Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a lot of enemies back in the U.K. when they vamoosed from their sovereign soil to hop across the Atlantic back in 2020. And it seems they turned some Hollywood pals into opponents too, thanks to a mix-up that pitted two of the world’s most famous celebrity couples against each other.
So which couple did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex first befriend and then bedevil? The fact the alleged truth is revealed in a new book called House of Beckham, a tell-all biography of David and Victoria Beckham, might give you a big clue. But what happened to cause the potentially all-powerful union of the Sussexes and the Beckhams to go royally wrong?
Meghan Markle sicced Prince Harry on the Beckhams for leaking their gossip to the press… but they were innocent
House of Beckham author Tom Bower is clearly no fan of Meghan, so take this with a pinch of salt, but according to extracts from his upcoming book (via The Independent), the Duchess and former Suits star had a prickly relationship with the Beckhams that was rooted in envy and distrust.
“In Meghan’s celebrity world, ranking depended on wealth and fame,” Bower claims. “As a seasoned operator, Meghan deluded herself that her status in the Royal family placed her above Victoria in the social pecking order. She was irritated to discover that the Beckhams had considerably more wealth than herself.”
Supposedly, Meghan then steered herself and Harry into the Beckhams’ orbit and the four became friendly… Until details about how Victoria had given Meghan make-up advice somehow got leaked to The Sun. Bower writes that this caused the blossoming “relationship between the two ambitious women [to] crash.”
With the British media finding any excuse they could to fill column inches about her, her family, and her past, this incident was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Meghan was left furious. So much so that Meghan supposedly sicced her husband on the apparently misbehaving Beckhams.
“Sensitive to the media’s probing into her unusual past, Meghan was outraged by The Sun’s report,” Bower states. “This was the latest of a series of nasty revelations by London’s newspapers. Harry was ordered to complain to David Beckham.”
Victoria is said to have strenuously denied the Sussexes’ allegations that she and David had leaked their private info to the press, with the ex-Spice Girl blaming a beautician they had both seen instead. Bower, however, believes “the culprit was probably a boastful publicist.”
Souring friendships with fellow British ex-pats in Hollywood might be the reason why Harry is apparently feeling so unsettled and “homesick” in California these days, even threatening to move back to England. Now that’s what you call an own goal.
