Beckham vs. Beckham

Summary

Infamous Podcast: "Beckham vs. Beckham"

Date: February 5, 2026
Host: Campside Media / Sony Music Entertainment – Vanessa Grigoriadis, Gabriel Sherman, Natalie Robehmed
Guest: Lindsay Weber (Who? Weekly podcast)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the very public and deeply personal estrangement between Brooklyn Beckham (son of David and Victoria Beckham) and his famous parents. The hosts, joined by celebrity culture expert Lindsay Weber, explore the tabloid-fueled feud between the Beckhams and Brooklyn’s wife Nicola Peltz, daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz. By examining "Dressgate," family feuding played out in the media, and the rise of going "no-contact" with close relatives, the team investigates questions of fame, parental control, and the dynamics behind family estrangement in the public eye.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Framing Family Estrangement in the Spotlight (00:40-04:22)

• Why the Topic Matters:
  • Natalie introduces the episode by noting how rare it is to witness family estrangement play out so publicly, especially among the world’s most famous families.
  • The Beckhams: Victoria (Spice Girls, fashion) and David (football, style icon) have been relentlessly covered by the press for decades.
  • Their first son, Brooklyn, was in the media from infancy (“I felt so blessed to be married to David...but it felt really lonely.” – Lindsay Weber [03:25]).
  • Brooklyn has now separated himself, both personally and publicly, from his family.

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2. Celebrity Culture – ‘Who’ vs. ‘Them’ (06:04-07:41)

• Who Weekly’s Fame Taxonomy:

  • Lindsay explains:

    "It's a binary to help explain the way that celebrity works now, which is that everybody is famous and no one is famous." [06:04]

  • The difference between household names (“thems”) and lesser-known figures (“whos”) is increasingly blurry in the era of TikTok and niche fame.

• Applying It to this Story:

  • Vanessa sees Brooklyn and Nicola as classic “whos” who’ve become “thems” through this public drama.

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3. Who Are Brooklyn Beckham & Nicola Peltz? (07:57-12:25)

• Brooklyn Beckham:

  • “He’s the prince, right? …the ultimate Nepo baby.” – Lindsay Weber [08:23]
  • Childhood in the spotlight, ambiguous career (dabbling in photography and launching a hot sauce line).
  • Laughed about his infamous attempt at wildlife photography (“elephants are hard to photograph. So hard to photograph. But line break. Incredible to see.” – [09:33])

• Nicola Peltz:

  • Actress, director of the indie film “Lola,” but best known for being the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz.
  • Lindsay: “She’s beautiful and goes to parties.” [10:41]
  • Both come from complex, privileged backgrounds (“being the daughter of a billionaire is gonna stack some chips against you.” – Natalie [11:51])

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4. Media Spin, Wedding Tensions & ‘Dressgate’ (16:19-19:57)

• Early Tensions:

  • Rumors swirled from the beginning, fueled by tabloids characterizing Nicola as a possible villain and outsider to the Beckham family.
  • Lindsay: “It was a little bit like this perfect couple coming together and shaking up the Beckham family from the beginning. But it's hard to tell whether that was a media lens or the reality...” [16:34]

• The Wedding Dress Controversy:

  • Central drama: Why didn’t Nicola wear a Victoria Beckham-designed wedding dress? Instead, she wore Valentino.
  • Nicola’s denial of a feud:

    "Victoria was very busy...She said that her atelier couldn't make the dress in time. So then my mom told me and then we regrouped and came up with something else. But I truthfully was really excited to wear her dress." – Nicola Peltz, quoted by Natalie [18:44]

  • Lindsay and the hosts agree it “makes no sense” that Victoria couldn’t produce the dress for her daughter-in-law (“But that is such a diss... that's a diss.” – Vanessa [19:47])

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5. Public Feud Escalates: Lawsuits and Leaked Texts (20:00-23:24)

• Wedding Planner Lawsuit:
  • Post-wedding, Nicola’s father sued the wedding planners, bringing to light private, sometimes unflattering texts that painted Nicola as a “bridezilla.”
  • Lindsay: “This is a billionaire and he's mad about $150,000 deposit...all of this shit is coming out in discovery about the wedding. That's when it started to get crazy.” [20:12, 21:19]
  • Vanessa critiques the UK tabloid strategy to tear down “ladies who are just too big for their britches.” [21:41]

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6. Social Media Statements & Going No Contact (24:18-27:51)

• Brooklyn Speaks Out:

  • In early 2025, after mounting rumors, Brooklyn posts a lengthy statement on Instagram, read aloud in the episode:

    “Public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first... My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation. All we want is peace, privacy, and happiness for us and our future family.” – Brooklyn Beckham (read by Lindsay Weber, 24:18) "The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety..." – Brooklyn [24:33]

  • Allegations include Victoria hijacking his first dance at the wedding and attempts to control his public image and even his legal name.

