David and Victoria Beckham’s invitation to their first state banquet is another sign their friendship with Prince Harry and Megh…
David and Victoria Beckham’s invitation to their first state banquet is another sign their friendship with Prince Harry and Meghan is over, a royal expert said today.
The showbiz royalty were surprise attendees at Buckingham Palace last night as they joined the King and Queen for the glittering affair in honour of the Qatari ruler.
David has developed a strong bond with the Royal Family, recently becoming a celebrity ambassador for Charles’s charity The King’s Foundation – with fellow ambassador Sir Rod Stewart teasing him that his knighthood was ‘coming soon’.
The 49-year-old former Manchester United midfielder also met Charles at Highgrove in the spring. And David joined Prince William at RAF Northolt in October to celebrate breaking a £15million target to replace London‘s ageing air ambulance helicopters.
Posh and Becks were also once friends with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and were among the celebrity guests attending their wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018.
But the Sussexes and Beckhams are believed to have fallen out after a spat dating back to that year, with Harry and Meghan allegedly accusing Victoria and David of leaking stories about them to the press – which the Beckhams denied.
Then it was claimed Charles had a private meeting with David at Highgrove in May to discuss The King’s Foundation while Harry was visiting the UK – after the Duke had claimed his father was too busy attending to ‘various other priorities’ to see him.
Today, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline that the Beckhams had previously been friends with Harry and Meghan ‘going back over a decade’.
But he claimed the invitation to the state banquet hosted by the King was the ‘second sign this year’ that the two couples are ‘very definitely no longer so’.
Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘This seemed clear in extraordinary circumstances when Harry recently came to Britain for the St Paul’s Service commemorating 10 years of the Invictus Games. Upon arrival his spokesperson announced that his father’s full diary prevented them from meeting.
‘Yet both of them were in close proximity and it was reported that the King had met David Beckham to discuss charity work whilst Harry was in the country. The optics of this were extremely strange and it underlined the depth of the royal rift.
‘It was also a clear signal that the monarch and David Beckham enjoyed cordial relations, that Beckham was supportive of the King’s charitable endeavours and that Harry was not trusted.’
He claimed that the Beckhams’ appearance last night ‘underlines their favour with the Royal Family’, adding: ‘Rumours of rifts in their once close relationship with the Sussexes are plentiful.’
Mr Fitzwilliams said that when royal expert Tina Brown recently attacked Meghan for having the ‘worst judgment of anyone in the entire world’ and that she was ‘flawless about getting it all wrong’, she could have been thinking about their behaviour towards the Beckhams.
He continued: ‘The Beckhams, then considered friends, attended the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018 along with Hollywood stars who were not, yet they were not invited to the wedding dinner which was a bizarre misstep.
‘David supported Harry’s Invictus Games in Australia only to be cold-shouldered after his arrival. There were reports that the Sussexes accused the Beckhams of leaking stories about them to the press which is said to have enraged David.
‘Yet Meghan, who had visited the Beckhams in California before her marriage, had worn clothes designed by Victoria to promote her label as far back as 2013 and Harry and David Beckham had been friendly before he met Meghan.
‘We know the Sussexes did not appear at their son Brooklyn’s wedding. The likelihood is that the Sussexes, Meghan in particular, became jealous of a couple who are not only among the world’s genuine high achievers, but also who are clearly strong supporters of the royal family, including William.’
Mr Fitzwilliams also described Beckham as an ‘iconic figure both for his football achievements, his work for Unicef and other charities and his international profile’, adding: ‘It can surely not be long before he receives the knighthood that has been his due for years.’
Former England captain David has visited Buckingham Palace before, meeting Queen Elizabeth II at a Queen’s Young Leaders event in 2018, and the former footballer and his wife headed to the Palace in 2003 when David was made an OBE.
The couple also attended Prince William and Kate’s wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2011.
In 2022, David joined the long public queue to see the late Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall, waiting in line for 13 hours.
A number of creations by former Spice Girl turned fashion designer Victoria have been worn by royals in recent years, including Meghan and Sophie, now Duchess of Edinburgh.
Victoria met Charles as the Prince of Wales on a number of occasions with the Spice Girls, including when he was joined by a young Harry in South Africa.
Victoria was made an OBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the fashion industry and received the honour from William during an investiture ceremony at the Palace.
The Beckhams’ former mansion, Rowneybury House, in Hertfordshire was dubbed ‘Beckingham Palace’ and the pair posed on thrones on their wedding day in 1999.
Last night, the Beckhams were among the 170 guests in the Palace ballroom for the state banquet.
David was invited because of his close relationship with Qatar after acting as a paid ambassador for the country when it hosted the 2022 Fifa World Cup, which netted him a reported £10million.
But he faced fierce criticism over the connection because of Qatar’s criminalisation of same-sex relationships.
David and Victoria dined on a menu of Windsor pheasant, Cornish lobsters and a Balmoral plum sorbet, joining guests such as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and William.
Missing was the Princess of Wales, who is gradually returning to public duties after her cancer treatment and who left earlier in the day after the lunch and Picture Gallery exhibition.
The Beckhams processed into the ballroom alongside fellow guests. David, dapperly dressed in white tie and tails, chatted to Victoria as they made their way through the East Gallery.
Prince William speaks with David Beckham at the Bafta Film Awards on February 18, 2024
Victoria, dressed in one of her own designs, wore a fitted dark purple floor-length evening gown with long fitted sleeves. Her hair was swept into a sleek pony tail and she gave a small chuckle as they headed towards the ballroom.
She slowed as she spotted a photographer and moved closer to her husband to hold his hand.
As is the custom for couples at state banquets, the Beckhams were sat apart, on opposite sides of the banquet table, with David next to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who was sat on his right, and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football club.
David spent a four-month stint at PSG before retiring in 2013 after a 20-year career.
The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani set up Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) in 2005, which owns the French team PSG.
‘Mrs Beckham’, as she was labelled on her place setting, was sat between Labour peer Lord Levy and surgeon and former health minister Lord Darzi of Denham.
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