How David Beckham became the royals’ right-hand man! After his friendship with Harry cooled, the footballer is now firmly Team William and Charles

How David Beckham became the royals’ right-hand man! After his friendship with Harry cooled, the footballer is now firmly Team William and Charles.

When David Beckham confidently strode into his first-ever state banquet alongside his wife Victoria on Tuesday night, he seemed as though he belonged there.
The ex-footballer, 49, looked the part in his formal white tie as he mingled with King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Prince of Wales at the glittering event held for the Emir of Qatar and his wife.

But the three-course dinner is just the latest example of the former England captain, who has long been tipped for a knighthood, growing closer to the Royal Family.

He held a meeting with the King where they discussed their passion for beekeeping in May, became an ambassador to educational charity The King’s Foundation in June and helped Prince William raise funds for the London Air Ambulance in October.

However his deepening relationship with The Firm comes after his spectacular falling out with Prince Harry and Meghan over rumours of a ‘leaking’ spat dating back to 2018.

And with Harry becoming estranged from his family and abandoning Britain for California in 2020, some royal watchers have suggested there is now a ‘Harry-sized hole’ waiting to be filled.

They believe Beckham could be just the fit, pointing out he knows how to handle a press conference (and if needed a media backlash), looks good in a suit, and Victoria could bring the star power of the Spice Girls to any occasion.

From their plush home in the Cotswolds they could be on the M40 and at the Palace in little more than 90 minutes – a tad closer than Harry and Meghan across the Atlantic.

Perhaps the biggest example of things moving in the direction of ‘Prince Beckham’ was seen in May when King Charles held a private meeting with him – but snubbed his son Harry by saying he was too busy with ‘various other priorities’.

David was once so close to Harry, 40, that he and his wife, Victoria, 50, were among the guests when the prince married Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018.

The Beckhams, who have a combined fortune estimated at £455million, made a very generous gesture in the run-up to the Sussexes big day.

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, Italian-style villa in the city, where she was waited on by their staff.

Instead, the Sussexes invited some showbusiness figures they barely knew, according to the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden.

Another royal expert claimed the move was a ‘near-unforgivable insult’, citing that many Hollywood stars who attended the dinner ‘were not friends’ with Harry or Meghan.

Despite that snub, David agreed to Harry’s request to fly to Australia, where he was hosting the Invictus Games, his celebrated competition for injured servicemen 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 even be pictured with him.

The reason, according to distinguished biographer Tom Bower, was Meghan. ‘She wanted no competition in the media from David,’ he wrote in his book, Revenge.