Nepo babies weaponise their place in the public's disdain

This week, Brooklyn Beckham shocked his followers when he shared a video of himself rustling up a tomato pasta dish using seawater.

- CHARLOTTE CRIPPS

In the clip posted to his Instagram, the would-be chef leans off the back of a luxury yacht and dips a silver saucepan into the sea, before bringing the briny to boil and plopping in some spaghetti.

“That’s disgusting,” one person commented. Others said: “Nothing like cooking in sewage water...” and – possibly most devastating of all – “Go get a real job PLEASE!!!!!!”

Beckham, 26, has long faced criticism from nepo baby haters for using his privileged position as the eldest child of David and Victoria Beckham to his advantage in his various “careers”.

His amateurish seawater pasta is but his latest clueless foray into the world of work. He irritated established fashion photographers when, aged 16, he was hired by Burberry to shoot its latest fragrance campaign. In a juvenile collection of his photographs, published by Penguin Random House, his shot of a dimly lit elephant was accompanied by a caption: “Elephants in Kenya. so hard to photograph but incredible to see.”

In 2022, his career relaunch as a chef-influencer, with his straight-to-Instagram show Cookin’ with Brooklyn, reputedly required a team of 62 professionals, including culinary producers, cameramen and several producers – and cost a staggering £74,000 an episode to make. Nothing like starting at the bottom and working your way up, is there?