• Evidence of Estrangement:

  • Absenteeism at family events—Brooklyn skipped David’s 50th birthday in May 2025, confirming suspicions (“The story of him not being there was bigger than the birthday.” – Lindsay Weber [25:09])
  • Brooklyn and Nicola reportedly blocked his family on social media; communication became strictly through lawyers.

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7. Media Manipulation on Both Sides (31:09-32:12)

• Both the Beckham and Peltz camps were found to be feeding stories to the media.
  • Lindsay: “You rarely get to see that on the back end. Right. A lot of this felt like, oh, so both sides have been directly communicating with tabloids, and the tabloids are not choosing sides. They're like, we'll take whatever from whoever.” [31:09]
  • Vanessa: “Yeah, they all had their iPhones out and were texting in and talking to like these different reporters on the sly. Yeah, this was like an act family feud that played out through the tabloids.” [32:00]

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8. Takeaways: Fame, Control, and New Family Models (32:12-end)

• Lasting Impact of Fame:

  • The Beckhams, as ‘90s figures, remain obsessed with tabloid coverage, perhaps more than modern celebrities (“The Beckhams are such 90s figures that they still care about what's in the tabloids.” – Vanessa [32:30])

• Parental Control and Breaking Away:

  • Comparing Victoria’s “Kris Jenner-like” control to Nicola’s strong influence; both women depicted as exerting power over Brooklyn.

    “It’s not like them, one versus the other, where one is bad and one is good. It's like both are power blocks.” – Lindsay Weber [33:28]

• David Beckham’s Perspective:

  • David, the quiet “peacemaker,” comments:

    "Children are allowed to make mistakes. That's how they learn. So that's what I try to teach my kids. But, you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well." – David Beckham via CNBC, read by Natalie [33:43]

• Broader Reflection:

  • Natalie points out a cultural shift around accepting family estrangement; referencing The New Yorker’s 2024 article on going “no contact” and suggesting some see it as healthy or even necessary.
  • For further reading: "The Power of Parting" by Eamon Dolan is recommended [34:19-end].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Public Scrutiny:

  "Perhaps it's only fitting that a family that has lived its entire life in a very public way would also play out its greatest drama in a very public way." – Natalie [23:50]

• On Nepotism:

  "He's the prince, right? ... the ultimate Nepo baby." – Lindsay Weber [08:23]

• On Media Bias:

  "The British tabloids, their plotline over and over and over is it's a lady...who is just too big for her britches, right? And we need to take her down." – Vanessa [21:41]

• On Reading Brooklyn’s Statement:

  "For the first time in my life since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared. I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose..." – Brooklyn Beckham, read by Lindsay Weber [24:33]

• On Family Estrangement:

  “There are people who feel that you should be in touch with your parents no matter what. And then others...say it can be much healthier for people to have a life beyond their family relationships.” – Natalie [end]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:40 – Introduction to the Beckham family, fame, and estrangement
• 06:04 – Lindsay explains Who Weekly's "who/them" concept
• 08:23 – Discussion of Brooklyn as “the ultimate Nepo baby”
• 16:34 – Early signs of tension between Brooklyn/Nicola and the Beckhams
• 17:37 – "Dressgate" and mother/daughter-in-law drama
• 20:00 – Wedding planner lawsuit and tabloid leaks
• 24:18 – Brooklyn’s open Instagram statement
• 25:09 – Brooklyn skips David's 50th birthday
• 27:03 – Allegations: name rights, first dance hijacking
• 31:09 – Both sides feeding stories to the media
• 33:43 – David Beckham’s statement about parenting
• 34:19 – Recommendations on reading about family estrangement

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Tone & Style

The episode is fast-paced, witty, and smart, blending the style of celebrity gossip analysis with deeper questions about fame, control, and family ties. The hosts and guest are at times irreverent, empathetic, and always critical of media narratives—offering both hot takes and room for nuance.

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Useful for Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This summary offers a clear overview of how the Beckham family’s drama unfolded—highlighting central figures, timelines, behind-the-scenes machinations, and both the pain and absurdity of living a life in the relentless glare of celebrity media. Listeners will get a sense of both the juicy tabloid angles and the underlying human issues of family, boundaries, and the price of perennial fame.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Natalie]

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[Lindsay Weber]

I take high value items and make them disappear.

[Natalie]

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[Narrator]

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[Natalie]

We're good at this.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah.

[Natalie]

Crime 101.

[Narrator]

Directed by Bart Layton. Rated R. Under 17. Unmuted without Paris only in theaters February 13th.

[Vanessa]

Campsite Media. Hi, everyone.

