A royal expert has claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex once ‘snubbed’ their friend David Beckham, for which the ex-footballer later took ‘revenge’ on the couple

When Meghan married Prince Harry in a glitzy royal wedding, the guest list was filled with A-listers hailing from the US like Serena Williams, George Clooney, and Oprah Winfrey – alongside some British big names, including footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria.

Harry is reported to have known and been friendly with David Beckham for a long time but an author has claimed in his bombshell new book that after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a “snub” against the football star, the friendship quite quickly fell apart, with Beckham eventually even allegedly getting “revenge” on his former friend.

Tom Bower – who has also written books about members of the Royal Family – claimed in his new title House of Beckham, that the football legend felt snubbed by Prince Harry just months after he had attended the Duke’s glamorous royal wedding in Windsor. The 2018 Invictus Games took place in Sydney in October – only five months after David had been all smiles as he and his wife watched Harry and Meghan tie the knot.

Bower alleged in his book – per The Independent – that Beckham ended up spending most of his time at the games by himself, claiming that “arriving on the agreed day to meet Prince Harry he was perplexed why officials were playing a dance to keep him happy, but away from Harry.”

The author further claimed that the Duke of Sussex had asked for his friend to be kept at a distance from him and that this request had originally come from Harry’s new wife, Meghan. “Photographs of the two together were forbidden. 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. She did not want any competition in the media from Beckham, and especially not from his wife Victoria,” the author alleged.

However, Bower claimed, that the football star never quite forgot that he hadn’t spent time with Harry at the Sydney games, and a few years later when the opportunity came up to support Harry’s brother William he was keen to do so – with the two brothers having a strained relationship since the Sussexes moved to the US.

During the 2022 World Cup, Prince William invited David Beckham to Boston for the Earthshot Prize, and the footballer flew nearly 8,000 miles to support the launch of the awards, which aims to find solutions to the climate crisis. Bower claimed this move showed “Beckham had got his revenge for the Sydney snub”.