some showbiz figures the Sussexes barely knew.
Despite that snub, David accepted Harry’s request to fly to Australia, where they would host the Invictus Games, their celebrated competition for injured military men and women, later that year.
He made the arduous 22-hour journey from London to Sydney only to discover that the duke would not see him or be photographed with him.
The reason, according to distinguished biographer Tom Bower, was Meghan. “She didn’t want competition from David in the media,” he wrote in his book Revenge. “It seemed like she was not willing to tolerate anything flattering about the Beckhams and the Games appearing in the media.”
Prince Harry smiles with David Beckham at a 2010 FA reception in South Africa
It had been a different sporting event that brought Beckham together with Prince William. Both played an important role in the bid for the 2010 World Cup. Although the bid was not successful, the couple stayed in touch.
David had always been a fervent royalist, attending the Queen’s Speech every Christmas dressed in his Sunday best. Years later, he queued for 12 hours to see the Queen’s coffin as her body lay in state at the funeral.
So it is perhaps no surprise that the Sussexes’ attacks on the Royal Family failed to impress the Beckhams.
“Both David and Victoria place great importance on family and would never, ever change their relationships like Harry and Meghan did,” one of their associates tells me. ‘The truth is that Victoria never really liked Meghan. She was kind and welcoming to her, but doesn’t worry about staying in touch.
Given that David owns a soccer club in Miami and the couple has an increasingly prominent position in American society, it might seem natural for them to join Harry and Meghan’s court. Instead, the Beckhams stay with the Windsors.
If power couples were like soccer teams, this match would be a 2-0 score for William and Catherine.
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