[Natalie]

Natalie here. So family estrangement has been something we, as a very therapized culture, have been discussing more lately. The New Yorker described family estrangement as, quote, the process by which family members become strangers to one another, like intimacy reversed. But we rarely get to see family estrangement play out publicly, especially not in one of the most famous families in the world. This week, we're talking about one such family. David and Victoria Beckham. Posh and Becks.

[Lindsay Weber]

Victoria is not a typical footballer's wife. Victoria is clearly a very assertive young.

[Natalie]

Woman, from his underwear to her eating habits. We have spared almost no detail about the lives of David and Victoria Beckham. The former Spice Girl has seen her.

[Lindsay Weber]

Clothing and accessories brand grow into a.

[Natalie]

Business with a 30 million pound turnover. David Beckham, with his curtain hair and East End accent, was one of the biggest footballers of the 90s. The soccer superstar, as he tells it, set his sights on Victoria while idly watching TV one day. Turn around to Gary.

[Lindsay Weber]

I went, see that one there?

[Natalie]

I'm going to marry that one.

[Vanessa]

The posh one, the one in the black dress.

[Natalie]

Victoria, with her dark bob and signature pout, was in the biggest girl group of the 90s, the Spice Girls. There was Scary Spice and Sporty Spice, Baby Spice and Ginger Spice. And she, Victoria was Posh Spice. Posh, Such a British word that from the get go, established her as separate from the others.

[Lindsay Weber]

We both come from families that work really hard. Both of our parents work really hard. We're very working, working class.

[Natalie]

Be honest.

[Lindsay Weber]

I am being honest.

[Natalie]

What did you get your dad to drive?

[Lindsay Weber]

In the 80s, my dad had a Rolls Royce.

[Natalie]

When the pair came together, it was a marriage made in tabloid heaven. With David, Victoria stayed in the public eye as a wag, a wife and girlfriend. Even after the Spice Girls broke up with Victoria, David became a fashion icon, not just a footballer. Wearing things that seemed so crazy at the time, like a sarong or a headb. And when I say they were in the tabloids, I mean, they were all over the tabloids. OK Magazine paid them a million pounds for access to their wedding in 1999, at which they wore matching purple outfits. Even their then 4 month old son Brooklyn, who was dressed up in a purple Stetson and bib, very purple Prince purple.

[Lindsay Weber]

I felt so blessed to be married to David. I had this amazing, this amazing little baby. But it felt quite slow, it felt really lonely. And I remember thinking, God, is anybody going to want to put me on a plane and do a photo shoot again?

[Natalie]

Fast forward nearly 27 years and Brooklyn, with his furrowed brow and perpetually upturned lips, looks just like a dark haired version of his father. But that little baby who was photographed so publicly his whole life, has now very publicly separated himself from his parents. So what really happened between the Beckhams, their son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz, the daughter of a billionaire? Let's find out.

[Vanessa]

Hello everyone. Welcome back to infamous a Campside Media and so Sony Music Entertainment podcast. So this week we are talking about what has been all the goss and the tabloids and that is the Beckhams. In some ways it's a very sad story. It's a story about the family estrangement of Victoria and David Beckham and their children, particularly Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz. But it also is juicy and there's a lot of bizarre media sort of conflagrations and fiascos that have happened in the middle of it. You could even say backstabbings. So is it the media pitting two women against each other or what is going on? Exactly. And, and what does it say about this conversation about family estrangement and people's decisions to cut off their parents, which has frankly been in the public sphere a lot. And I know personally some people who have done it who are open to talking about it for the first time in their lives. So this week we have on the fabulous Lindsay Weber from who Weekly. She is the co host of that podcast that tells you everything you need to know about the celebrities you don't know and the celebrities you do know. You probably listen to it already if you're listening to the show. But in any case, who Weekly really offers a very smart analysis of tabloid and celebrity culture. They basically have this taxonomy of fame that is people are who's or they're thems. So what's a who and what is a them?

[Lindsay Weber]

So we like to do this comparison to tabloid magazines you find at the grocery store, although now that's an outdated reality, which makes me so sad. But, you know, let's say you are at the grocery store and you're looking at all the magazines. You see the covers, you see someone on the COVID you know who they are. You're like, oh, that's a them. If you don't know who they are, you're like, who is that? That's his basic way of describing these things. It's a binary to help explain the way that celebrity works now, which is that everybody is famous and no one is famous. And then the famous people are more famous because there's less of them. It's this way to kind of dumb it down a little bit, right?

[Vanessa]

Exactly. Whether it's 15 years ago and you were like, who is this person from Big Brother? Why am I not looking at Britney Spears anymore? I don't understand who all these people are. Or even today, my kid was like, hey, check out this tiktoker who just did the Dr. Pepper ad. And you know what? It's great. It's a catchy ad and, like, fantastic. She's gonna be a star, but I do not know her name.

