Tragic Details About David & Victoria Beckham's Son, Brooklyn

Being the kid of celebrity parents sounds like a dream come true, but people are still susceptible to tragedy no matter their fame. David and Victoria Beckham's eldest son Brooklyn Peltz Beckham is all grown up, and finding his own way in the world. 

In 2022, Brooklyn married Nicola Peltz and added her last name to his own, giving them both the surname "Peltz Beckham." After that, he launched his own brand of hot sauce, Cloud23, and continued to break into the culinary industry. However, his life hasn't been without mishaps.

Since being thrust into the spotlight as a baby, Brooklyn has experienced threats to his safety and personal injuries, but the most headline-making tragedies he's dealt with relate to his very public family feud. In January 2026, Brooklyn let the world see a glimpse behind the Beckhams' closed doors when he revealed that his parents had bullied him and his wife and controlled the media's narrative of them. In a series of candid Instagram Stories, the eldest Beckham kid shone a light on his tragedies in an effort to take back control of his life.

David and Victoria Beckham received terrifying kidnapping threats about Brooklyn Peltz Beckham when he was young. A year before Brooklyn was born, his soccer star dad got a red card in the 1998 World Cup game against Argentina, which English fans weren't thrilled about — to put it mildly. Because of this, many in the United Kingdom griped about David, which prompted the soccer star to become fearful that a fan who was still angry over the red card incident was going to do something to his newborn son. 

David and Victoria recounted this scary time in the Netflix docuseries, "Beckham." The athlete said that, when Brooklyn was born, "I was paranoid that someone was gonna steal him." David even slept against the door to block any possible intruders. "It was a happy moment, of course ... but when there was kidnap threats, that's when it got scary," he said. Victoria recalled how frightening the kidnapping threats were after Brooklyn was born. "Imagine having a baby and having death threats," she said. "David had to play knowing this was all going on. And I was on my own in an apartment with a baby."

Years later, the police foiled a separate kidnapping plan, which would have seen Victoria, Brooklyn, and Brooklyn's younger brother, Romeo, being taken and held for a ransom of £5 million, or roughly $6.25 million. A total of nine people — seven men and two women — were ultimately arrested for conspiring to kidnap.

The Beckham family may be known as modern pop culture royalty, but Brooklyn Peltz Beckham's wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, hails from a powerful family of her own. Indeed, her Florida-based parents, Nelson Peltz and Claudia Heffner Peltz, have accumulated a $1.6 billion fortune, according to Forbes. While that may all be fine and dandy, it seems that the two families did not necessarily ... mesh. As one insider from Palm Beach told Page Six in 2022, "It's pretty obvious there's an issue between the two families. Everybody needs to find their place. They're just not quite connecting yet." A second source appeared to agree with this assessment, telling the publication, "There are cultural differences between the two families."

Some of these cultural differences allegedly pertained to money. Both Victoria and David Beckham established their personal brands by building huge careers — she as a Spice Girl and fashion designer and he as a soccer star. According to the same report in Page Six, the Beckhams hoped that Brooklyn would avoid the embarrassment of becoming a celebrity nepo baby. Instead, they had hoped he would build an empire of his own. This vision for Brooklyn's future reportedly clashed with the Peltz family's feeling that the parents should provide financial support for their children's endeavors. While this simple difference of opinion may not seem like a huge deal, reports indicate that it was enough to make tensions boil, leaving Brooklyn stuck in the middle.

As disagreements between the respective Beckham and Peltz camps grew, the celebrity news surrounding Brooklyn Peltz Beckham became less-than-flattering. One 2022 report published in Closer hinted that Brooklyn was abandoning his roots by choosing to attend Peltz family events over Beckham family holidays. Never mind that the event in question was the 94th birthday party of Nicola Peltz Beckham's beloved grandmother, Bunny. The fact that Brooklyn missed a yachting excursion with his mom and dad was portrayed in the media as seriously suss.

One insider even told the outlet that Victoria Beckham was struggling with Brooklyn's decision to attend what ended up being Bunny's second-last birthday. Apparently, people close to Posh Spice were concerned that she wasn't able to enjoy her vacation because of Brooklyn's party plans. "Despite Vic doing her best to plaster on a smile and try to enjoy their trip, the rising tension with Brooklyn and Nicola is eating away at her and, though it has been a lovely family trip, it's the elephant in the room," the insider dished. Victoria was very much portrayed as the victim in the situation, with the same insider claiming that Brooklyn had somehow cast the Beckham crew aside. "She feels like her worst nightmare is coming true amid the reality of Brooklyn's new life and fears the family is drifting apart," they told Closer in the same interview.

When Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham first got engaged in 2020, the couple thought they were in luck. After all, Brooklyn's mom, Victoria Beckham, owned a line of wedding dresses — meaning that Nicola would ostensibly get to wear one of her mother-in-law's gorgeous creations. When it actually came time for Nicola to consult with one of Victoria's designers, however, things got messy. As the bride told Grazia in the fall of 2022, "Well, I was planning on wearing Victoria's wedding dress, and I was truly so excited to be able to wear a design that my future mother-in-law created ... [and then] Victoria called my mom and said her atelier couldn't make it." Nicola ultimately wore a gown from Valentino.

In 2025, reports indicated that there was more to the story of Nicola and Victoria's wedding-dress drama. The ins-and-outs of it all rival the story of Princess Catherine and Meghan Markle's feud surrounding Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress. As Brooklyn shared in the statement that he shared on his Instagram Stories, "My mum cancelled making Nicola's dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress." These dynamics seemed to stretch beyond typical wedding stress and into the territory of actual bullying. Brooklyn's statement even claimed, "My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship."

