The royal overlap didn’t end there. As I digested Brooklyn’s words, it was hard not to notice that many of the revelations themselves dovetailed with Harry and Meghan’s plight. His claims that Brand Beckham will always come first; how, for Brooklyn’s entire life, he alleged that the press was used to control family narratives; even “wedding gate”—Brooklyn’s detailed account of his mother, Victoria, deciding at the last minute not to design a wedding gown for his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham—felt eerily familiar. (Remember the awful back-and-forth about whether it was Meghan who made Kate cry ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry or the other way around?)
Still, it’s that phrase, “recollections may vary,” which, at the time, read as distant and cruel, but quickly became a part of royal—and certainly British—vernacular, that continues to resonate. This level of explosive celebrity family drama brings me right back to that moment. Will David—who famously joined the queue of the late Queen Elizabeth II and was recently knighted by King Charles—and Victoria reach for a similar script? Or will the Beckhams chart a different, more heartfelt path?