‘He started to do things the Peltz way’: The $1.8 billion reason behind the Beckham feud

They say there’s one in every family.

The black sheep who causes trouble and does things their own way. But when your surname is Beckham, your dirty laundry becomes global news.

Not surprising when, between them, David, Victoria and their four children have almost 150 million followers watching their every move on Instagram.

So, when Brooklyn Beckham publicly disowned his parents, the fashion designer and famous footballer were left to defend their carefully curated business empire.

From a hijacked wedding dance to vicious allegations of control, is this a young man’s cry for independence or a calculated move to bring down Brand Beckham?

If anyone can vouch for whether there’s truth to Brooklyn’s damning allegations, it’s Alison Boshoff.

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After almost 30 years at one of Britain’s biggest tabloids, The Daily Mail, she knows leaks to the media are common in celebrity circles, but says the disgruntled son’s public retaliation is just cruel.

In London, there is so much love for Sir David and Victoria Beckham, many would argue they’re more popular than the British royal family.

And for the Beckhams, they have their own collection of regal residences, including a mansion in London’s Holland Park.

The exclusive neighbourhood fits perfectly into the billion-dollar brand the former footballer and fashion designer have spent the past 30 years building for themselves and their four children.

As a unit, the Beckhams have been trained well. They know how to behave in public, their steely glares for the paps are perfect. But behind the carefully curated facade, a Shakespearean tragedy has been unfolding.

In January, the beloved couple’s eldest child, Brooklyn Beckham, unleashed a scathing Instagram post, publicly disowning his family.

What he had to say was heartbreaking and humiliating and squarely directed at mum and dad, Victoria and David. Boshoff says they were blindsided.

“They were just deep sorrow and absolute shock,” Boshoff said.

“They simply couldn’t believe it. As far as Brooklyn is concerned, they don’t believe they’ve done anything they need to apologise for. That’s what I’m told repeatedly.

“They’re loving parents who may have made a few mistakes, but they don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong.”

But it looks very different from the other side.

“The Brooklyn view, which was expressed to me very forcefully by someone in his camp was this is just exploit, exploit, exploit,” she said.

“It’s been aligned through all his life, and this was just an exploitation too far and he said ‘no’.”

Boshoff says she couldn’t quite believe the post when reading it.

“It went on and on and on,” she said.

“And it really went there about the wedding … The detail that it went into and the tone of it was so angry and so cold.

“And it did read as if it’d been written by a committee which included a lawyer.”

But as Boshoff uncovered, the rift runs far deeper than social media, and dates back to before Brooklyn’s now infamous 2022 wedding to billionaire heiress Nicola Peltz.

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The bust-up’s been so big, Boshoff has written a book exposing the juicy details of Brooklyn’s marriage to aspiring actress Peltz.

She says, while this story might not have a happy ending, it did have a reasonably civil start with reports Victoria and Nicola “got on really well”, despite accusations to the contrary.

Boshoff says things started to wrong soon after the couple’s engagement, when there became a bit of a power play between the two families.

“Shortly after the engagement, that was in July 2022, she starts to withdraw from the Beckham circle of influence and he starts to do things the Peltz way, not the Beckham way,” Boshoff said.

“And the Beckhams start to really not like it.”

The Peltzes, who made their money in the food distribution and packaging industries, are richer, but the Beckham’s are more famous.

“Nelson Peltz is a multi-billionaire businessman, low on charm,” Boshoff said.

“So he is kind of the anti-David. So David is this kind of sexy god who is very much lives in the celebrity world. And Nelson Peltz has never been on social media.”

“The Beckhams sent their security round to sort of sweep the house in Palm Beach before they came through the door and the Peltzs were like ‘are you kidding me? We have the best security here’.

“The Peltz-Beckham side just said there was continuous underhand snidey nastiness towards Nicola and it never stopped.”

Like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, Brooklyn and Nicola were determined to be together despite their warring families.

“They had not really been on speaking terms for the three months in the run-up to the wedding,” Boshoff said.

In April 2022, everyone put on their happy faces and a six million dollar Florida wedding extravaganza went ahead. The best laid plans, however, went awry.

“There was love in the room, although the rabbi did accidentally call Brooklyn ‘David’ twice, which was noticed by everyone,” Boshoff said.

Awkward yes, but not humiliating.

That moment came when mum Victoria was accused of hijacking the newlyweds’ first dance.

Turns out their close friend, singer Marc Anthony, who was performing at the wedding, put his foot in it in spectacular fashion.

However, Banshoff claims the dance wasn’t as bad as legend has become.

“Victoria and Brooklyn have this dance - nobody says was inappropriate in that way it’s been taken,” she said.

“It wasn’t some kind of weird sexual thing. But Brooklyn was really upset by it.

“The next day, the celebration brunch, there was this very chilly, sad atmosphere and people were picking over how awkward it had all been from that point onwards.”

UK photographer Dave Hogan has spent 40 years shooting the biggest celebrities in town, including the Beckhams.

He’s watched their brand grow over the years, as David and Victoria morphed from power couple to proud parents of Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.

Until very recently, Hogan thought the family was tight-knit, but when amateur chef Brooklyn started viciously burning his parents, he was stunned, and disappointed.

“He is only world-famous because of who his parents are,” Hogan told 60 Minutes.

“He’s not Brooklyn Beckham, the chef here. The name helps him.”

At the heart of the family dispute are the legal rights to Brooklyn’s name, which his mother trademarked back in 2016.

That commercial agreement is set to expire at the end of this year. And now an adult, it’s clear Brooklyn wants to take back control of his identity.

So if the family doesn’t make up, and if Brooklyn’s previous public spats are anything to go by, Brand Beckham might find themselves mopping up another monstrous PR disaster.

Trademark attorney Claire Brehany says it’s all very legally complex, but in simple terms it comes down to the bottom dollar.

Because the family name is a commercial asset, the Beckhams will fight to protect it, even if it means you’re at war with your own blood.

“They’ve worked very hard to create this brand which is associated with luxury and family and if they don’t look after it, the value of it, people won’t want to give them deals,” Brehany told 60 Minutes.

Boshoff says Brand Beckham is a powerhouse worth billions – $1.8 billion to be exact.

“That is for David and Victoria and David within himself is worth $1 billion,” she told 60 Minutes.

Boshoff doesn’t think Brand Beckham will be impacted ultimately but isn’t sure the family unit can come back from this.

“You always hope that families can get back together, forget their differences, but in this case it does look really, really entrenched,” Boshoff said.

But Hogan is more optimistic.

“If Oasis can get back together, after everything that happened with them, they’ll get back together just because family love is stronger than anything,” he said.

Watch the full episode of 60 Minutes on 9Now.