I've known all the gory details ...but this took everyone by surprise

AS someone who has worked on the Beckham family feud story for the past 12 months, I've had a ringside seat as every act of the drama unfolded.

- TOM BRYANT

HAPPY At New York fashion week just months after wedding RED CARPET A brief truce from Nicola at David's Netflix premiere in April 2023... FACE...but her expression tightens in a hint of tension

I've been privy to all the gory details as friends on both sides have gone into battle to get their message out.

Time and again I'm asked whether I'm Team Brooklyn or Team Beckham - but the truth is I've tried desperately to be neither.

Instead I've attempted to steer a line through a barrage of very conflicting, and often incendiary, views.

There is no doubt that friends of the Beckhams consider Brooklyn's wife Nicola Peltz to be an almost malign influence on their son.

I reported on their fears that the US actress and billionaire's daughter was isolating him not only from his family but his friends as well.

To say the narrative - which took hold after David's 50th birthday party last May - inflamed Brooklyn is an understatement.

He believed then, as he does now, that his parents authorised their pals to "throw Nicola under the bus".

But I maintain the Beckhams' fears come from a good place. They were, and still are, concerned that their eldest son is being manipulated and that this course of action "isn't the real him".