[Lindsay Weber]

Was it good? Did you watch it?

[Vanessa]

It was actually really good.

[Lindsay Weber]

See, it's. It's just siloed. You can't even be mad at new celebrities, like, if they're. Because stardom can come from anywhere. They're just on different platforms now. You know, someone could be so, so, so famous as someone, and you've never heard of them, and you're a little bit offended by that. You're like, well, how do you know who this person is? What am I missing?

[Vanessa]

Well, let me just say something. Brooke Lynn and Nicola are classic. Who's. I barely knew who they were. I was like, brooklyn, I think that one is a model. No. Oh, yes, that's right. That's that one. So even as somebody who is a New York City reporter to her core, I. You know, when we started talking about it, Natalie and I was like, oh, you mean Nelson Peltz's kid? Like, yeah, he's got a bunch of kids.

[Lindsay Weber]

But see, that's why. No, see, but this is why. This is great, though, because you're like, oh, I remember all this reporting about this, like, billionaire, and that's her f. And it's like, now we're getting this next generation where they don't know that context. And that context is kind of more important than Nicola herself, the family that she comes from, especially in the story.

[Natalie]

Yeah, yeah. So. So let's back up a second and Say so two of the main characters, they're also people. Not just characters we're talking about today are Brooklyn Beckham, who is the eldest son of Victoria and David Beckham, and Nicola Peltz, who is the daughter of this billionaire, Nelson Peltz. Let's go to Brooklyn first. Prior to this feud with his parents, what was he best known for?

[Lindsay Weber]

Being the son of his parents. I mean, he was the first mecum child. There's this famous photo of them holding him in their purple outfits at their wedding. I just. He's the prince, right? Like, what these two got together. David Beckham is the biggest football star, soccer star in the world at that point. Victoria Beckham was one of the most famous pop stars in the world at that point. Say what I want.

[Natalie]

What I really, really want.

[Lindsay Weber]

No, tell me what you want.

[Natalie]

What you really.

[Lindsay Weber]

These two get together, and Brooklyn is their first kid. So he. That's him, if you remember that. You remember when he was born and maybe not much after, because honestly, since then he's had a little bit of the Nepo baby curse, where you're kind of doing lots of things, trying to figure out what it is you actually want to do when you really don't have to do anything at all.

[Natalie]

Yeah. I think you described him as the ultimate Nepo baby. And I have. I have followed Brooklyn Beckham's career or career attempts through being a chef and his photography book, which I sent Vanessa, this iconic painting.

[Vanessa]

Oh, my God. I almost died. I really almost died.

[Lindsay Weber]

The elephant where it's.

[Vanessa]

Yeah. Describe what it is, because I actually don't even know. It was like a book of, like, wildlife photography.

[Lindsay Weber]

And there's a caption that's like, elephants are hard to photograph.

[Natalie]

So hard to photograph. But line break. Incredible to see.

[Lindsay Weber]

Exactly. He really has gone hard at the foodstuff. He has this hot sauce line that sells decently and is stocked in the right places.

[Vanessa]

Yeah. He also just seems to always have the same expression on his face when I see him in a photo shoot and I see him on the red carpet and I'm just like, you're not made for the camera. You need to go to the school where they tell you how to pose. I mean, he's quite good looking. Look at who his parents are. But he doesn't have the ribs. Well, it is funny.

[Lindsay Weber]

Cause one of his brothers is now a model. Like a working model, Runway model. Romeo. And Cruz is a musician. So Cruise just put out a pretty good song, is in a pretty good band, is trying to make his way. It's just funny that the two different career paths that Nepo babies often have have been taken up by the age.

[Vanessa]

So he's got hot sauce and photography. Yeah.

[Natalie]

So he's really been in the tabloids for the last however many years for his relationship and then subsequent marriage to Nicola Peltz. But who is she? And who was she before she started dating Brooklyn?

[Lindsay Weber]

Most of her press comes from this movie that she directed, maybe wrote and definitely starred in Lola, that came out a few years ago. She's also just the daughter of a billionaire. She's beautiful and goes to parties.

[Vanessa]

But her father had 10 kids. I mean, she lives in Bedford. Right. Which is like, super chichi. Westchester, like old money mansion kind of things. If you've seen your friends or neighbors with jobs.

[Natalie]

Is that what it's called, your friends and neighbors?

[Vanessa]

Your friends and neighbors? Yeah. Huge, stately, old mansions. And I think she became a model, not out of any sort of necessity.

[Lindsay Weber]

Right. It's funny, like, she definitely worked as a model, but I forgot that she's a model socialite, maybe.

[Vanessa]

Yeah. She went out with a Hadid.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yes. She dated Anwar Hadid, the other, like, Nepo ish sibling. Hadid, kind of at this point, that is a real.

