RICHARD EDEN: The fascinating ‘freebie’ reason the Beckhams have ditched the Sussexes – as my source tells me Victoria ‘never really liked’ Meghan

Prince William and David Beckham were seen sharing a private joke at RAF Northolt, in West London, this week as they inspected two London Air Ambulances bought with money they had helped to raise.

No one knows what so amused the former England football captain and the heir to the throne, who served as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance from 2015 to 2017.

But Prince Harry will hope that it was not 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 realises.

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.

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.

And after Meghan moved into Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, Victoria, whose fashion label was expanding into beauty products, gave her advice on make-up and a member of her staff provided her with help on facials and hairdressing. Free of charge, of course.

When news of the Beckhams’ generosity made the Press, however, Meghan was said to be outraged. The Beckhams denied that they had leaked any information but hyper-sensitive reportedly Harry and Meghan became distrustful of them.

While David and Victoria did go on to attend Harry and Meghan’s wedding ceremony, they were not invited to the evening reception, which was attended by some showbusiness figures the Sussexes barely knew.

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. ‘It seemed she was not prepared to tolerate anything flattering regarding the Beckhams and the Games to appear in the media.’

Prince Harry smiles with David Beckham at an FA reception in 2010 in South Africa

It had been a different sporting event that brought Beckham together with Prince William. Both played an important part in the 2010 bid for the football World Cup. Although the bid was unsuccessful, the pair stayed in touch.

David had always been an ardent royalist, who would stand up for the Queen’s Speech every Christmas, dressed in his Sunday best. Years later, he queued for 12 hours to view the Queen’s coffin when her body was lying in state.

So it is, perhaps, no surprise that the Sussexes’ attacks on the Royal Family failed to impressed the Beckhams.

‘Both David and Victoria put great importance on family and would never, ever turn on their relations the way that Harry and Meghan did,’ one of their associates tells me. ‘The truth is that Victoria never really liked Meghan much. She was friendly and welcoming to her but is not bothered about staying in touch.’

Given that David owns a football club in Miami and the couple have an increasingly prominent position in American society, it might seem natural that they would join the court of Harry and Meghan. Instead, the Beckhams are sticking with the Windsors.

If power couples were like football teams, this match would be a 2-0 result to William and Catherine.

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