The pair’s no-show at a party hosted by David on Saturday evening (local time) seemed to do little to dampen celebrations. Having booked out the three-Michelin-star Notting Hill restaurant Core for the event, the Beckhams’ festivities carried on into the early hours of Sunday morning, eventually drawing to a close at 3.35am after noise complaints from disgruntled locals.
However, a number of reports since have picked up on Brooklyn’s absence, which was all the more eyebrow-raising given he and Nicola were allegedly in the UK late last week, having flown in from their home in LA.
Perhaps even more conspicuously, he was missing from family photographs taken at David and Victoria’s Cotswolds home days before, on Wednesday evening.
Victoria posted the images on Instagram, showing her husband with sons Romeo, 22, and Cruz, 20, and daughter Harper, 13. “We love you all @romeobeckham @cruzbeckham #HarperSeven xx”, she said in an accompanying caption, which made no mention of Brooklyn. Beckham subsequently shared the picture on his own account, writing “I love you all, thank you for making my birthday so memorable” and tagging Romeo, Cruz, Harper and Victoria.
The silence seemed to cut both ways. Prolific social media user Brooklyn has not posted a birthday message to his father: instead, his most recent post features pictures of himself and Nicola on Wednesday.
The family have not commented on reports of their alleged feud. But sources said to be close to the Beckhams have described the situation as “terribly sad” and claim the dispute has been “going on for a long time”.
“[David and Victoria] adore Brooklyn, their children are everything to them, but Brooklyn isn’t talking to them,” one insider, said to be a long-standing friend of the couple, told Mail Online over the weekend.
Public relations consultant Mark Borkowski says: “It’s heartbreaking when your dispute is played out in public – it must be incredibly difficult. This is the dark side of fame: there’s no place to hide. It also goes to show that however wealthy and powerful you are, you can’t escape family problems – just like everyone else.”
Nicola Howson, a long-term member of Beckham’s team, describes David as “a very passionate family man”.
“That’s what he’s come from and that’s what he’s devoted himself to building,” she tells the Telegraph. “His family has always been his priority.”
Howson refuses to comment on the reports of a rift but adds Beckham has “always said that all he wants is for his kids to be happy and follow their passions”.
If there is indeed a fracture in the family, it would appear to be one that has developed over a number of years.
All the children have had to endure the pressure of growing up in the limelight, although Borkowski believes their parents “understood what the kids were dealing with and tried their utmost to protect them”.
Nevertheless, having such successful and globally famous parents means escaping their shadow is difficult, as Brooklyn seems to be all too keenly aware of.
Speaking to Variety magazine in 2022, he discussed quitting football after he was released from Arsenal’s youth academy aged 16, saying: “To try and live up to what my dad did, I was just like, ‘That’s going to be a bit difficult’.”
But hanging up the boots hasn’t saved Brooklyn from accusations of being a “nepo baby”, perhaps most notably in 2017, when he released a widely-derided debut photography book, What I See.
In recent years, he has been channelling his energy into cookery, but his online show Cookin’ With Brooklyn has also been met with accusations of dilettantism – especially when it was revealed that each episode cost US$100,000 ($168,000) and involved 62 professional staff members.
Despite the pressure, Brooklyn’s relationship with his parents appeared to be strong when in late 2019 he began dating aspiring actress Nicola Peltz, daughter of American billionaire businessman Nelson Peltz.
David and Victoria were initially supportive of the pair’s romance. Nicola attended Brooklyn’s 21st birthday party at the family’s Cotswolds home in 2020, and when their engagement was announced in July of that year Victoria wrote on Instagram “The MOST exciting news!! We could not be happier.”
The pair married in April 2022 in a lavish £3 million ($6.7m) ceremony at the Palm Beach estate owned by the Peltz family.
Reports suggest this is when Nicola clashed with her mother-in-law for the first time. The latter allegedly wanted to be heavily involved with planning the wedding, and was keen that Nicola wear a wedding gown that Victoria had designed. However, the bride opted for Valentino couture instead.
Perhaps Nicola was concerned about being upstaged by her new in-laws: the Beckhams were not seated at the top table with the bride and groom, as is tradition. Nicola also reportedly stormed out in tears when singer Marc Anthony, who performed at the wedding, delivered a speech all about Victoria.
In the weeks that followed, claims of a feud gained credence. Avid users of Instagram, Nicola, Brooklyn and the rest of the Beckham family had previously “liked” one another’s posts on a regular basis, or exchanged sweet messages, such as when Nicola showered affection on her “little sis” Harper.
But the love fest seemed to grind to a halt after the wedding, with Victoria last “liking” one of Nicola’s posts back in May 2022. Although there were more mutually appreciative posts since, the last few months have been eerily quiet.
If Brooklyn felt torn between his family and his spouse, it appears he sided with the latter. He took her name when they married, becoming Brooklyn Peltz-Beckham, and has settled with her in LA. He tattooed “Peltz”, plus a cherub with an arrow, on his chest – a picture Nicola proudly shared on her Instagram, and also has an illustration of his wife’s face on his upper arm, a tattoo of her eyes on the back of his neck and the couple’s wedding vows inked on the inside of his right arm.
Part of the vows read: “Words cannot even describe my love for you... You are my world and I continue to fall more in love with you every single day.”
A Tatler interview with Nicola in August 2022, headlined “The New Mrs Beckham”, seemed to cement rumours of a rift. In it, the actress claimed the person her new husband now turned to for business advice was Nelson Peltz.
Borkowski compares the situation to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s falling out with the royal family. “Brooklyn clearly loves his wife, just as Harry loves Meghan, but it’s similar to how people feel Meghan is this disruptive influence in his life. There are no compromises there.”
While previously Brooklyn had always posted a public message to his mother on her birthday, he remained silent this April when Victoria turned 51 – nor did he and Nicola attend her celebrations aboard a superyacht in Florida, instead going to the Coachella music festival in California.
Reports suggest the couple have now missed a dozen family events in the past year. But onlookers were still taken aback by Brooklyn’s no-show at his father’s milestone soiree.
“It must be incredibly hurtful to a father who’s given him everything,” says Borkowski.
That may be so. But whatever the state of family affairs, Beckham, it seems, has nothing but affection for his firstborn. Posting a picture of himself alongside Brooklyn as a young boy on Instagram last week, the father of four wrote: “I love you.”
The Telegraph approached David, Victoria and Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz for comment.