Being married means you're a team and support each other, right? Not quite for Nicola Peltz Beckham. In 2024, she wrote, directed, and starred in the movie, "Lola." Brooklyn Peltz Beckham filmed a cameo for her movie, but Nicola ultimately left it out of the final cut.

She shared with The Hollywood Reporter that her husband was not pleased his scene was edited out. "He had one line, 'Hi,' but he kept saying it in a British accent and he was staring directly into the camera. I was like, 'Oh God, we have to move on, good lord.' So, Brooklyn ended up on the chopping block." Nicola then followed up with how grateful she was to her husband for constantly being there for her on set, although she admitted, "Brooklyn is actually really upset that he did get cut from his one little cameo."

However, people on social media seemed to understand Brooklyn's rejected role. "Brooklyn Beckham's ability to suck at everything needs to be studied," one person wrote on X. Someone else tweeted, "This nepo baby actually seems to be useless at everything." Presumably, these comments are referencing other projects Brooklyn has tried, such as a photography book he put out that included a dark photo of an elephant in Kenya with the excuse that elephants are "so hard to photograph" (via the BBC).

Despite Brooklyn Peltz Beckham's claims about his family's treatment of Nicola Peltz Beckham, it seems the two are in it for the long haul. The couple has showed the world a united front in the face of this family drama. And besides, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham tattooed a love letter from Nicola Peltz on his back, so it might be difficult for him to bow out of his marriage. On top of that, though, Brooklyn has been very public about the way that Nicola has supported him in light of other personal tragedies. For example, when he broke his shoulder in August 2024, Nicola stepped up to the plate and nursed him back to health.

At the time, Brooklyn thanked his wife for her unwavering support in a heartfelt Instagram post. Below a photograph of himself lying on a hospital bed, Brooklyn wrote, "Broke my shoulder but all good cause I have @nicolaannepeltzbeckham to look after me xx love you babe." These sorts of posts provide important insight into what Brooklyn and Nicola's relationship looks like when they are far from the Beckham family. From what we can tell, it's strong enough to survive — the very least — the tragedy of a painful injury.

If much of the coverage of the Beckham-Peltz family feud seems to portray Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham in a negative light, that might not have been a coincidence. Some evidence points to the possibility that the Beckham family planted unflattering stories about Brooklyn and Nicola in the press. 

Writing in a scathing statement that was shared on his Instagram stories, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham lifted the veil on the dramatic family feud. "I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed," Brooklyn wrote.

In what seemed to be Brooklyn Peltz Beckham's spectacular Prince Harry moment, he lashed out against the Beckham family's public relations machine. He particularly rejected the image-centric nature of his family's secret inner culture. "For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into," he added in the same social media statement. Like Harry, Brooklyn appeared to be unhappy with the public nature of his family life. Unlike the prince, however, he was not bound to his parents by duty.

Former Beckham golden boy, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, claimed his mother, Victoria Beckham, successfully stole the first dance from his beloved bride, Nicola Peltz Beckham, at their star-studded wedding in 2022. "In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead," Brooklyn wrote on his Instagram Stories.

While this might sound like impossibly bad behavior on Victoria's part, several wedding guests have verified his take. Back in 2022, one guest told the Daily Mail, "Nicola left the room because she and Brooklyn thought Marc was introducing them for a special dance to a love song the couple had chosen. But without any warning and at the request of Victoria, Marc switched it to a mother-son dance using the same song." 

Immediately following the publication of Brooklyn's J'accuse, more wedding attendees came forward. As reported by Page Six, Stavros Agapiou confirmed Brooklyn's story in a since-deleted comment on Instagram that read, "I was there and she did he's telling the truth." Per a second report in Page Six, a second guest recalled Nicola's reaction, "Her face was swollen. She finally came down and was sad the entire evening, it was so heartbreaking."

As if the drama surrounding Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham's wedding was not intense enough, it seems that the Beckham family may have actually used name-calling to embarrass the young couple. According to one report in the Daily Mail, Victoria Beckham's private nickname for Nicola is so cruel that it's "unprintable." Brooklyn, meanwhile, is referred to as "the hostage" and, by at least one family friend, an "ungrateful sod." While these terms are certainly a reflection of the disintegrating relationship between Brooklyn and the Beckham family, they also indicate that it might be very difficult for the two parties to rebuild.

In relationship psychology, name-calling is a form of contempt, according to psychologist John Gottman. Per the expert, its' a behavior that indicates a major lack of respect. If the Beckhams continue to allocate unkind nicknames to Brooklyn and Nicola, as insiders have alleged, they should not expect to build a lasting relationship with the couple moving forward. In a 2022 interview with Closer, one insider alleged that Victoria's "biggest fear is not having a relationship with her first grandchild." At the beginning of 2026, things seemed to be heading in that direction.

In January 2026, a source close to the Beckham family told The Sun that Brooklyn Peltz Beckham had essentially been issued an ultimatum. Apparently, the famous family will not welcome Brooklyn back into the inner family fold unless he abandons his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham. "They have tried everything in their power to mend their relationship with him and it hasn't worked. Now it feels like there is no going back while he is still with Nicola," the source alleged.

While there's no love lost between Nicola Peltz Beckham and Victoria Beckham, it's understood that the Beckham clan wants Brooklyn back. The same source told The Sun, "Despite everything that's happened, David and Victoria still love their son. He will always be their boy, and there will always be a place for him in their home." However, separate reports indicate that Brooklyn's family has iced him out. He did not attend his father David Beckham's 50th birthday in May 2025, and the Daily Mail reported that he wasn't even invited to his brother Cruz Beckham's upcoming big 21st birthday bash. As for Brooklyn, he did not seem too excited about partying with the Beckhams at the start of 2026. "I do not want to reconcile with my family. I'm not being controlled, I'm standing up for myself for the first time in my life," he shared in his viral Instagram statement.