Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were reportedly not invited to the Beckham's lavish $5 million wedding for one awkward reason. Photo / AP
OPINION:
The phrase "wedding of the year" gets hawked about the place by the tabloids with pretty indiscriminate abandon.
A Married At First Sight star saying "I do" with some retired second-tier footballer while wearing cleavage-baring appliqued satin spon-con dress? Wedding. Of. The. Year!
But sometimes the WotY label if entirely appropriate, say when the son of one of the UK's greatest sporting heroes and former pop star marries the daughter of a billionaire investor in a multi, multimillion-dollar affair that features that features a small horde of celebs (Gigi Hadid, Nicole Richie, Elizabeth Hurley, Tom Brady, Gisele Bรผndchen and Serena Williams to name a few) and Snoop Dogg DJ-ing the afterparty.
In a moment that made every Wannabe-loving former Spice Girls fan feel decidedly old, David and Victoria Beckham's son Brooklyn married actress and daughter of an obscenely rich person Nicola Peltz over the weekend in Palm Beach in a spare-no-expense extravaganza that redefined horribly conspicuous consumption.
But what interests you and I here is not that the flower budget was probably equal to the GDP of Equatorial Guinea but the royal guest list. Or more accurately, who was and who was not invited from the house of Windsor.
You see, one Duke and Duchess were reportedly invited to the Beckham/Peltz union and one was not, which if this is true, amounts to the social snub of the year.
To understand this situation, you need to rewind to 2011 and the wedding of Prince William and one-time charity roller disco organiser, Kate Middleton.
There the Beckhams were outside Westminster Abbey, a pregnant Victoria demonstrating a mind-boggling level of masochism by wearing positively stratospheric platform Christian Louboutin heels despite being pregnant and David doing his level best to wear the hell out of a Saville row morning suit.
Then in 2018, it was Prince Harry's turn to get hitched, tying the knot with Suits star Meghan Markle in front of global TV audiences and a gaggle of frocked A-listers such as Elton John, Tom Hardy, Carey Mulligan, Priyanka Chopra and David and Victoria Beckham.
So one might think that, given all this, both the Cambridges and the Sussexes would have made the guest list for Brooklyn's wedding.*
Au contraire.
William and Kate, per a news story, were asked to attend the lavish affair but turned down the offer, Harry and Meghan were not included on the guest list.
"The Beckhams were reported to have agonised over which royal couple to choose because of the alleged rift between William and Harry, who now lives in California with actress Meghan," per The Mirror. "In the end they plumped for William and Kate because of their long history of friendship."
This latest Sussex-free event comes after rumours circulated earlier this year that we would see Harry and/or Meghan on the Oscars stage presenting an award, a glittering moment which obviously did not come to pass.
Nor were the Montecito-based royal expats on the red carpet for the Met Gala in New York or on Matha's Vineyard for President Barack Obama's 60th birthday last year.
Now, Harry and Meghan may well have been invited to all of these events and wisely decided they did not want to spend their spare time dodging and weaving royally-starstruck celebs in favour of a nice night in enjoying oat milk, sugar-free hot chocolates and a new Brene Brown audiobook.
However, for whatever reason, what is notable about the Sussexes is, since quitting the UK to talk about making content, how restrained their social life has been.
Like so many assumptions that seemed like rock-solid givens post-Megxit, Harry and Meghan, the thinking went, would make the splashiest of splashes on the American party scene. At the time, there would not have been a soiree, premiere, fundraiser, or opening of an envelope from Hollywood to the Hamptons that would not have fallen over themselves to have them attend. Harry and Meghan were the social gets and they seemed more than happy to rub up against the biggest of names.
And yet โฆ Harry and Meghan seem to be working their way towards Greta Garbo-worthy levels of reclusiveness.
Whether by choice or not, what is marked is that the big names who existed in the Sussexes' orbit pre Megxit are nowhere to be seen now.
So far, they have not been seen with any of the A-listers who happily filled the pews of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for their wedding. There has not been a single whisper of them seeing George and Amal Clooney, the Beckhams or even Oprah socially.
The only people they have been photographed out at dinner with were singer-songwriter Katharine McPhee and her husband David Foster and more recently Princess Beatrice and her husband Jack Brooksbank.
When Harry and Beatrice went to the Super Bowl in February, he posed for social media snaps with singer Mickey Guyton and in the California Rams' locker room. Interestingly, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner were also there. Now if the Lemonade hit maker had been clamouring for a royal meet-and-greet then it has been kept oddly quiet.
Now obviously, the pandemic and the various restrictions have severely hampered and constrained life and who knows what the Duke and Duchess had planned before Covid began its deadly global march. (So too, over the last two years, Meghan has been pregnant twice, suffering a devastating miscarriage in 2020 and then welcomed daughter Lilibet last year which would also have put a crimp in their interest in champagne-fuelled outings in the beau monde.)
Those in the Montecito area paint a picture of a couple living something of a cloistered existence.
Richard Mineards, a local journalist, has previously revealed: "The sightings are rare. Harry is seen occasionally driving through the village in his Range Rover and walking his dog on the beach. But Meghan is rarely seen.
"Many in Montecito are disappointed they haven't been more involved in the community โ though that may be because of the pandemic."
Another source has told The Telegraph: "The Sussexes are rarely seen in LA and certainly not in the Hollywood party scene. They have ducked offers from all major ceremonies including Golden Globes."
There is another story doing the rounds which also raises the question of how content they might be with their West Coast lives.
The Daily Mail has reported that the on dit in New York society right now is that the duo is looking to rent a second home in the city, near the UN headquarters.
Now, that would be a surprising move given that living in the city would make it that much harder for the couple to dodge the paparazzi and keep their young children away from prying lenses in the city, but who knows?
Maybe they are getting set to take up a couple of specially-created, spiffy UN roles or maybe they simply want to be within easy Uber distance of the Rockefeller Centre ice skating rink come winter.
At the end of the day here, would Harry and Meghan really have wanted to go to the Beckham/Peltz union? Just imagine having to watch the painful collision of blue blood Palm Beach society doyennes with British tabloid fodder like Gordon Ramsay and Mel B or Victoria Beckham picking the individual sesame seeds off her starter.
Oh no. No one needs that (or all that non-stop, free-flowing French bubbly) when you can be learning how to find your authentic self in the downstairs gong room, right?
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.