Chapter 1: What recent events have led to the Beckham family's public fallout?
Hello, welcome back to another episode of Fame Under Fire with me, Amber Hack. I am jumping back on the podcast while Anushka and Sean are taking a little break. So today on Fame Under Fire, the Beckhams, they are facing a very public and very personal fallout. And all of this is coming from inside the family itself.
If you haven't seen it, Brooklyn Pelts Beckham, he is the eldest child of Sir David Beckham, the world famous footballer and Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl, now fashion designer.
He has dropped a series of statements to his 16 million followers on Instagram saying that he doesn't want to reconcile with his family, that he has had no choice but to speak out now, accusing his parents and their team wrongly. of countless lies. So much for us to get into. So joining me now is crisis PR manager, Molly McPherson, and our BBC correspondent, Nick Johnson.
Nick, firstly, let's get into what exactly Brooklyn has said and why today is such a turning point, because this story has been rumbling on for years, hasn't it?
Yeah, well, I think you say it there, Amber. I mean, today is a turning point because it's the first time really that the family has sort of aired its dirty washing really in this way. There's been rumours in the tabloids over many months of some sort of rift between Brooklyn and the rest of the family.
But really in this social media post we got from Brooklyn last night, this is the first time it's been aired. aired in such a public way and directly from him. Let's just have a look about what he's said. He's talked about Brand Beckham. He says, my family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. He says, Brand Beckham comes first.
Family love, and he's put love in inverted commas, is decided by how much you post on social media. He then goes on to talk about at length about his parents' attitude to his wife, Nicola Peltz. He says that his parents have tried to ruin their relationship, derail their wedding, he says, saying a promised Beckham wedding dress was cancelled at the last minute.
And he goes on to say that his mother, Victoria Beckham, hijacked their wedding dance. So this is a sort of a scathing statement that is aired out there for his many millions of followers.
Molly, do you mind if I just bring you in here? Because Nick's just laid out some examples there. These accusations that Brooklyn has now put out publicly, they're so specific about the wedding dress being hijacked last minute, about his mother supposedly jumping in on his first dance and acting inappropriately.
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Chapter 2: What accusations did Brooklyn Beckham make against his parents?
And of course, there is background to this stuff, right, Nick? Because even though Brooklyn is saying that he has remained silent so far in this statement...
There's been a few rumours that have come out over the past year or so that he wasn't happy, for example, about his mum, Victoria, liking some of his Instagram posts and then subsequently that he'd apparently asked his parents to only communicate with him via lawyers. There is some background to this moment right now, isn't there?
Yeah, it felt like things were bubbling away to lead up to this very public moment. But I think as well, this sort of this is all quite relatable, isn't it? It's a family drama and it's a family drama that's aired over social media.
When we use social media with our family members, we're also perhaps one family member might nudge to another and say, well, did you see who liked so-and-so, who unfollowed so-and-so? And this is happening in such a... on a much wider scale. And perhaps, you know, we'd be forgiven for forgetting that just one click, one unfollow, one like is not seen by so many people.
But then you look at the Beckhams and those brief clicks have such huge ramifications.
So this statement from Brooklyn Beckham on Instagram has got everyone talking from my friends to my family. It feels like everybody has an opinion on things. But there has been a latest update, hasn't there, Nick, from Davos today?
Yeah, well, the World Economic Forum in Davos, that's a gathering of some of the most powerful people in the world. World leaders are there. World financiers are there. And David Beckham, himself is there today at the moment at this resort in the Swiss Alps. And he's been talking to the American broadcaster CNBC.
He's been talking to them about young people and their use of social media and how they can best use social media. And he's talked about how there are many dangers of social media, which are well reported, but also the positives of social media. He's talked about how he uses his platform and his following to what he says, try and make positive differences on social media.
But this is the interesting thing. He says, I've tried to do the same with my children to educate them. They make mistakes. Children are allowed to make mistakes. He says, that's how they learn. That's what I try to teach my kids. But you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes. So, It's important that we're not misleading people and taking this out of context.
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Chapter 3: How does the public perception of the Beckham brand influence family dynamics?
They are huge and they've been... Around for many years. And I think it's important to remember that even before Brooklyn, their eldest was born, obviously, Victoria Beckham, she was a Spice Girl, David Beckham, a young footballer. When the two of them got together, they managed to forge this huge media personality as a couple very early on.
And when Brooklyn was born, that sort of continued and their subsequent children continued even more so. And I think in the age of social media now, the fact that we're able to see that family brand play out and in sort of volatile ways it has done in recent months, that that's sort of we've got a front row seat to that now. And that's something that we wouldn't have done perhaps otherwise.
30 years ago, 25, 30 years ago, when David and Victoria got together, even though they were huge celebrities even back then. But I think what Molly said about their very polished brand, and she's right saying that I think that even though David wasn't directly addressing the feud in that interview in CNBC, they've been around as a brand for 30 years.
I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing when he was talking about young people and their mistakes on social media.
I mean, it's brought up a lot of feelings for me because I was a young girl growing up in Manchester. Huge Manchester United fan would go all the time with my dad to Old Trafford. And of course, I grew up watching David Beckham. And I remember when he went over to Real Madrid with Victoria and it was like his brand just took on this whole new weight and meaning around the world.
This blonde hair, remember, he had it in this ponytail and he became a Galactico. And that name, Beckham, has just become a global brand. Talking about brand, because it's so central and their name itself to everything that's going on in this story, Molly, David and Victoria Beckham trademarked their children's names back in 2016.
Brooklyn is now alleging that his parents tried to make him sign away the rights to his name before the wedding happened. What does an accusation like that tell us?
Well, the accusation tells us a lot. And really, you went through it yourself, Amber. I mean, you saw the rise of the Beckham name and certainly what David Beckham and Victoria Beckham did. have done since the 90s beyond is they understood the power of branding, but they also grew at a time before we really had social media.
So these two, they're a couple who understand what it's like to not just brand in the 90s, but certainly into digital and social media and rely on the public. Brooklyn learned from that. What he's doing right now is not leveraging the brand endorsement. He's leveraging the reputation endorsement.
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Chapter 4: What role does social media play in the Beckham family's drama?
I see them doing more indirect type of messaging, a la David Beckham, and they'll just get through it like they always do.
Yeah, similarly, I think this is not going to harm the brand in the long term. But I think from a news perspective, all of us are waiting for who says what next. Is Brooklyn going to say something else? Are we going to get something on camera? Are we going to get something on social media from David of Victoria or indeed one of the other Beckham children?
So I think we're all waiting for who says what and who's going to come next. This is, of course, just one side of the story. The Beckhams have yet to respond. And as ever with such affairs, recollections may vary.
Thank you both so much for unpacking that with me. Definitely on both sides of the Atlantic, people just cannot get enough of the story. And it seems everyone has an opinion. So thank you for spending some time getting into it with us.
Thank you.
Thanks, Amber. As always, if you've got any questions, send them to us on social media or you can WhatsApp us on 0330 678 1114. That's 0330 678 1114. Don't forget to subscribe. Turn your push notifications on so you make sure you never miss an episode.
I'm Dr. Chris Van Telleken. And I'm Dr. Zand Van Telleken. Chris, it's that time of year when we set resolutions. It certainly is, Zand, and that is why, in January, our four episodes of What's Up Docs are going to be on the key themes that feature in resolutions. Alcohol, food, exercise, and the whole notion of resolutions themselves. Can we change? Should we change?
Well, a lot of us think we should. That's what we're doing the whole month, paying attention or thinking we should pay attention to our health and well-being. In addition, we will be dropping a daily dose of expert wisdom from previous episodes because Zahn and I have felt... And found that we need... We need a reminder.
Reminding about all the things that we've learned, from difficult conversations to how to look after our knees. Protein, the power of nature, snackable-sized episodes every day. We've got you covered. And these daily doses are going to be dropping into the medicine cabinet that is the WhatsApp Docs feed on BBC Sounds.
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