Fall of Beckingham Palace: What no one is talking about

Brooklyn Beckham just delivered a master stroke as far as celebrity family feuds are concerned — the eldest offspring of Posh spice and Becks scored a last-minute winner from the edge of the box in the Beckham derby by becoming the first of the clan to directly address the rumours of a rift.

The aspiring chef (formerly a model, a photographer among other things) took to his Instagram stories during the early hours of January 19 and published six slides worth of his heart’s most cherished secrets.

“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” he 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.”

In what was the most damning part of his statement, Brooklyn claimed, “I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.”

Since providing the most beguiling evidence in the long rumoured rift, the 26-year-old hot sauce connoisseur has opened a Pandora’s box perhaps wider than even the best media recruits chummy with the Beckhams will be able to contain with the naturally acquired human anatomy worth only two hands.

On that note, is the Posh-Becks level of media control the element which everyone is currently underestimating, if not outright missing?

Granted, Brooklyn did acknowledge that his parents are known to spin narratives in the media, sharing that “they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade.”

But whoever could those presumable innocents be?

Left in the wake of the storm

David and Victoria Beckham have been known to prioritise their marital enterprise, going to great lengths in preservation of that paradise.

The couple may well have pushed multiple individuals aside to retain their throne as one of media’s biggest and most chicest power couples, but the dust which remains in the wind comes down to only a handful of reported names.

Rebecca Loos, who the former Real Madrid star had an affair with while she was employed as a personal assistant during his time in Spain, has been withheld by the media as just that — a famous mistress.

David had stated in 2004, the time when the reports of an affair had emerged, that he considers himself a happily married man with two “very special” kids — Brooklyn and Romeo being the only Beckham back then — and that “there is nothing any third party can do to change this.”

However, Rebecca stuck to her truth, which was only confirmed by the couple themselves as they reflected on the affair years later in the 2023 Netflix documentary, Beckham.

‘Brand Beckham’

If Brooklyn is to be believed, “Brand Beckham comes first.”

If evidence is to be believed, he may be on to something.

The family brand is something David and Victoria have protected even from each other — British author Tom Bower revealed in his explosive text on the couple’s empire, The House of Beckham, that both of them waged a lengthy “media war” amongst themselves following the emergence of the retired footballer’s extra-marital affair.

In fact, the book claimed that the news had embittered their dynamic so badly that it came to resemble a “distant business relationship” in its wake.

While David’s appearance on The Sunday Project in 2018, when he labelled his marriage “hard work”, left Victoria feeling distraught — not because of the admission itself, but the fact that it wasn’t discussed first.

“It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off,” Tom Bower told The Mirror. “Her husband’s disloyalty baffled her. His truthfulness had destroyed her efforts to conjure up an image of happy families. Why, she sobbed, would David embarrass her?”

“Worse still, why could he not understand the consequence of his own stupidity? Why, she wailed, had he become the enemy of her ambition? Without any answers, she fled to a Baden-Baden spa hotel for two days.”

Make or break

As fierce as the Beckhams are known to be over their image, it may be worth considering that Brooklyn has most likely just tied the constraints he has been trying to break through tighter around himself.

By all means, David and Victoria’s silence might only serve as the calm before the storm. Though Brooklyn has certainly picked up a challenge far more menacing than his lack of a response had afforded him heretofore.

What may follow is a generational press run — one which could make or break the man who has admittedly been “controlled” by his parents his “whole life”.

Nevertheless, the fate of the feud is still up in the air as the couple remain mum for now, while currently celebrating their youngest son, Cruz Beckham.