Last Tuesday was a red-letter day for the Beckham family. Former footballer David achieved his dream – he was honoured with a knighthood for services to sport and charity by the King.
There were tears, and joyful celebrations with all the family – well, most of it.
As David said: ‘To have my parents there today, to have my wife there to celebrate with my children, it makes it a very emotional day.’
There were heartwarming congratulations on Instagram from son, Romeo, 23, writing: ‘No one deserves this more than you, love you so much xxx Congrats Sir dad’.
Absent from the event at Windsor Castle – and from the pile-on of ‘likes’ and ‘congratulations’ that followed, was another who could also call David ‘Sir Dad’ – oldest son Brooklyn.
Brooklyn, 26, who has taken his wife’s name and styles himself Peltz-Beckham, was 3,466 miles away in New York.
He offered no congratulations or acknowledgement of his father’s big day on his public social media and, it can be revealed, none in private either.
Ditto his wife Nicola, 30, who is currently making a movie.
David Beckham with his wife Victoria, daughter Harper and sons Romeo, left, and Cruz on the day he was knighted
The former England captain received the honour from the King at Windsor Castle last week
Their sad schism, which fully came to light this Spring during celebrations for David’s 50th birthday, remains complete.
The reasons for the rift we shall come to in a moment, but at this point surely the most pressing question is why it has not been possible to heal it, given the issues all stem from the time of the Peltz-Beckham wedding which took place more than three years ago.
What would it take, one wonders, to reunite the 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.
Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola are said to want nothing less than a substantive and public apology from his parents, Victoria and David, to end their feud
The Beckhams at David’s 50th birthday party in the Cotswolds earlier this year, which Brooklyn and Nicola did not attend
‘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.’
One wonders if that is in the realm of possibility.
But what did happen to cause this sorry situation?
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.’
There were also some inflammatory social media posts by Brooklyn’s brothers which seemed to take aim at him.
As the private difficulty made global headlines, Brooklyn and Nicola hired a crisis publicist in an attempt to temper the blame game. The objective, they said, was to ‘de-escalate’ the war of words.
But just as the row seemed to be dying down in August came the surprise ‘repeat’ of Nicola and Brooklyn’s wedding, at the Peltz family estate – with none of the Beckham family present.
It was perceived by David and Victoria as a particularly ‘cruel and spiteful’ blow, and a ‘final kick in the teeth’.
Now, months on, they remain estranged.
To recap, in February and March this year, aspiring chef Brooklyn’s online cookery content was routinely ‘liked’ by all of his family. Brother Cruz, 20, commented on one video: ‘Maaan I don’t even like tuna and I’d hoover this up!’.
But by David’s 50th birthday on May 2, that veneer of polite support had disappeared.
David had three birthday parties – a family event in the Cotswolds, a dinner at the restaurant Core in London attended by Tom Cruise and a Scottish fishing trip with sons Cruz and Romeo.
Brooklyn did not go to any of these events and David wrote on Instagram: ‘You were missed @brooklynpeltzbeckham’ after the fishing trip.
Both sides offered different explanations as to why Brooklyn and Nicola didn’t celebrate David’s milestone.
The Beckham camp said that Nicola ‘kicked off’ and was impossible to please, hence her and Brooklyn not attending.
The Brooklyn camp said that he was in the UK for a week and wanted to meet up to celebrate with his father but did not feel comfortable attending the formal events because of Romeo’s girlfriend Kim Turnbull.
Brooklyn and Kim had moved in the same circles for a time, and he felt it would be awkward to see her, although both Kim and Romeo have stressed that the two never actually dated – as some claimed.
Sources close to Brooklyn say he texted his father to wish him a happy birthday and tried to organise a private meet up, but was rebuffed.
In the days that followed, brothers Romeo and aspiring musician Cruz apparently blocked Brooklyn and his wife on Instagram. Some believe Cruz was caught ‘liking’ abusive comments about Nicola on Instagram.
One report in the New York Post cited a number of Instagram notes shared by Cruz saying things like ‘Ur dead to me’ and ‘Oh it’s Stockholm syndrome’. It’s not clear to whom these notes were addressed – although it would be shocking if he were taunting Brooklyn in this way.
Meanwhile Brooklyn posted a video of himself zooming around LA on a motorbike with wife Nicola and wrote: ‘My whole world x I will love you forever x. I always choose you baby x you’re the most amazing person I know xx me and you forever baby.’
It was a not too subtle sign that he was choosing loyalty to his wife ahead of feelings towards his family, whose dislike of her was becoming impossible to hide.
But what is the reason for that dislike?
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.’
All involved concede that the Beckhams absolutely love their son and pinpoint the source of the dispute on Nicola and Brooklyn’s May 2022 wedding at the Peltzes’ waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Tensions arose over Nicola’s choice of wedding dress. Everyone assumes it was Nicola who snubbed the idea of a gown made by her mother-in-law in favour of couture Valentino.
Yet sources insist that was not the case, and that it was Victoria who dumped the idea without warning.
More tensions arose at the reception, when Beckham family friend Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez’s ex-husband, referred to Victoria as ‘the most beautiful woman in the room’ as he introduced her ‘first dance’ with her son – which the bride and her family found astonishingly rude.
Some fellow guests felt the Beckhams had their noses put out of joint because they were not regarded as the most interesting or famous people at the wedding, which was full of millionaire and billionaire pals of Nicola’s fast food tycoon father Nelson.
And even though Brooklyn’s sister Harper was a bridesmaid, and brothers Cruz and Romeo both groomsmen, some guests came away with the feeling that this celebration was a Peltz-dominated event rather than a joyous celebration shared by two families.
Both sides made efforts to make up after the wedding, with Nicola attending two of Victoria’s fashion shows in Paris and being photographed wearing her clothes.
Victoria supported her daughter-in-law at the premiere of her film Lola, which Nicola wrote and directed. And yet, the rift never really healed.
There was the briefest glimmer of hope on October 23, when David and Victoria ‘liked’ an Instagram video of Brooklyn making pancakes – a veritable white flag in the celebrity world – which was hailed as an attempt to move forwards. One ‘like’, however, falls a long way short of a public admission of ‘wrong’ and an apology.
(Reports circulating last week that Nicola’s parents Nelson and Claudia had a heart to heart meeting with David and Victoria Beckham in Miami are described as laughably wide of the mark.)
Brooklyn is a sensitive young man, and one can sympathise with his difficulties if the family whom he loves so deeply are unable to accept the wife he adores.
‘Brooklyn is loyal to his wife. Very loyal,’ says a source.
As for how he feels about his family currently? ‘He cares about them very much.’
‘You look at the situation and think: “How did we ever get to this?” This is a family which loves its son, and a son who loves his family.’
