It’s a showdown between the UK’s biggest celebrity couple and one of America’s wealthiest families, which has ricocheted between Palm Beach, London, LA, and Miami.
Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham are no longer speaking to his parents, Victoria and David, with sources saying it is because he has grown even closer to his in-laws, billionaire Nelson Peltz, Wendy’s chairman, and Disney disruptor, and his wife, Claudia.
It comes as everything the Beckhams have ever worked for has come to fruition: David, Page Six has confirmed, is to be awarded a knighthood in King Charles’ birthday honors next week, an accolade he has always craved, while his wife, who will become known as Lady Victoria, will have her own Netflix show later this year centering around her successful fashion line.
However, insiders have now revealed the full extent of the family fallout; from Nicola running out of her wedding in tears to allegations the Beckhams tried to get their eldest son to sign away his rights to use his own surname, with a source saying, “It’s all about Brand Beckham.”
Amid reports that Brooklyn, 26, is being “controlled” by his wife, a source familiar with the Peltz family insisted, “Nicola’s only ‘crime’ is marrying Brooklyn – she’s guilty of loving him, nothing else.
“Nicola told Victoria and David, ‘the only thing we wanted was your love and support’.”
To this, an insider familiar with the Beckham side of things retorted, “Anyone who knows the Beckhams knows they are loving, committed, amazing parents.”
Even before Brooklyn – described by many friends as “highly sensitive” – wed Nicola, 30, there were red flags that trouble lay ahead, sources told us.
The couple got engaged at her family’s sprawling $100 million estate in Palm Beach in July 2020, just eight months after they started dating.
“Victoria said ‘I don’t want you posting any pictures, I want you wearing my dress and I want to announce it [the engagement] in London,” according to the Peltz source.
This was roundly denied by a Beckham source, who said that the Beckhams merely invited Nicola and Brooklyn over for lunch to celebrate the engagement, where indeed, Nicola wore a yellow silk ruffled midi dress from Victoria’s spring and summer 2020 collection.
Victoria then said she wanted to make Nicola’s wedding gown. However, the bride ended up wearing Valentino Haute Couture on the actual day — April 9, 2022, which took place at her family home.
This sparked rumors of a feud with her new mother-in-law. Nicola tried to dampen things down, telling Variety, “A few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress.”
However, the Peltz source alleged Victoria had called Claudia, not Nicola, to say she would be unable to make the dress.
Nicola, Claudia, and stylist Leslie Fremar then went to Pier Paolo Piccioli, the former head designer at Valentino, making three trips to Rome before flying over seamstresses from Italy to finish the gown.
“People keep hitting on Nicola, saying she won’t wear Victoria’s dress, that she was just a spoiled rich girl,” said the source, adding: “The Peltzes bent over backwards to try to make things work.”
As has been reported, things went from bad to worse when singer Marc Anthony, a longtime Beckham family friend, performed a song at the reception. However, instead of the bride, he called Victoria, whom he dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the room,” up on stage to dance with her son.
Nicola ran off to her room in tears and had to be persuaded to come back to the wedding, which was being covered by Vogue.
“Her face was swollen from crying and her friends were telling her ‘you have to go back down, so many people came from all over for you’,” said the Peltz source, “She finally comes down and is sad the entire evening… She [Victoria] took that moment from Nicola, that’s the God’s honest truth.”
This week, a guest who was at the reception told Page Six Victoria was “mystified” by claims she “ruined” her son, Brooklyn’s, special wedding dance with his bride.
However, the newlyweds moved on and relocated to Los Angeles. Brooklyn has long sought to find his perfect job and currently runs his own hot sauce business, Cloud23, but sources alleged he did not even use his last name for his work.
“Before Brooklyn and Nicola were married, Victoria called Brooklyn and said, ‘Daddy has a very big deal, you need to sign this contract’,” which he refused to do, the Peltz source said.
An industry insider said the deal was tied to his father selling a majority stake in his brand management company, DB Ventures, for $269 million in 2022, and meant nothing negative for Brooklyn.
“The agreement that Brooklyn was asked to sign was to protect his rights,” said the insider.
“Brooklyn chose not to sign the agreement, but it makes no difference; no one would ever restrict his rights.
“Sadly, by then, Brooklyn had gotten rid of all his own advisers and was only listening to the Peltz lawyers who either didn’t understand the agreement or were being deliberately obstructive.”
Over the past few years, Peltz insiders say Nicola and Brooklyn have struggled to maintain a relationship with Victoria and David.
Beckham sources counter that the family has done nothing but support the couple, down to posing for cheesy photos at a London grocery store where Brooklyn launched Cloud23 in October.
Another sign of trouble came when eagle-eyed fans noticed Brooklyn appears to have covered up one of his first-ever tattoos – ‘Mama’s Boy’ – which is etched over his heart.
When he posed for Glamour magazine, in pictures published this week, the tattoo seemed to be mostly concealed by flowers, modeled after Nicola’s bridal bouquet. A friend of Brooklyn’s, however, said he had not covered up the tattoo.
Things truly came to a head over David’s 50th birthday celebrations.
Six months before his birthday, David told the family he had organized a string of events: a party in Miami; a fishing trip to Scotland that he wanted to share with his three sons: Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz; a family bash at the Beckham country home in the Cotswolds; a family day on his actual birthday and a swanky celebrity dinner at London eatery Core. Nicola and Brooklyn were invited to everything.
Here is where things are disputed. Brooklyn apparently felt “very uncomfortable” attending the events as his brother Romeo was dating a girl called Kim Turnbull, with whom he’d allegedly had a previous romantic liaison.
The model, who previously dated Madonna’s son Rocco Ritchie, has since denied anything happened between them.
This, in itself, had prompted him to fall out with Romeo.
Nicola and Brooklyn were in London on the week of David’s birthday and offered to host a family dinner — but were turned down.
We’re told the couple said they could not attend the sit-down dinner at Core on May 3, as they were going to the Met Gala the following Monday and needed to fly to NYC for Nicola’s fitting. But, as Page Six has confirmed with multiple sources, they were never invited.
“This constant and willful misrepresentation of events to throw toxic abuse at the Beckhams is becoming very tedious. None of it is backed up with any facts,” said the Beckham source, adding: “The Beckhams don’t care about nonsense stories, they only care about their son.”
As for Nicola and Beckham, who this week hired Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK lawyer, Jenny Afia at Schillings to start dismantling hurtful stories, the Peltz source said,“[Regarding] a relationship with David and Victoria, that is Brooklyn and Nicola’s decision, whatever they decide is what they decide.”
It remains to be seen if Brooklyn will even be there to watch his dad finally be knighted – if not it will be very telling that the split has grown to a chasm.
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