Meghan Markle reportedly barred Prince Harry from being photographed with David Beckham at the 2018 Invictus Games, before the upset soccer star sought “revenge” against the royal couple four years later.
The juicy saga is detailed in Tom Bower’s new book “The House of Beckham: Money, Sex and Power,” with the author alleging that the prince and the athlete had been friendly for years before their fallout.
Beckham and his wife, Victoria, were guests at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018 — but the relationship between the two couples soured less than six months later.
In October 2018, Beckham attended Harry’s Invictus Games for injured service people in Sydney, Australia, but was purportedly kept away from the prince at Markle’s behest.
“Beckham found himself alone at the Invictus Games stadium,” Bower writes in the biography. “Arriving on the agreed day to meet Prince Harry he was perplexed [as to] why officials were playing a dance to keep him happy, but away from Harry.”
The soccer player is said to have questioned officials as to why he wasn’t allowed to spend time with royal, before he allegedly learned that “the prince had ordered that under no circumstances was the footballer to be allowed near him.”
“Photographs of the two together were forbidden,” Bower claimed. “The royal snub was brutal. David Beckham was puzzled. Why did the prince refuse to meet him?”
“The exclusion order, it later transpired, was issued by Meghan,” the author alleged. “She did not want any competition in the media from Beckham, and especially not from his wife Victoria.”
Beckham was said to be “perplexed” and hurt by the move, but he exacted revenge more than four years later, Bower claims.
In November 2022, Beckham decided to add star power to a celebration in Boston held for Prince William and Princess Kate, helping to overshadow a competing event attended by Harry and Markle.
Beckham “flew 7,600 miles from Qatar to Boston to join the new Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, and President Joe Biden to celebrate the launch of the royals’ environmental Earthshot prize,” Bower writes.
The author alleged that on the same day, “Harry and Meghan were seeking to wow Americans during an event in New York.”
“Inevitably the Sussexes were overshadowed by the constellation [of celebrities] in Boston,” Bower writes. “Beckham had got his revenge for the Sydney snub.”
The story isn’t the only one about the Sussexes included in Bower’s new book on the Beckhams.
While engaged to Prince Harry, Markle allegedly asked Victoria — the former Spice-Girl-turned-fashion-designer — for free clothes and handbags. But the request was “vetoed by [Buckingham] Palace for being against their rules,” according to Bower.
Meanwhile, Bower believes that the relationship between the two couples was in trouble before the Invictus Games “snub.”
According to the new tome, Victoria felt “insulted” that she and her husband weren’t invited to a pre-wedding dinner for Harry and Markle that was attended by celebrities including George Clooney.
Meanwhile, it was reported last year, that Beckham was left “absolutely bloody furious” after accusations that he or Victoria had leaked stories about the Sussexes to the media.
Accusations allegedly flew during a tense phone call between the two couples.
