The past week has been pretty bonkers for Beckham gossip. David and Victoria Beckham attended the state banquet at Buckingham Palace last week, their first time being invited to a white-tie royal event. They scored the invitation after David spent decades sucking up to the Windsors. His efforts have “paid off” in the sense that he’s now close to King Charles and Prince William, close enough that he gets his own special photo-ops (conveniently timed to try to steal Prince Harry’s thunder). Speaking of, the Mail hilariously suggested that Beckham could be “just the fit” for the Prince Harry-shaped hole in the monarchy. As in, the Windsors could just convince David to undertake some royal work? Obviously, David is a royalist and he’s been desperate for a knighthood for years. Now the Mail has a new story about David’s knighthood campaign and how it’s going. Apparently, he’s not getting the knighthood this year (or perhaps any year).
The state banquet: The former England football captain was, say friends, ‘humbled’ by his invitation and, along with Victoria, ‘very happy’ to be there. Little wonder. For any East London boy done good, it would be a ‘pinch me’ moment but for Beckham, an avid royalist since he was a schoolboy in Chingford, it really was the stuff of dreams.
The 2017 incident: In 2003, he was there to receive his OBE from the late Queen, and for a time it seemed as though a knighthood might be within his grasp. Then, in February 2017, came the slew of leaked emails showing the former footballer had unleashed a barrage of expletives criticising the honours committee that had once again left him off the list for a coveted gong. Usually charming and mild-mannered, Beckham referred to committee members as ‘unappreciative c***s’, and insisted he didn’t ‘care about being knighted’. This all came after his use of a tax avoidance scheme hit the news. (The matter was resolved in 2021 and is no longer seen as a barrier to any honour.)
The knighthood that wasn’t: His invite to the banquet inevitably prompted furious chatter that the much desired knighthood is looming ever closer. Whether that is true remains to be seen but his name will not, I can reveal, be appearing on the forthcoming New Year’s Honours list. That accolade will instead be bestowed upon fellow former England footballer Gareth Southgate. ‘It’s not happening for David this time around,’ says a source. ‘It’s Gareth’s big hurrah and David is thrilled for him. David knew it wouldn’t be his time and he is fine with that but you never know what is down the line.’
David enjoyed the food at the banquet: The menu, too, which once might have daunted Beckham (who famously, before they were married, would phone Victoria to ask what he should order from a menu) was something to be savoured, not endured. An avid foodie, he is said to have ‘enormously enjoyed’ the Windsor Pheasant wrapped in savoy cabbage with roasted celeriac puree, a tartlet of Cornish lobster and quail eggs and Samoan vanilla ice cream and Balmoral plum sorbet that were the dishes served up for the 170 Palace guests.
David Beckham & King Charles: For the past 18 months, the two men have become close. ‘The King and David have a very strong bond,’ says a source. ‘They both enjoy the outdoors and actually have far more in common than you would think. They have this shared love for the countryside and nature. They come from very different backgrounds but they have a close relationship, and have a few different points of connection from sport to countryside and charities. The friendship has happened organically. You wouldn’t exactly put a footballer and a King together and expect them to get on so famously but it just works. It’s lovely.’
What is this, really? I’ve long suspected that Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have waged their little briefing wars about and against Beckham, specifically in relation to his friendship with Prince Harry. But this reads less like a KP briefing and more like a Beckham briefing. Is David pushing this narrative, that he knows he’s not going to get a knighthood this New Year’s Eve, but he’s a dedicated royalist so he knows his time will come? It’s smart and yet not-so-smart. Like, Charles and William see Beckham as fundamentally expendable, just another pawn in their larger war against Harry. I don’t think they’ll appreciate Beckham briefing all of this.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Buckingham Palace.