.
“I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”
Who are these people?
David and Victoria Beckham are extremely wealthy and globally famous. David Beckham is a former English professional footballer who rose to fame as a teenager playing for Manchester United. He retired from playing in 2013 but retains an interest as a co-owner of teams in the US and UK.
Victoria Beckham – best known to 90s music fans as Posh Spice from the groundbreaking Spice Girls pop group – met David in 1997 and the couple married in 1999. Victoria pivoted to fashion after her pop career ended, creating her eponymous brand in 2008 and expanding into beauty in 2019.
David and Victoria Beckham.
AFP
The couple have four children – sons Brooklyn, 26, Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20, and 14-year-old daughter Harper.
They have an estimated net worth of £500 million (NZ $1.1 billion).
Regular folk were granted an insight into their family life in the 2023 four-part Netflix documentary, Beckham Victoria Beckham story in a three-part series which dropped in 2025.
Their eldest son at the centre of the family furore, Brooklyn, has dabbled in modelling, photography and cooking. He began dating Nicola Peltz in 2020, marrying her two years later.
Peltz, 31, is the daughter of US billionaire, Nelson Peltz and model Claudia Heffner. She has worked as a model and actress.
What’s the story?
The rift reportedly began in 2022, ahead of Brooklyn and Nicola’s wedding.
In his statement on Monday, Brooklyn accused his parents of trying to “endlessly ruin” his relationship.
He said his fashion designer mother had tried to derail his wedding, pulling out of 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”.
At the time it was reported by entertainment website People.com that Nicola chose not to wear a custom VB design for the ceremony, after initially agreeing to do so, instead opting for a Valentino gown.
However, shortly after the wedding Nicola told entertainment publication Variety: “I was going to and I really wanted to and then a few months down the line, she realised that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress. She didn’t say you can’t wear it; I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it. That’s where it started, and then they ran with that.”
Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz-Beckham had been notably absent from family celebrations over the last year, including David’s 50th birthday party in Miami in March, 2025, further birthday celebrations in May and his knighthood in November. The Beckhams also reportedly sat out Nicola and Brooklyn’s vow renewal ceremony in August 2025.
Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday. From left: Romeo, Cruz, Victoria, Harper, David and Brooklyn in April, 2024. Nicola Peltz-Beckham did not attend.
Instagram / Victoria Beckham
Brooklyn wrote on Monday: “My wife has been consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one”.
The statement claimed Brooklyn was in the UK for David’s birthday celebrations, but requests to see his dad were ignored and “when he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited”.
“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” Brooklyn wrote.
“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’s statement went on to say: “…. Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders.
“Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last summer.”
In December, 2025, it was reported that Brooklyn no longer followed his parents or brothers on social media, nor did they follow him back. Cruz Beckham hit back at tabloid reports that his parents had unfollowed Brooklyn: “My mum and dad would never unfollow their son… Let’s get the facts right. They woke up blocked… as did I,” Cruz wrote on his Instagram stories.
Followers observed that David Beckham did not include any photos of Brooklyn in his roundup of 2025 on Instagram. Harper, Cruz, and Romeo appear in his 20-picture carousel dedicated to his “incredible wife” and “amazing children”.
On Monday the first official statement on the family drama was released by Brooklyn. The BBC have attempted to contact David and Victoria Beckham for comment. They have not said anything about the rift.
What is with children breaking up with their families?
Prince Harry’s departure from royal duties in 2020 was perhaps the biggest story in family estrangement in recent times. Harry and his wife, Meghan, stepped down as senior royals, angry about media intrusion and frustrated at Buckingham Palace. The couple moved to California saying they wanted space to raise their children. (Tabloids report Brooklyn and Nicola have recently joined the Sussexes for dinner at their Montecito home.)
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in 2023.
Rolf Vennenbernd / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
In 2023, Harry’s memoir Spare was published, dropping bombs about his relationship with his brother and father. It was followed by an interview with Oprah, in which the couple spoke about racism, the media, mental health and the Royal Family.
Harry last saw his father, King Charles, in 2025 when he had tea at Clarence House during a UK visit. It was their first meeting in 18 months.
His wife Meghan has been estranged from her father, Thomas Markle, and half-siblings, since her engagement to Prince Harry.
Other celebrities famously impacted by family estrangement include Macaulay Culkin, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Aniston.
Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song attend the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California.
Amy Sussman / Getty Images / AFP
Outside of high profile feuds, thousands of New Zealanders have likely severed their relationship with a parent , what the internet refers to as “going no contact”.
No figures exist in New Zealand for how common it is, or whether it is growing. However, a 2022 survey of 11,000 Americans found that about one in four were estranged from one or more immediate family members, with the most common source being a child ending a relationship with a parent.
If you explore the hashtag #nocontact on social media, you will find millions of posts containing advice on how to go no contact and those attesting to the freedom and mental wellbeing of cutting ties. There is also the side of parents who feel unjustly removed from their child’s life. Some have criticised this as a social contagion where a cornerstone relationship is too easily discarded. Others see it as progress that empowers people to rid themselves of a toxic relationship they never chose to be in.
Why do we care about celebrities’ private lives?
According to Dr Anita Brady, a senior lecturer in media and communications at Victoria University in Wellington who researches popular culture, there are different levels for how we interact with celebrities.
“When we think about celebrity breakups, we can divide it into three ways we might care,” she told RNZ previously .
“The first is on an individual fan basis, where people might have particular celebrities they admire or follow for whatever reason. The second is on a societal level, which relates more to the cultural function of celebrities.
“In the same way we talk or gossip about people we know in real life, we also do the same thing in relation to celebrities. It’s the space where social norms get negotiated or disrupted, where we can use the social function of gossiping about someone to establish social bonds with someone else.
“In a celebrity relationship, there might be an aspect of ‘who wronged who’ or ‘who shouldn’t have done what they did’, and that’s a way of testing our shared ideas about how we should conduct ourselves or participate in life.”
The third framework might be one we are most guilty of as consumers.
“This one is actually just thinking about celebrities, not really as people, but as cultural narratives or sources of entertainment. We might follow a celebrity story the same way we follow a television show or a film, we’re interested in the plot development and twists and turns.”
