After years of suffering the slings and arrows of inherited fame, accused of being a bad and ungrateful son and vilified on social media by those ‘close to’ his distraught and ever-loving parents, David and Victoria, the first-born Beckham has finally spoken out.
Less spoken, and more roared with righteous indignation like a wounded animal.
The pain expressed in Brooklyn’s first post, addressing the breakdown of his relationship with his family, is so raw that it is impossible to dismiss and, quite frankly, difficult to read for many of us who were all firmly on Team Beckham. Over the past year, we have happily swallowed the narrative that Brooklyn was the rotten prodigal son, swept up and seduced by his wife Nicola and her billionaire family.
Brooklyn broke cover in a six-part Instagram bombshell, railing against the injustices he feels he and his wife, Nicola, have suffered at the hands of his publicity-hungry, self-aggrandising, picture-perfect parents.
He began by writing: ‘I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately, my parents and their [media] team have continued to go to the Press, leaving me with no choice but to speak up for myself and tell the truth about some of the lies.’
Blimey, he sure had a lot of ‘truths’ to tell.
First, that for his entire life, his parents carefully and calculatedly controlled the family’s image with performative social media posts when, in reality, Brooklyn was growing up ‘with overwhelming anxiety’.
Then, Brooklyn claims that his parents tried to sabotage his relationship with Nicola – revealing that it was his fashion designer mum who cancelled making his wife-to-be’s wedding dress at the eleventh hour. We had all been led to believe by the Beckham media juggernaut that it was snobbish Nicola who refused a VB gown in favour of the couture Valentino number she ended up wearing.
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Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, far right, look glum at David’s Netflix premiere in 2023
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David Beckham poses at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week
Astonishingly, Brooklyn claims that his parents attempted to bribe him into ‘signing away the rights’ to his name.
After refusing to relinquish his name despite intense pressure, he wrote: ‘My holdout affected the payday’ and, chillingly, ‘they have never treated me the same since’.
The truth bombs just kept coming. Brooklyn writes that the night before their wedding, ‘members of my family told me that Nicola was “not blood” and “not family”’. He added that his mum Victoria had ‘repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable’.
Brooklyn also says his mother ruined his wedding by ‘hijacking my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my life’.
He explains that this is why he and Nicola renewed their wedding vows at her father’s mansion without the Beckhams present, with Nicola even wearing her own mother’s original wedding dress, to create their own memories of their marriage.
But perhaps most shocking is the allegation that, despite the narrative spun by Team Beckham that Brooklyn refused to attend any of David’s 50th birthday celebrations, both he and Nicola travelled purposefully to London from LA to see him.
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The pain expressed in Brooklyn’s Instagram posts, addressing the breakdown of his relationship with his family, is so raw that it is impossible to dismiss, writes Amanda Platell
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Brooklyn broke cover in a six-part Instagram bombshell, railing against the injustices he feels he and his wife, Nicola, have suffered at the hands of his publicity-hungry, self-aggrandising, picture-perfect parents, writes Amanda Platell
The story at the time was that Brooklyn and Nicola were miles away and, through their obstinacy and disrespect for the Beckhams, never joined the celebrations. Brooklyn’s version is that he and Nicola lingered in a nearby hotel room, waiting for David to contact them, in the hopes of some quality dad and son and daughter-in-law time, away from the hundreds of guests and army of photographers.
Brooklyn says that when his father finally extracted himself from his multiple birthday celebrations – time spent in Miami, a week in Scotland, celebrations at a French vineyard and a Cotswolds dinner near his home with his mate Tom Cruise – the condition for meeting his son was that ‘his wife Nicola wasn’t invited’.
Even more staggering, their son wrote that ‘when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all’.
Then he stuck the final knife in: ‘My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family “love” is decided by how much you post on social media’, to show our “perfect family”.’
So what to make of this extraordinary outburst?
There will be many who read Brooklyn’s posts as the protestations of a spoilt, ungrateful child, lashing out because things haven’t gone his way and in thrall to his seemingly vacuous and capricious wife Nicola and her billionaire father.
And yet, don’t Brooklyn’s plaintive posts have a ring of truth to them?
Victoria’s moves resurface after Brooklyn’s wedding swipe
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Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz sent Christmas greetings last year
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Why Brooklyn Beckham has chosen now to throw his family’s love back in their faces: KATIE HIND
One thing Brooklyn’s posts do reveal is that there are indeed two sides to every story. Which makes me wonder: have all of us on Team Beckham been conned by Victoria and David’s massive PR operation?
We’ve all been led to believe Brooklyn is a work-shy numpty – launching venture after failed venture, first as a failed photographer, then as a hot-sauce entrepreneur and now as an Instagram ‘chef’. But what if he’s not?
Personally, I’m doing a pause and rewind about all those terrible accusations I have swallowed unquestioningly about the evil Mr and Mrs Peltz Beckham.
It was the conclusion to Brooklyn’s post which tugged at my heartstrings: ‘I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life that anxiety has disappeared.
‘My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, Press or manipulation. All we want is peace and privacy and happiness for us and our future family.’
Amen to that.
And I don’t think I’m the only one who will now be reconsidering my alliance with Team Beckham.
But with his parents’ formidable PR team primed to hit back, I fear Brooklyn doesn’t know what he’s let himself in for.
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