BROOKLYN BECKHAM AND THE BECKHAM FAMILY FEUD

It began, as these things often do, with a wedding dress. When Brooklyn Beckham, eldest son of David and Victoria, married American heiress and actress Nicola Peltz in Palm Beach in April 2022, the ceremony was meant to be a glittering fusion of dynasties.

- By Giselle Gunawardene

The Beckhams, Britain's first family of glamour, part football terrace, part couture runway, were uniting with the Peltzes, Palm Beach titans whose wealth runs to billions and whose estate was deemed suitably palatial for the three-day affair.

Yet beneath the orchids and the Dior tuxedo lurked a sartorial snub. Nicola, radiant in a Valentino Haute Couture gown crafted in Rome, was not, as had been widely expected, wearing Victoria Beckham. For years, Victoria had cultivated her fashion house with steely determination, establishing it as a fixture on the international circuit. What better advertisement than her son's society wedding? But as Nicola later explained, "her atelier couldn't make it" in time. The quote, published in Variety, was meant to soothe. Instead, it fuelled whispers of froideur between bride and mother-in-law.

Victoria, ever controlled, appeared at the wedding in a liquid silver slip of her own design, her expression as inscrutable as a Balenciaga campaign. The tabloids smelled blood. A dynasty famed for its unity now had a fissure.