Beckhams deliver huge blow to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

With their friendship already “tense’, the Beckhams have delivered another blow to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

COMMENT

Vikings, venereal disease, very large vats of wine big enough to drown a King in: The British royal family has, historically, been beaten or come off second best thanks to quite the grab bag of causes. (Not listed: Prussians, hunting accidents, stray arrows, republicanism, parliament, imported Queens from the low countries.)

Let us now take down out quills and add a couple of new names to the list, specifically, that of a soccer star and his warbler turned clotheshorse wife.

This week Beckham, the Netflix limited series about sporting great David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham, Spice Girl turned luxe designer turned the world’s most famous steamed salmon fan, continued to kick goals and other football terms I have not Googled.

The show clinched the number one spot on the streamer and even now, weeks after its release, it has only slipped down one notch.

With Beckham’s launch, the show has, overnight, re-made the ‘90s and aughties’ power couple into newly hot property.

David Beckham and Victoria Beckham in the Netflix documentary. Picture: Netflix

The contrast between the high that Posh and Becks are currently on with that of a certain royal couple who put on a similar TV turn could not be more acutely obvious.

In December last year, Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s six-parter, was finally released, more than two years after the duo had signed their $157 million deal with the streamer. Never before had members of the royal family let cameras record them to such an unguarded and personal degree. (1969’s Royal Family is a distant second.)

When the imaginatively named Sussex show finally debuted, the world eagerly, hungrily tuned in to watch King Charles’ son and daughter-in-law lay reputational siege to Buckingham Palace.

Viewers were hooked and TV history was made. Soon Netflix was happily telling the world that Harry & Meghan was the company’s biggest documentary debut ever.

(Despite the media storm and despite the Sussexes’ dirt-dishing, the show did not quite manage to nab the number one spot on the streamer, with that prize going to Wednesday.)

Still, for the professional throuple – Harry, Meghan and Netflix – initially, the series could be chalked up in the win column.

Harry and Meghan in their Netflix docuseries. Picture: Netflix

What came next though, no one could have predicted.

Firstly, the duke and duchess’ soul-baring and TV emoting saw their US favourability absolutely tank, and in only a matter of weeks.

Between the beginning of December 2022 and January 18 this year, Harry fell 45 points in terms of public opinion in the US and Meghan tumbled 36 points, according to polling done by Redfield & Wilson for Newsweek, with the same publication giving us the serious doozy of a headline, “The More Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Say, the Less Americans Like Them”.

Today, nearly a year on since certain royal commentators had to sit through hour upon hour of the Sussexes’ marinating in their sense of grievance, things aren’t looking much peachier for them and they have so far failed to regain all the ground they lost in December/January.

The most recent data from YouGov shows that in July, August and September, the same period of time that Meghan was staging something of a return to the public fore, turning up at Beyoncé concerts and posing for Instagram, the former Suits star’s popularity took a fresh hit, falling seven points to +10. (Harry’s net position remained unchanged on +24.)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at Beyonce concert. Picture: Twitter

Only last week, Family Guy joined South Park and a slew of A list comedians in mocking the Sussexes, portraying their lives as largely aimless and empty.

Meanwhile, over in Beckham Land, it’s sunshine, rainbows and freshly revivified cultural relevance all round. Since their show’s debut, David has gained half a million social media followers and there is hugely renewed global interest in the pair. Pip pip. Toot toot. Someone get Victoria her usual celebratory grape. (Singular.)

Google Trends data shows that the release of the sporting icon’s series has seen a massive spike in associated searches, far far outstripping the comparatively minor jump in search interest that accompanied the Harry & Meghan release.

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, Beckham has an average audience score of 98 per cent; Harry & Meghan’s is 19 per cent.

Also, Anna Wintour turned up to the Beckham premiere and there are reports that Victoria is in talks for a doco of her very own. Make that two grapes.

You take my point here: Out of the Beckhams and the Sussexes, one Netflix series has proven a huge boon to that couple’s image while the other Netflix series has only eroded that couple’s standing. Brand Beckham has never looked in ruder health; Brand Sussex is being teased on social media by US fast food chain Del Taco.

Victoria Beckham and David Beckham arrive for the wedding ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England. Picture: Chris Radburn – WPA Pool/Getty Images

This all comes after the Daily Mail reported in July this year that Harry and Meghan’s friendship with Victoria and David was kaput after a “tense phone call” and a spot of alleged finger-pointing. David, per the Mail, had been left “’absolutely bloody furious” after learning that the royal couple suspected he and Victoria of leaking stories.

This Netflix situation seems unlikely to help smooth ruffled feathers.

To get down to brass tacks, even though Beckham was watched by fewer people in its first week than Harry & Meghan (59 million versus 82 million hours) the upshot is that former series seems guaranteed to propel David and Victoria to even greater career (and money-making) heights while the latter has ultimately left Harry and Meghan in a weaker position.

Or put in Netflix terms, tudum.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Beckhams deliver huge blow to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry