New chapters keep piling onto the Beckham family saga. The internet had barely processed Romeo’s new song, “Loneliest Boy,” that all but accuses his older brother Brooklyn of having “broken his mother’s heart,” when Nicola Peltz entered the chat with a new round of carefully worded remarks that only widen the perceived divide.
Speaking to the Spanish edition of Elle while promoting her upcoming film Prima, the 31-year-old actress went out of her way to emphasize the warmth of her own family dynamic. Her father, billionaire Nelson Peltz, 83, and her mother, Claudia Heffner Peltz, 71, she said, welcomed Brooklyn, 27, “like a son,” while her seven siblings “get along great” with him. The brothers, she added, share a passion for soccer. It echoed comments Nelson made earlier this year, when he publicly backed the couple: “My daughter is great, my son-in-law Brooklyn is great, and I look forward to them having a long, happy marriage together.”
The portrait is one of cohesion and ease—conspicuously at odds with the ongoing estrangement between Brooklyn and his nuclear family, a rift that appeared to reach its apex in a pointed social media statement in which he declared he had “no intention of reconciling” with his parents, accusing them, among other things, of prioritizing a polished public image over private reality and of having “endlessly tried to ruin my relationship with Nicola.”
In early March, despite the tension, David and Victoria wished their eldest son a happy birthday a Instagram—a gesture that, according to those close to the situation, only deepened Brooklyn’s frustration. Then, on Mother’s Day, Brooklyn publicly celebrated Claudia Heffner Peltz instead of Victoria, writing on Instagram that she was “the best mother-in-law in the world.”
Nicola, for her part, stops short of addressing the feud head-on. But she does acknowledge the toll of living under constant scrutiny. “Too many people judge without knowing anything about you,” she said. “I try not to listen to what people say, but it still affects me.” As for life at home, she describes something far more ordinary than the headlines suggest: she focused on her film, Brooklyn on launching a line of gourmet sauces. “When we get together at home in the evening, we are happy,” she said. “Brooklyn supports my dreams—he has the best heart in the world.”
This article originally appeared in Vanity Fair Italia.
