How Brooklyn joined Prince Harry in the fightback against their ‘perfect families'

Telegraph

16-05-2025

After Brooklyn Beckham skipped his father's 50th birthday party, the family must have hoped for a swift reconciliation.
However, behind the scenes the estrangement between the Beckhams and their eldest son seems to be deepening, a source has told the Telegraph.
Far from a petty squabble, the rift stems from Brooklyn's long-felt unhappiness over his treatment within the family, the source close to the 26-year-old said.
The source claimed the Beckhams are 'a family that is publicly charming' but can be very different behind the scenes.
They claim Brooklyn and his wife, Nicola Peltz-Beckham (the daughter of US billionaire Nelson Peltz), feel that they've not had any meaningful private connection with the family.
The Beckhams' eldest son believes he has been made to feel like he is an 'idiot' and 'stupid'.
With his wife's 'support', the source said, Brooklyn is 'for the first time standing up against' his parents. They described what he is doing as 'breaking generational trauma'.
It's a phrase that will be familiar to Prince Harry – whom Brooklyn had dinner with in California last week.
The Beckhams' eldest son and his wife were guests at a Montecito party also attended by the Sussexes.
There, Peltz, 30, and Meghan are said to have found 'common ground' over their casting as meddling American wives breaking up Britain's most famous families.
The source told the Telegraph the couple had 'found Harry and Meghan to be particularly kind, caring and generous' at the gathering, hosted by Brian Robbins, a neighbour of the Sussexes in Montecito and the CEO of Paramount, a streaming service on which David is currently appearing on a football chat show.
'Empathetic', was the word used by a source in the Sun, which conjures an image of two young couples commiserating over their shared experiences. 'Harry was fully aware of the situation and offered Brooklyn his unwavering support,' the source told the newspaper.
Since abandoning life as a working Royal, writing a tell-all book and conducting several interviews about his experiences growing up inside the Firm, Harry has often spoken about the 'generational trauma' he alleges he experienced. In 2021, the prince said he left the UK because he wanted to 'break that cycle' of 'genetic pain'.
Much like the Sussexes, the Peltz-Beckhams are said to hold the ultimate goal of a reconciliation. 'After many attempts by Brooklyn to set boundaries with his family and encourage honest and positive change in their relationship, he's become discouraged and disheartened,' the source tells the Telegraph. They add there is 'not a quick fix' for the gulf forming between them. 'Nicola wants nothing more than for Victoria and David to repair the relationship with their son.'
Just two weeks ago, when in the UK for the court ruling over his security, Prince Harry said he would 'love a reconciliation' with his family. 'There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,' he told the BBC.
There are eerie similarities between the Beckhams' conflict and the division which has long plagued the Royal family.
The splits reportedly began, in both instances, around the time of the couples' weddings. In the case of the Peltz-Beckhams, there were said to have been clashes between Nicola and Victoria ahead of their ceremony in 2022.
In response to the fracturing in their relationship with their eldest son, the Beckhams appear to have taken the same approach the Royals have adopted over the years – that of a dignified silence in the face of a torrent of allegations.
A source told the Sun after the story of the Montecito dinner broke that Victoria and David were 'blindsided by the news – they didn't see it coming'.
The couple are said to have been attempting to reconcile with Brooklyn. A source told the Daily Mail that 'as parents David and Victoria are very concerned for their son and they have tried to get in touch but he isn't interested'.
Harry and Brooklyn have a number of things in common. They both grew up in the spotlight, the sons of two of the most famous families not just in Britain but in the world.
Like the prince, Brooklyn undoubtedly enjoyed enormous amount of privilege (his parents are said to be worth £500 million).
As boys became men, both struggled to find their purpose, pursuing one cause or passion before stumbling onto the next.
As an adult, Brooklyn has dabbled in photography and later food.
And when they met the women they wanted to marry, both seemed to struggle to reconcile their old life and the new.
So when Brooklyn and Harry went to dinner last week, 13 years after their last meeting – when Brooklyn was just a teenager and the prince in his twenties – they should have had plenty to talk about.
Chief among them, their shared protectiveness over their wives, perhaps.
Amid the family conflict, the source told the Telegraph, Brooklyn's decision to side with his wife has ultimately caused 'a major disruption in the Beckham fairytale', for which there is a sense that Nicola has largely shouldered the blame, adding she 'gives him the support and strength he's never had'.
If the Sussexes are to be seen as the test case for what happens when a rupture like this one begins to form, it could be a long road to reconciliation.