'Why Brooklyn Beckham's falling-out with Victoria breaks my heart'

When news first broke that all was not well between Brooklyn Beckham and his parents, I must admit my heart broke a little.

Brooklyn was the firstborn child of former England footballer David and popstar turned fashion designer and beauty entrepreneur Victoria, and as such, had grown up in the spotlight.

But while rumours that all was not well between Brooklyn, his wife Nicole Peltz and his parents and siblings, I assumed they would patch things up.

Oh, how I was wrong.

After years of rumours and stories that were clearly planted in the press by both camps, a distance that saw Brooklyn miss key, high-profile events such as his father's 50th birthday parties and knighthood ceremony, a social media unfollowing that resulted in Cruz Beckham accusing his brother of blocking himself and his parents, and reports the Beckhams had been ordered to only contact Brooklyn through lawyers, came this week's six-page social media rant from Brooklyn.

It was an annihilation of his parents, but in particular his mother, whom he accused of sabotaging his wedding – first by cancelling plans to make Nicola's wedding dress, then at the reception itself. 

"My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song," he wrote.

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"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.

"She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life."

There was more, with Brooklyn accusing his mother of calling him 'evil' over plans to exclude both sets of parents from the main table at the reception in favour of two of their grandmothers.

"My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable," he continued, before adding it was her refusal to post something on Instagram about dogs that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"The one time my wife asked for my mum's support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused," he wrote.

But it was three sentences in Brooklyn's lengthy statement that struck me the most.

One, early on in the statement – "I do not want to reconcile with my family" – one in the middle when he mentioned "our future children" and one towards the end – "All we want [is] peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family".

In Brooklyn's eyes, there would be no reunion. No coming together to sort out differences. No celebrating the births of future grandchildren.

It was over. Final. Complete. And it broke my heart.

Because boy mums get a bad rap – sometimes deservedly, and other times not.

And despite the Beckhams' immense fame and wealth, at the heart of the matter is a son's split from his family, and in particular, his mum.

As a boy mum myself, I am not overstating it when I say that one of my biggest fears in life is that I could one day become estranged from my son.

At 21, he is the exact same age that Brooklyn was when he first met Nicola, who is five years older than her husband, and that realisation filled me with dread.

Because we have all heard the saying: "A son is a son until he takes a wife".

Growing up in a household of two sisters, I used to fixate on the first line: "A daughter is a daughter all of her life".

That was until I held my newborn son in my arms.

In the years that followed, as he grew from cuddly baby to pudgy toddler, through boyhood, prepubescence, teenage years and finally a man, I thought at times my heart would burst with love.

Yes, there were tough times, and still are, when we clash and fight and drive each other mad.

I have yelled and screamed and so has he. He has called me names, attempted to psychoanalyse me, and I have done the same.

There have been times we have hardly spoken for days, yet despite it all, and with no offence to my husband or my other child, he remains the love of my life.

Too much? Some might think so. I have read a lot about this so-called 'toxic boy mum' culture in recent days, and I must say, I don't like what I am reading.

We have all heard horror stories about over-bearing mothers who become overbearing mother-in-laws, but what about Mum?

You know, the woman who carried that boy inside her for nine months, birthed him, fed him from her breasts (sorry, son).

Bathed him, carried his sleeping body to his bed, consoled him when he cried, tended his scraped knees, gave him medicine when he was sick, took him to his first day of school then packed his lunch for the next 13 years, yelled on the sidelines of football games, raced him to emergency, encouraged him through exams, and cajoled him through tough times and disappointment.

What about her? Is she meant to just walk away?

In a healthy relationship, I guess so. But I have always wondered how you do that when you were the first woman he ever loved.

How do you cope with getting replaced by some other woman he didn't even know? Who's "not blood", as Brooklyn claims his family pointed out about his wife on the eve of their wedding?

But love someone else he will.

That is why I will go out of my way to love and support whomever my son brings home and one day marries.

I have no doubt the Beckhams tried to do the same.

There are dozens of photos and social media posts both before and after the wedding that seem to prove, publicly at least, they bent over backwards to welcome Nicola into the family.

Many came after what now appears to have been the wedding from hell, if Brooklyn is to be believed.

And so I make this pledge to my son.

I promise not to call him 'evil' if I don't get to sit where I want at the wedding, or hijack the bride and groom's first dance, or dance "very inappropriately" with him at the reception.

I promise I won't repeatedly invite women from his past over to make him and his wife feel uncomfortable.

I won't tag him in photos on social media without asking permission, and if his wife ever asks me to post something about dogs on my Insta, I promise I will.

Because the alternative is too painful to imagine – being cut from my son's life.

It is a pain Victoria is feeling right now.

And if she is anything like me and all the other boy mums out there, I'm sure she would gladly swap all her success and riches for one more hug from her son.

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