Beckham wars

PR armies take to field - but will Brooklyn regret salvo at parents?

- Esther Addley

On a personal level, it's all extremely sad. A once close family ripped apart by feuding and bitterness. A much-loved son blocking all contact with his parents and siblings. From another perspective, however, for those who have followed the movements of David and Victoria Beckham in their 30 years in the (carefully curated) spotlight, the public falling out this week among Britain's alternative royal family has been a disaster from which it is hard to look away.

After months of bad blood between the Beckhams on one side and their eldest son, Brooklyn, and his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, on the other, fed by briefing and counter-briefing on both sides, Brooklyn finally dropped a bomb on Monday by releasing an 800-word statement on his Instagram page.

"I do not want to reconcile with my family," he wrote, laying out his reasons via a succession of unhappy and at times faintly farcical accusations about his parents' alleged wrongdoings, which included Victoria pulling out of designing her daughter-in-law's wedding dress "at the 11th hour" and hijacking the first dance at their wedding to "dance very inappropriately on [sic] me".

While the detail of his claims has been debated in the days since, perhaps the most wounding parts of the 26-year-old's statement were his remarks about his parents' obsession with manipulating their public image. His childhood in the public eye had caused him "overwhelming anxiety", he wrote, while "performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into".

"Countless lies" were placed in the media by David and Victoria "to preserve their own facade," he said. "But I believe the truth always comes out."