At the top of a steep, snowy slope on Hampstead Heath a few winters back, so the story goes,
a disparate group of north London parents were expressing mild concern to one another about their unruly children, tobogganing down the ice together on assorted tea trays and sledges.
“It’s an accident waiting to happen,” agreed one slim man in a grey beanie hat, looking round good-naturedly.
In response the other parents started edging away, as of one mind, and the friendly banter froze in the frosty air.
Yet there was nothing visibly wrong with this father. Far from it. In fact, he was near perfect. He was also, they had realised, David Beckham.
For all the vast, enviable wealth revealed last week in the joint Beckham family bank account, each of its members – father, mother, three sons and a little daughter – are condemned to walk a strangely isolated path through the world.
High levels of grooming, good looks and international fame ensure that David and Victoria, his wife of 17 years, and their children rarely pass among us without provoking, at most, a paparazzi frenzy and, at least, a moment of social awkwardness.
On Friday, Beckham père had another crack at normal seasonal fun. He gamely took his children along to sample the tinselly delights of Hyde Park’s annual Winter Wonderland fairground. Flanked by a bodyguard, their every move was snapped by photographers.
Some might think this a fair exchange for daily luxury and the security of knowing you and your family will always be able to afford the best of everything, but it does also mean that a celebrity couple once affectionately ridiculed for the ordinariness of their outlook now operate on a restrictive level of status previously reserved for heads of state. Their riches, estimated at more than £500m, actually make them better off than the Queen.
As a result, like a royal family, it has become difficult to relate to their lives or judge how genuine their public personas are. After all, when Romeo Beckham wants to try out tennis he gets to have a knockabout on court with Andy Murray, and when Harper Beckham, five, wants a new party dress she goes straight to the front row of a Paris catwalk.
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