If you’re a publicist watching Brooklyn Peltz Beckham this week, you’re probably wincing.
On Monday evening, the eldest in the Beckham brood confirmed long-standing rumors of a rift between himself and his parents, A-list power couple David and Victoria Beckham — although, through Brooklyn’s lens, the rift appears closer to an impassable canyon.
“I do not want to reconcile with my family,” Brooklyn wrote in a six-part Instagram Story. “I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”
While certainly juicy, Brooklyn’s scathing accusations struck PR experts as less than shrewd.
“He didn’t just light a match. He brought a flamethrower to the bridges,” Mike Fahey, the founder and CEO of the PR agency Fahey Communications, told Business Insider.
Brooklyn went on to accuse his parents of “trying endlessly to ruin” his relationship with his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, and soiling their 2022 wedding with “anxiety and embarrassment.” He also said his parents have planted unflattering stories in the tabloids about the couple, presumably referring to the frequent reports that painted Nicola as a controlling and all-consuming influence in Brooklyn’s life.
“My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first,” Brooklyn wrote.
He concluded the series of posts with an appeal that, given the extremity of his method, could be read as counterproductive: “My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation.”
Brooklyn, Nicola, David, and Victoria did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment. So far, no party has directly addressed Brooklyn’s posts publicly.
Brooklyn Beckham’s request for privacy backfired spectacularly
Mark Case/Getty Images
Brooklyn’s statement immediately ignited a firestorm on social media, and an eruption of headlines followed suit. “Brooklyn goes nuclear” became a popular phrase, while some British tabloids framed the statement as an “outburst” or “temper tantrum.”
“It is wild to see that something that started as Deuxmoi posts and whispers on gossip sites has now gone so mainstream, and it’s everywhere,” Fahey said. “Him doing this six-page Instagram Story takes this from speculation to, literally, a royal-family-style fracture — front-page news everywhere.”
Indeed, rumors of a Beckham family feud — Brooklyn and Nicola on one side, David and Victoria on the other — have been just that for years. Fans began to wonder if something was amiss when Nicola wore a Valentino wedding gown instead of a design by her fashionable mother-in-law, though Nicola repeatedly denied it was a snub. Still, tabloids ran wild with reports of unspecified “tensions,” sweeping accusations of narcissism, and unrealistic “demands” from one camp or the other, reaching a fever pitch when Brooklyn and Nicola were absent from his father’s 50th birthday celebrations last year.
Now, Brooklyn’s communication strategy has shifted firmly away from off-the-record comments and anonymous sources who are “familiar with the situation.” In doing so, he’s removed any option for plausible deniability. No longer can he or anyone in his orbit simply shrug off questions about their familial drama.
“This is obviously a drastic change,” Fahey said. “This isn’t even a 180. It’s like a 1,080.”
Brooklyn’s bombshell comments contrast sharply with the Beckham family brand of elegant, unified self-promotion, which was honed over many years of public appearances, marketing campaigns, and, most recently, his-and-hers Netflix documentaries for David and Victoria.
“If this was vetted by a publicist, it wasn’t a very good one, because the level of detail and the way it is written are not PR-savvy whatsoever,” Fahey said of Brooklyn’s statement. “It comes across as unpolished. It is airing the family laundry.”
Tara Goodwin, a crisis communications expert and author of “Manage the Message, Change the Outcome: An Executive’s Guide to Crisis Management,” echoed Fahey’s analysis, describing Brooklyn’s approach as “more emotional than strategic.”
“He has the power to push the agenda and create a spectacle, and that’s what he’s trying to do,” Goodwin said. “What I would say to him if he were my client is, ‘Take a breath.’ Restraint gives you more choices, because once it’s in the public domain, you think you’re controlling the narrative, but you actually lose control of it.”
David and Victoria Beckham’s response will determine if this feud flares up or fades away
Karwai Tang/WireImage
If Brooklyn gave a crisis PR crash course in what not to do, his parents are more likely to take the safer route: silence.
The day after his son’s complaints went live, David appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” yet he smartly avoided mentioning Brooklyn by name. Instead, he advised general caution with social media, especially for kids.
“They make mistakes, but children are allowed to make mistakes. That is how they learn,” David said. “That is what I try to teach my kids. You sometimes have to let them make those mistakes as well.”
Fahey described this comment as a masterclass in celebrity image management: “That is a brilliant way of sending a message without saying anything of substance,” he said.
Not only would a direct public response to Brooklyn clash spectacularly with the established Beckham brand, but David and Victoria are famous and beloved enough that there’s very little risk in staying mum.
“I don’t think it’s going to hurt the Beckham brand at this juncture,” Goodwin said. “If this is protracted and goes on, and he has more to say, there could be some reverberations, but at the moment, I think most people are going to see this for what it is. It’s a difficult family moment that probably should have remained private.”
Moreover, being the parents in this situation, meeting Brooklyn’s energy would likely be perceived as petty or punching down. Even though Brooklyn is 26, he’s still their son, and they stand accused of disrespecting his boundaries. Now that he’s loudly and explicitly asking for space, David and Victoria would be wise to heed his wishes.
“If I’m their publicist, I’m like, ‘Let’s let this die down. Let’s try to do something behind closed doors. Let’s try to mend fences privately,'” Fahey said. “Having this play out in the court of public opinion is not going to benefit anyone.”
If the goal here is neither fame (according to Brooklyn) nor money (Nicola is a billionaire heiress, and the Beckhams’ net worth is nothing to scoff at, either), the only benefit left is narrative control. However, with a narrative as intimate and messy as this one, both Fahey and Goodwin agreed that it’s not worth braving the internet’s brutal jury.
“Maybe you air that out with your therapists and not millions of people online,” Fahey said.