[Vanessa]

Is he a who? Or is there a step below a whole a na? Yeah.

[Lindsay Weber]

Nah. Is like you're kind of just me or you or just anyone normal.

[Vanessa]

Just a regular person. Yeah.

[Lindsay Weber]

Anwar Hadid, to be fair, he also dated Dua Lipa for a long time. Like, he's in the celebrity world for sure.

[Natalie]

She gets painted as a villain in this story, and there is a lot about her that on the surface is hard to like. Being the daughter of a billionaire is gonna stack some chips against you.

[Vanessa]

They both very obviously have these kinds of complicated family relationships. I mean, she has a tattoo that says family first in Hebrew. I think what is fascinating is when you first look at it, you're like, oh, look at him with his rando model girlfriend. And then you're like, oh, look at him with the woman who's very much wearing the pants. It feels like in this relationship.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah. Or just like he doesn't need his family when hers can just step right in and provide him all the things he had growing up without a care in the world. They continue to do whatever, both of them, whatever they want.

[Natalie]

Just to close the loop on this. Nicola's dad is this guy, Nelson Peltz, who is an activist investor. He's the founder of an investment firm, Try and Fund management, that has $8.5 billion in assets under management and his personal net worth is $1.6 billion. And he's a bit of a shark. He goes in and stirs up trouble and makes a lot of money doing it, to put it really, really simply.

[Vanessa]

So basically what you're saying is as aggressive as you may think, as sort of Hank achievement hungry as Victoria and David Beckham are, her dad is as much.

[Lindsay Weber]

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[Natalie]

So after the Spice Girls and her era as a wag defined by her giant bug eyed sunglasses and tiny little clothes, Victoria was not content with just being David's plus one. She had major ambitions of her own to become a fashion designer. And that's always been one of the most interesting things about the Beckhams as a couple. Their ambition seems to build on each other's making them greater than the sum of their parts, reaching higher and higher into more money and more fame and more success. We know David and Victoria, right? They were posh and Becks. At least that's how I grew up with them being referred to in the British tabloids. And I think since the Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham's main thing has Been trying to make her fashion career happen and her fashion line. And Vanessa was sort of asking me, like, do people wear this? Is it successful? And it's always hard to know. Like fashion is opaque and really difficult to know how brands are doing. But I do think the Beckhams have had a little bit of a renaissance with David's 2023 Netflix doc Beckham and now Victoria's own documentary last year for sure.

[Lindsay Weber]

And all the teases of the Spice Girls re various maybe reunions, I think keep them in the news. Her makeup is extremely well respected and good. I've heard this now many times from different people that people love her makeup and it does well.

[Natalie]

So let's go back to the beginning. When Brook Lynn and Nicola started dating in late 2019, what were the first rumblings that there was any tension between Brooke Lynn, Nicola and Brooke Lynn's parents?

[Lindsay Weber]

There was always reports of their relationship being strained from the beginning, which is when it felt the most misogynist, when it felt like fan fiction at first.

[Natalie]

Right. Cause how was she being characterized at the time?

[Lindsay Weber]

Nicola, when they got together, it was a little bit like this perfect couple coming together and shaking up the Beckham family from the beginning. But it's hard to tell whether that was a media lens or the reality of the situation now. I guess it's maybe more so, like, oh, it did feel a little bit more real than we remember. But back then it felt like, let's relax a little bit on this. She's this blonde newcomer and Victoria's the old school brunette mother. Like, get away from my kid.

[Natalie]

Really? That's what this story is about. It's a media story and almost a whole, whole story about the Daily Mail. But yeah, as you mentioned, the wedding, Brooklyn and Nicola's wedding seems to have been a real turning point in this feud in the lead up to the wedding. I mean, what sorts of stories were we hearing? What was the source of tension at this wedding?

[Lindsay Weber]

The main conversation which does get brought up in his note is the dress. Why isn't she wearing a Victoria Beckham design dress? She ended up wearing Valentino. And then there was this big Vogue piece that had her saying like, we didn't get it in time. There was all these differing reports about why exactly she did not wear a Victoria Beckham designed dress.

[Natalie]

Yes. Unnamed sources were saying Victoria was upset Nicola didn't wear her design, which obviously paints her daughter in law in an unflattering light. But really early on in the Sunday Times, Nicola was denying a feud and said that Victoria Beckham's atelier couldn't make the dress in time.

[Lindsay Weber]

On the lead up to the wedding, when they were together, there was a lot of attempts to maybe dispel rumors that there was some sort of feud. It was a. A lot of videos of them together, laughing, running down the beach. Like, Victoria and Nicola have this thing where it was like, no, we're fine, we're great. The pushback was almost a little bit aggressive in a way where you felt, mm, I don't know. This is now feeling like maybe there is something because of the pushback beat.

