Harpers Heartbreak: Searching for Missing Brother

She was crushed when her beloved brother Brooklyn failed to contact her personally on her 14th birthday.

And now has been left heartbroken once again after turning up at his home – only to find that there was no answer at the gates of his sprawling mansion.

The teenager decided to make the impromptu visit after watching her father David receive the honour of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday.

As ever, the Beckhams were the picture of unity at the event – save for the now familiar absence of Brooklyn, from whom they are estranged.

What no one but the family knew, however, is what Harper was planning once the cameras had stopped flashing. For the moment the event ended, she left father David, mother Victoria and her elder brothers Romeo and Cruz and made the five-mile journey, driven by a chauffeur, to the £14 million Beverly Hills mansion where Brooklyn, 27, lives with his 31-year-old wife .

Harper had fervently hoped it would be their first face-to-face encounter for more than 18 months. And it would have been all the more poignant given her approaching birthday, because few know how devastated she was last July when Brooklyn wasn’t around for her 14th.

Harper idolises her eldest brother, but the only contact he had with her, I’m told, was a message he and Nicola posted on Instagram, alongside a picture of the trio, to their combined millions of followers.

On Friday, after realising no one was at home, Harper, still dressed in the £335 pink camisole slip dress from her mother’s clothing range, looked crestfallen before getting back into the waiting car.

Friends of the Beckhams say that the ongoing devastation of the teenager – who is soon to launch her own beauty range – at the family’s estrangement cannot be underestimated.

‘For the first 12 years of Harper’s life, she was so very close to Brooklyn,’ says a friend. ‘He was 12 himself when she was born and was a very influential person in her life.

‘It doesn’t take much to understand just how devastated Harper is that her big brother is no longer around.’

Of her decision to call at his home unannounced, the friend added: ‘Harper took the opportunity where she could. She’s a savvy young woman and she misses him, so she decided she would stop by and see if she could see him.

‘Sadly for her, nobody was at home. She would give anything to have her brother back, to see him and be able to love him as she used to.’

Tellingly, Harper went alone, with her parents instead heading to see America’s first World Cup game at the SoFi stadium, although sources tell me they supported their daughter’s decision.

Indeed, while David and Victoria have accepted that Brooklyn no longer wants them in his life (he’s made it very obvious from blocking them on social media and posting that statement on Instagram in January), they are heartbroken that other family members have been affected by the rift.

As well as Harper, Brooklyn no longer communicates with his brothers Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 21, while both sets of grandparents –Tony and Jackie Adams and Sandra and Ted Beckham – have also ended up as collateral damage from the feud.

It is their daughter, however, that David and Victoria feel for the most. ‘To extend it to Harper is just cruel and totally upsetting,’ the friend says.

Every person I speak to who is connected to the Beckhams say that Harper is a ‘lovely, kind and polite’ young lady who simply loves her family.

She also used to idolise Nicola, viewing her as the older sister she never had.