Throughout the year, we’ve watched as Brooklyn Beckham became fully estranged from his parents and siblings. The whole thing has been bizarre, and it’s been wild to see how much of it has played out publicly. Brooklyn is a 26-year-old man, and he’s been married to Nicola Peltz for three years. They renewed their vows this summer because they wanted to redo everything since Victoria Beckham reportedly ruined their 2022 wedding. Brooklyn didn’t invite anyone from his family to this year’s vow renewal, and he’s reportedly gone no-contact with his parents and siblings. This has caused “Beckham sources” to openly theorize that Brooklyn is Nicola’s “brainwashed hostage,” and there’s significant irritation in the Beckham camp that Brooklyn won’t simply divorce his wife and come crawling back to them. Last week, Brooklyn and Nicola also skipped David Beckham’s knighthood investiture, and they didn’t even post any congratulations online. So what will end this Cold War stalemate? Well, the Mail’s Alison Boshoff has an exclusive about what Brooklyn and Nicola want: a public apology.
What would it take, one wonders, to reunite the Beckham family? The answer, as I can exclusively reveal, having spoken to sources close to Brooklyn and Nicola, is truly staggering. They would settle for nothing less than a substantive and public apology from his parents, Victoria and David. The root of their issues with the Beckhams is the way Nicola believes she was treated, which they characterise as a ‘one-sided media war’.
A source says: ‘Things got really so bad. There is nothing which Brooklyn or Nicola did that would have deserved this treatment. It is hard to understand the intensity and the escalation [of the media stories]. It seems that they thought they could heap abuse on Nicola without any consequence. They did not let up. There was a public trashing which kept on going. Someone should have told them to stop because it was not in their best interest to do this to their own son, but nobody did. It matters what was written. It seemed as if things were being said without any regard being paid to the impact on Brooklyn. He is loyal to his wife.’
The source adds: ‘There is an obvious first step which would be a public acknowledgement [by David and Victoria] of what they did, and an apology. It cannot be a performative thing. There is no realistic chance of a reconciliation without that happening first.’
In May and June this year it was reported that the Beckhams felt that they had ‘lost’ their son to Nicola. It was said that they referred to him as ‘the hostage’ and felt she was ‘controlling’ him. Naturally that was hurtful to their smitten son Brooklyn, who came to believe the deluge of negativity was authorised, directly or indirectly, by David and Victoria themselves. It can be revealed that the Peltz-Beckhams actually blame one of David and Victoria’s closest aides for allegedly briefing the media with ‘anti-Brooklyn’ and ‘anti-Nicola’ nuggets throughout this year.
A source said: ‘There was a steady stream of stories intended to demonise and upset them, much of it untrue or out of context. The attacks on Nicola in particular and her wider family appeared to be constant.’
But what is the reason for that dislike of Nicola and the Peltz family? One source said: ‘Nicola is very pretty, very feminine, very refined and very accomplished. She has a real career of her own which Brooklyn respects. Also her family have more money than the Beckhams. It is an unfortunate mix.’
The “hostage” stories were particularly unhinged, and if those stories were in any way authorized by Victoria and David, I agree that Brooklyn and Nicola deserve a public apology. The apology needs to be as loud as the disrespect. But it goes to the larger questions I’ve had about this rift at the heart of the Beckham family: did David and Victoria really believe that their campaign would somehow convince Brooklyn to leave Nicola? Did they really think “unleashing the British tabloids on their son and his wife” was going to do anything other than cause pain and misery, and push Brooklyn even further away?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Victoria Beckham’s Instagram and Nicola Peltz’s Instagram.