[Natalie]

Right? The lady doth protest too much. Exactly.

[Lindsay Weber]

Truly.

[Vanessa]

Truly.

[Natalie]

Right. And there was. I'm just gonna read this quote from Nicola that she gave to the Sunday Times in October 2022 about Dressgate. The truth is that I was in a text chain with my mom, Victoria and Leslie, who's been my stylist for 10 years. We all were on this text chain together. And I was so excited to start the design process. And then Victoria was like, oh. And this was in the middle of me filming Lola James and directing. So I was very busy. And then she. Victoria was very busy. And a few days went by and I didn't hear anything. Then I think Victoria thought since I was on set, maybe she didn't want to upset me. So she called my mom and said that she couldn't make the dress.

[Lindsay Weber]

Dress.

[Natalie]

She said that her atelier couldn't make the dress in time. So then my mom told me and then we regrouped and came up with something else. But I truthfully was really excited to wear her dress. It makes me sad when I read things that people say. I was never planning on wearing it. That's just not true.

[Lindsay Weber]

Leaving the ums in is diabolical.

[Vanessa]

I know.

[Lindsay Weber]

Diabolical.

[Natalie]

Look, I did my best at a dramatic reading, but yes, everyone was trying to keep it copacetic, at least on the surface.

[Vanessa]

But that is such a diss. I mean, for your mother in law to be a fashion designer and not make your dress, that's a diss. Come on.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah, yeah, it's a diss.

[Natalie]

It is.

[Lindsay Weber]

And it makes. And it does make no sense. I'm sorry. It really does make no sense.

[Natalie]

Okay. But after the wedding, things keep coming out that make Nicola look bad, frankly. In January 2023, the Daily Mail starts reporting that her father is suing the wedding planners. Do you remember this, Lindsay?

[Lindsay Weber]

Yes. Because all of this shit is coming out in discovery about the wedding. That's when it started to get crazy.

[Natalie]

Yeah.

[Vanessa]

Absolutely.

[Natalie]

I mean, the Daily Mail got a hold of Nicola's texts, I think, that were in Discovery.

[Lindsay Weber]

Definitely a very Blake Lively core. All these texts started coming out that were not. I don't think anybody wanted that to happen.

[Natalie]

Let me read some of the text messages. I mean, I should say reading text messages. I would never want my text to be read aloud, but here we are. This was made public on dailymail.com this is a text purportedly from Nicola Peltier to the wedding planner Group chat called the Real Planners. Lewis Hamilton did not rsvp. So explain why his name's on the list, please. We spoke to him, he can't come. So explain why you said he RSVP'd. Yes. And basically it's these texts that make Nicola look like something of a bridezilla and make her and her family, who are obviously very rich. This is the angle that the Daily Mail I do feel is wanting you to take away, is that they're suing these poor wedding planners and oh gosh, what a nightmare she is. What did you make of it, Lindsay?

[Lindsay Weber]

I mean, this is a billionaire and he's mad about $150,000 deposit that they didn't give back to him after they stopped working with these planners. So they were suing them. If I had a conspiracy minded brain, which I maybe this billionaire does too, I would think that it's almost blackmail to have the texts come out. Settle this case or else we will, through discovery, have your text messages come out to the public.

[Vanessa]

Yeah, that somehow seems more likely to me because it does feel like they would do everything they could to get these te. Because if there's one text message like this being Bridezilla esque, there's a thousand. Right, Right. So it's also just. It's hard to know because the Daily Mail, the British tabloids, their plotline over and over and over is it's a lady. They prefer if it's a lady, but it could be a man too, particularly a gay man who is just too big for his britches. Right. And we need to take him down. And you plebeian who's reading the Daily Mail can feel better about your quotid in existence because if you were this person who was high and mighty and rich and famous, you would be an asshole. And we know you're not an. So at least that's comfort for you. So it's like, okay, anything that's in there you have to question. Then again, in this day and age, what's the other option? Some Instagram totally filtered BS about how much this family all loves each other. It. You know, back in the day, there would maybe be stories, magazine stories that.

[Natalie]

People like us would maybe write things.

[Vanessa]

Yeah, that would be in the middle of the reality. Like a little bit of truth, a little bit of illusion. We don't have those as much anymore. So you have like the gross tabloid or the Beckham smoosh fast. Smush, Smoosh, smoosh, smooshing each other fast. Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today.

[Natalie]

Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe.

[Lindsay Weber]

Oh, sorry.

[Natalie]

I almost couldn't breathe when I saw.

[Lindsay Weber]

The discount they gave me on my first order.

[Vanessa]

Oh, sorry.

[Natalie]

Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Narrator]

1-800-Contacts.

