the times | Tuesday July 28 2020 2GM 5
News
David Beckham has spoken to the
Duke of Cambridge about how he had
to keep his feelings hidden during the
“brutal” reaction to his dismissal at the
1998 World Cup.
Beckham was vilified by some fans
and sections of the media when Eng-
land were knocked out of the tourna-
ment by Argentina after his red card for
kicking out at an opponent.
During a video discussion with the
duke about football’s mental health cul-
ture the former England captain said he
had been supported by his club, Man-
chester United, and family but that it
had been an era in which players did not
speak out if they were feeling the pres-
sures of the game.
Prince William has launched a decla-
ration — signed by football governing
The Duke of Sussex was so intent on
leaving the royal family that he wanted
to refuse the offer of a trial period that
gave him and the duchess a chance to
return to the fold, The Times can reveal.
His determination to make a clean
break without the option of a review
after 12 months emerged following
three days of revelations in a new book
about the unhappiness felt by Harry,
36, and Meghan, 38, and their disagree-
ments with relatives and courtiers.
Finding Freedom, which has been seri-
alised in The Times and The Sunday
Times, revealed how Harry felt that the
“old guard” at Buckingham Palace dis-
liked Meghan. The book, by Omid Scob-
ie and Carolyn Durand, told how the rift
between him and the Duke of Cam-
bridge was prompted by the latter say-
ing: “Take as much time as you need to
get to know this girl.” Harry felt that his
brother’s remark was “snob-
bish”, the authors write.
Sources on both sides ad-
mitted that no one except
the Queen had emerged
from the weekend’s coverage
well. One said: “People are
aware that this does not look
good for anyone.”
Before the serialisation
Palace insiders were bracing
for the worst. While several
of them felt exhausted by the
“uproar” of recent days, there
was a sense of relief that it had
not been worse. “I don’t think
anyone looks at all of this with
any particular happiness,”
one source said. Another
said: “We are in the midst of
a pandemic. We are a little
more focused on the im-
portant things.”
As if to under-
line the mes-
sage that life was
Harry did not
want door to
be left open
for his return
Valentine Low continuing as normal, on Sunday Willi-
am, 38, an Aston Villa fan, tweeted a
joke about the club avoiding relegation
from the Premier League. “Never in
doubt,” he wrote.
Another source said that recent
events, including legal actions launched
by the Sussexes, showed that the couple
were “still unhappy”. The source said:
“As long as it remains like this, it does not
bode well for the institution. It does not
stabilise until they are happy, and have
had some sort of public success.”
The 12-month review was suggested
so that the couple, who married in May
2018 and announced in January this
year that they intended to “step back as
‘senior’ members” of the family and
split their time between Britain and
North America, would know that the
door was open. The Queen, 94, made it
clear to Harry that he would be able to
come back.
“He was adamantly opposed to the
review process,” a source said. Harry
did not want the media to report that
there would be a review, with the
suggestion that they might
change their minds. “Under no
circumstances would they ever
admit, ‘This was a big mis-
take’.”
One royal source
said that the review
was not so much to
allow them to come
back as to permit
some flexibility about
their future role.
A source close to the
Sussexes said: “Do I
rule out them taking on roles
for the family in the future?
Absolutely not. But a full-
scale return soon is not
likely. That is not down to
animosity... they have not
yet reached what they were
seeking to do.”
Hugo Rifkind, page 25
W
hile the
Duke of
Sussex
has been
making
headlines, his former
girlfriend Cressida
Bonas has been
avoiding them. Bonas,
31, who went out with
Harry for two years
until 2014, has quietly
married Harry
Wentworth-Stanley,
the son of the
Marchioness of
Milford Haven
(Valentine Low
writes).
The small
ceremony, which the
couple tried to keep as
discreet as possible,
was held at Cowdraylong gap.” She said that
their reunion was “a very
natural coming back
together. He’s just the
kindest, most wonderful,
wonderful person.”
Bonas, the only child of
the 1960s “It” girl Lady
Mary-Gaye Curzon
and her third
husband, the
entrepreneur Jeffrey
Bonas, remains on
good terms with
Harry, and attended
his wedding in 2018.
A family member
told Mail Online
that only 30 of the
couple’s close family
members and friends
attended the
ceremony, in
keeping with the
government’s Covid-
restrictions.Prince’s old
flame rides
off into
the sunset
Cressida Bonas married
Harry Wentworth-Stanley,
an estate agent, in a quiet
ceremony. Her brother
posted the news, below, on
his Instagram accounta h e B g H h
to
th
c m a c k g rI hid my feelings at brutal ’98 criticism, Beckham tells duke
bodies, leagues and organisations from
across the UK — to create a “mentally
healthy culture” in the sport. These
organisations are planning to work
together to prioritise the psychological
wellbeing of everyone involved with
football.
Beckham, who is now co-owner of
the American football club Inter
Miami, said about his infamous World
Cup match: “I made a mistake, you
know, I made a mistake in ’98 and the
reaction at the time was pretty brutal.
“I was constantly criticised on the
pitch verbally. Like I said at the start of
this, times have changed. If social me-
dia was around when I was going
through that time in ’98, it would have
been a whole different story.
“But I was lucky. I had a support
system in Manchester United and the
manager and obviously family, but did Ifeel at the time it was OK to [go to]
someone and say ‘I need help’?
“I would say no, no, it was a different
era and I just felt I had to keep it all in
and deal with it myself.”
He added that the move to encourage
people to speak out about their mental
problems was “so important”. He said:
“It’s OK to not be OK — and I think
back in the day it wasn’t — it wasn’t OK
to have a problem.”
William asked about his job at Inter
Miami and Beckham replied: “Obvi-
ously now being an owner of a football
club, the most important thing to us is
that our players feel protected. The
pressures that your modern-day ath-
letes and footballers have are taken
care of, that’s the most important thing.
Of course we want to be successful but
more importantly, we want our players
to be looked after.”The duke, who is president of the
Football Association, also spoke to
Steph Houghton, the England and
Manchester City women’s captain,
Tyrone Mings, the Aston Villa and
England defender, Andros Townsend,
the Crystal Palace and England mid-
fielder, and Carlo Ancelotti, the mana-
gerial veteran in charge at Everton.
The video call was made in support of
William’s Heads Up initiative, which
has been encouraging football fans to
talk about issues in their lives or be a
sympathetic ear for a fellow supporter.
Saturday’s FA Cup Final between
Arsenal and Chelsea has been renamed
the Heads Up FA Cup Final.
William said: “We’ve managed to get
the entire football community to sign
up to promoting and showing how im-
portant mental health is in football and
therefore hopefully in society.”Valentine Low
William spoke about mental health
with David Beckham in a video callPark in Midhurst, West
Sussex.
Bonas, an actress who
appeared in the ITV
drama White House
Farm, first went out with
Mr Wentworth-Stanley,
31, an associate director
of Savills estate agency,
when they were both
students at Leeds
University. The couple
were nicknamed
Water-Cress.
She told The Times thisyear: “We were together
for four years, then we
broke up for five, and I
lived in Australia for a
while and he lived in
Argentina and we had,
um, different partners.
Then we got back
together two years ago. It
was quite unusual:
normally people split up
and get back together
again quite quickly. I
don’t know another
couple who had such a