Beckham and Peltz: Privacy or Paparazzi Poses?

For a woman who was only running an errand – taking her dogs to a Beverly Hills grooming salon – Nicola Peltz certainly made sure she looked impeccable. 

Dressed in stylish black capri pants, a white T-shirt and slingback heels, and with subtly glamorous make-up, the heiress and her husband Brooklyn Beckham appeared to have also gone to the trouble of ensuring their outfits were carefully coordinated.

Even Brooklyn's sliders were black and white.

We know all this because pictures were taken during this outing last Monday by a local paparazzo, who captured the couple lovingly nuzzling their four pampered pooches (rescue dogs Lamb, Label, Birdie and Angel), and duly circulated the images across the world.

How unfortunate this must have been for them, given it is only four weeks since Brooklyn, 26, issued his bombshell statement on Instagram about his relationship with his parents Victoria and David, in which he insisted he wanted to live his life in private.

The final paragraph of his six-page post could not have been clearer.

'My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press or manipulation,' he wrote. 'All we want is peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.'

Brooklyn also took aim at his publicity-loving parents for valuing 'public promotion and endorsements above all else.' Yet these paparazzo photographs have all the hallmarks of a picture opportunity set up in advance. 

Brooklyn Beckham (left) and wife Nicola Peltz (right) looked perfectly coordinated as they ran an errand in Los Angeles 

In fact the same agency has snapped the couple four other times in little over a month. And each time – unsurprisingly – the pair look pristine.

Arrangements like this, with favoured photographers, are not rare in the celebrity world. Mostly, it's a ruse employed by reality TV contestants and Z-list celebrities keen to raise their profiles or stay relevant.

What's raising eyebrows is that this is not a tactic generally employed by those who, like Nicola, 31, and Brooklyn, want to live their lives in private.

Indeed, the idea that they may have forged a relationship with a paparazzi agency is causing much bewilderment among some of the friends Brooklyn has left behind in Britain for his new life in the Californian sunshine.

'It's so strange,' one told me last week. 'Brooklyn made it very clear he wanted out of the limelight, but you can't help but think that isn't the case at all.

'If so, then it feels hypocritical – and very low rent.'

On January 11, eight days before Brooklyn posted his brutal evisceration of his parents on Instagram, the pair were captured on a 'low key' outing to a farmers' market near their home in Beverly Hills.

Dressed up for the occasion, Nicola wore a cream jacket, jeans and platform boots.

Nicola (pictured) donned a cream jacket and platform boots on a 'low key' outing to a farmers' market near the couple's home in Beverly Hills

Then, three days after the statement, a photographer happened to be on hand on what is described to me as a 'random strip of beach' in Malibu, just after sunset.

Again, Nicola looked glamorous in jeans, a white jumper and a pair of heels that most would consider impractical on sand.

Fast forward a week and the couple were 'papped' at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara – a hang-out also favoured by the Montecito-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

The ranch is 90 miles north of Brooklyn and Nicola's £10million home and hardly somewhere a photographer might have hoped to glimpse them.

The couple were coordinating in jeans again when they were photographed on February 5 while shopping in Los Angeles. 

Those pictures revealed – to the world but also, perhaps, to David and Victoria specifically – that Brooklyn had redesigned a tattoo, which had featured the word 'DAD' in tribute to his father, with three new symbols. 

Surprisingly, Brooklyn and Nicola – who have high-powered legal firm Schillings on hand to fire off legal letters – have been notably quiet on these five picture opportunities.

Yet when a different paparazzi agency took photos of Brooklyn at his home recently, a letter of complaint was issued citing an invasion of his privacy.

One former friend tells me: 'Brooklyn hasn't really ever been one to get himself preened to go to somewhere like the groomers, or to the beach, it's most odd.

'The paparazzi seem to be there with them in some very random places, but perhaps it's just coincidence. If not, then it certainly goes against Brooklyn's statement.'

Brooklyn and Nicola, the actress daughter of billionaire US businessman Nelson Peltz, have been estranged from David and Victoria since last April, when I first revealed the family's devastating rift, culminating in Brooklyn's dramatic statement last month in which he accused his parents of controlling him for most of his life, claiming that 'Brand Beckham comes first.'

He also accused his mother, former Spice Girl Victoria, of hijacking his first dance with Nicola at their 2022 wedding.

Brooklyn (right) recently accused his mother, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (centre) of hijacking his first dance with Nicola (left) at their 2022 wedding

Other guests at the wedding have since rubbished Brooklyn's version of events, including chef Gordon Ramsay – a close friend of the Beckhams – who said there was 'nothing salacious' about the moment.

'There was nothing inappropriate,' he added. 'Everyone was having fun, having a dance.'

I'm told by showbusiness insiders that Brooklyn's incendiary statement may have 'backfired' as some brands will now 'think twice' about hiring them to endorse their products.

That was certainly not the case before. Last spring the couple had a very lucrative deal with Italian 'outerwear' brand Moncler and posed together for an advertising campaign.

They have also previously partnered jeans brand Pepe for a big-money contract.

A source who knows both sides said: 'Brooklyn and Nicola perhaps hoped they'd come out of the war as winners but it may have backfired on them spectacularly.

'We haven't seen much in the way of work from them for a little while, apart from Brooklyn's hot sauce brand and some talk of acting roles with Nicola.

'Maybe things will dry up, it has all been pretty unedifying.

'The thing with David and Victoria is that they are the masters of their own PR, they are pros and they get on with it.

'Victoria went to Paris and was handed a French knighthood [awarded by the culture ministry in recognition of her contribution in the arts] – Brooklyn and Nicola seem to be happy being snapped by the paparazzi.

'Life could very well get difficult for them now in terms of their profile, it seems to have all gone wrong for them.

'They only have themselves to blame.'