[Natalie]

Perhaps it's only fitting that a family that has lived its entire life in a very public way would also play out its greatest drama in a very public way. After all the apparent subterfuge. In January, Brooklyn Beckham decided to cut through the hearsay by releasing a statement on Instagram. Here's Lindsay and her co host Bobby finger reading parts of Brooklyn's statement on their podcast who weekly My Family Values.

[Narrator]

Public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first Family quote, love is decided by how much you post on social media or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo op, even if it's at the the expense of our professional obligations.

[Lindsay Weber]

The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared. I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose and have found peace and relief. My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation. All we want is is peace, privacy, and happiness for us and our future family.

[Natalie]

When did people really start to suspect that Brooklyn and his parents were not talking?

[Lindsay Weber]

David Beckham has a 50th birthday party. It's a huge bash. It's a huge deal. And Brooklyn is famously not there. And of course, it stole the newsiness. The story of him not being there was bigger than the birthday. Yeah.

[Natalie]

Then the fact that his dad turned 15. So bleak, right? I mean, and that was in May 2025. And then things kind of seem to have gotten worse from there. Brooklyn and Nicola did a vow renewal and it appeared that the Beckhams weren't present.

[Lindsay Weber]

A vow renewal after what, one year? Oh, because they felt like their wedding wasn't that fun. Yeah.

[Natalie]

In December 2025, when Cruise Beckham spoke out and said that he and David and Victoria that they all got blocked by Brooklyn Beckham, here's Lindsay and her co host Bobby Finger, reading some more of Brooklyn Beckham's open letter.

[Narrator]

I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. 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. 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. For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into. Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths 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 I believe the truth always comes out.

[Lindsay Weber]

My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding. And it hasn't stopped. My mom canceled making Nicola's dress in the 11th hour, despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress weeks before our big day. My parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children.

[Narrator]

Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I've received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders. My mom hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance, to a romantic love song in front of all of our 500 wedding guests. Marc Anthony called me to the stage wherein the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife. But instead, my mom was waiting to dance with me instead. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated it in my entire life.

[Lindsay Weber]

It felt like there was a lot of information that was confirming a lot of sources that had we'd heard over the past year or two, which was very interesting. It's like, if this stuff is real and if it's coming from you, that means you were the one giving it to the tabloids, which we had suspected. And then some new accusations that were really nasty.

[Natalie]

Yeah. I guess we understood at some point that Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz had parted ways with their crisis PR guy, this guy Matthew Hiltzik, who I believe, Vanessa, you've had some experiences with.

[Vanessa]

I mean, he represents, like, everybody. So, you know, I've certainly worked with him. I mean, why do you fire the publicist? Because the publicist says, don't say this. And then you go and say the thing that they said, don't say. It doesn't feel like a publicist wrote this statement. Right. Like, it feels like they wrote it together. I think you said this. It feels like they were hunched over with whatever Canva or something.

[Natalie]

But it's also really sad.

[Lindsay Weber]

It's sad. It's sad because it goes into something that we all know is that this kid was born in the public eye and had to grow up like that. He'd been there from the beginning, and his siblings are younger, and they haven't had to experience it from the beginning like he has. And he finally found somebody who he loves, and his family is rejecting them, and it's heartbreaking. With no other information or accusations. That's just, like, a sad thing to read, you know? And it immediately makes you sympathize with him. Even if you're not on Team Brooklyn, Nicola, you're kind of like, this is the realest thing that we've read in this whole drama to date.

[Natalie]

I'll be honest, prior to reading this statement, I hadn't really thought that much about Brooklyn Beckham as a person. And then reading this exactly as you said, I gotta say, I really felt for him. Anybody who has had a boyfriend or girlfriend or significant other that their parents didn't like and were rude to knows what that feels like. You get really defensive, and it's really upsetting, you know? And there were very specific things that felt both silly and frivolous, but also very, very real to them. Like, he talks about the first dance, which we would later learn more from somebody else who was there that apparently Marc Anthony said, please welcome to the stage the most beautiful woman in the room, Victoria Beckham, rather than Nicola Peltier.

[Lindsay Weber]

That's brutal. That's been confirmed by other guests. And that, to me, is pretty brutal.

[Narrator]

That's.

[Natalie]

Yes, that's heartbreaking. I mean, and allegedly, Nicola ran out of the room crying, and I gotta Be real. If that was my wedding, I would be upset too.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah, right, Totally.

[Vanessa]

We all know that the reason that some tabloid stories stick and the reason some gossip sticks is it has the ring of truth to it. And there has always been something about Victoria Beckham which has. Has felt very much like it's too many events she goes to with the family, it's too posed, the life is too perfect. You know, it's like the Posh Spice thing all over and over again. And that idea that she was sort of this shy girl and she was very controlling, very type A, but she then used that celebrity that she had and got married to this guy who she then also became somewhat controlling of. She turned him into a fashion icon. She's turned everybody in her life into something special, you know, and this is the one rebellious kid, right? Like, she's just like Ivana. She trademarked Ivanka's Trump's name, like when she was a baby. I mean, obviously people do this today. Back then, it was a little bit. A little bit more surprising. But of course, Victoria trademarked her kids names. She's just a businesswoman who is using the family as the business, like a Kris Jenner sort of thing.

[Lindsay Weber]

And this. This happening to her is just unfortunately satisfying for all the people that were waiting for the other shoe to drop. So I do think we lean into it and we go like, oh, well, finally you're experiencing what everybody else experiences, which is like this rebellion or like, not everything's perfect. That specific stuff where things that we had heard were essentially being confirmed. You rarely get to see that on the back end. Right. A lot of this felt like, oh, so both sides have been directly communicating with tabloids, and the tabloids are not choosing sides. They're like, we'll take whatever from whoever.

[Natalie]

Right. I was gonna say, because Brooklyn and Nicola appear to have sent info or corresponded with the press too. Right?

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah.

[Narrator]

Yeah, they all are.

[Lindsay Weber]

Everyone is. They all are. So much of this wasn't just tabloids making stuff up. They were putting the pieces together and writing around it, but not just fully making shit up.

[Vanessa]

Like they were saying, yeah, they all had their iPhones out and were texting in and talking to like these different reporters on the sly. Yeah, this was like an act family feud that played out through the tabloids.

[Natalie]

The Beckhams had been famous for a really long time. And maybe you only get to be that famous for that long by being that controlling and awful and talking to the press that much and managing your image that much. And likewise, on the Other hand, maybe you only get to be a billionaire by fighting over $150,000 wedding deposits.

[Vanessa]

And also the biggest thing is that the beckhams are such 90s figures that they. They still care about what's in the tabloids.

[Lindsay Weber]

They really do. Nobody cares as much.

[Vanessa]

They really do anymore.

[Lindsay Weber]

And people are reading it, though. People are obsessed with this story. They're clicking. It's crazy to have this situation where both sides could be wrong or both sides have an issue where it's like, Victoria Beckham is a strict and overpowering influence in her son's life, and Nicola Peltz is maybe a strict and overpowering new presence in her husband's life, and they just do not get along. And they have different interests for this. This boy. I'm giving them both power over him. Sorry. Like, I just believe that he is at the mercy of these women, which is. Makes sense to me as far as I know how men are. And like. But it's not like them, one versus the other, where one is bad and one is good. It's like both are power blocks, you know, stars.

[Natalie]

They're just like us. So, you know, I just want to end by reading David Beckett response.

[Lindsay Weber]

Maybe he's the only one that can save this family.

[Vanessa]

It's true. Soccer balls and the family. He can save them all.

[Natalie]

Exactly. This is via CNBC's Squirt Box Quote. Children are allowed to make mistakes. That's how they learn. So that's what I try to teach my kids. But, you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well.

[Vanessa]

So, I mean, profound. It is. It is profound.

[Natalie]

That's that. All right, Lindsay, thank you so much, much for coming on. Will you tell people where they can find you?

[Lindsay Weber]

Sure. More of this at who Weekly, which is a podcast that you can find where you find your podcasts.

[Natalie]

Wow. Twice a week.

[Lindsay Weber]

Yeah.

[Vanessa]

Oh, my God. Thank you.

[Lindsay Weber]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Natalie]

So that was our conversation with Lindsay Weber. And I know this topic is a little bit more tabloidy than we normally kind of COVID but we wanted to talk about it because it hits on something that has been in the news and in the zeitgeist, I would say, for the last year or so, increasingly. And that is this topic of family estrangement and people going no contact with their parents. The New Yorker did this big story in 2024 titled, why so Many People are Going no contact with their Parents. Parents. And in that article they write, in recent years, advocates for the estranged have begun a concerted effort to normalize it. Getting rid of the stigma, they argue, will allow more people to get out of unhealthy family relationships without shame. There's relatively little data on the subject, but some psychologists cite anecdotal evidence that an increasing number of young people are cutting out their parents. Others think that we're simply becoming more transparent. Transparent about it. And that certainly seems to be the case for the Beckons. I mean, they reportedly only speak through lawyers now. Family estrangement, of course, is a taboo topic. I mean, there are people who feel that you should be in touch with your parents no matter what. And then there's other people, like somebody who was quoted in the New York article who founded a non profit estrangement group called Standalone, who said that it can be much helpful, healthier for people to have a life beyond their family relationships and find a new sense of family with friends or peers. So whichever way you land on this issue, if you want to read more about the topic, we recommend the book the Power of Parting by Eamon Dolan, a book that talks about family estrangement as an empowering and often necessary choice. All right, we'll see you next week. Sam.