What's going on with the Beckhams?

David Beckham turned 50 in "glittering fashion" last week, with a star-studded birthday party in London's Notting Hill, said Marianka Swain in The Telegraph. "But it seems there was a ghost at Goldenballs' sumptuous feast. Or, rather, there were two."

The former England football captain's eldest son, Brooklyn, and his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham, were notably absent from the celebrations, adding to long-running speculation of a feud at the heart of the Beckhams' apparently "close-knit" family.

'It's not a feud!'

The first murmurs of "trouble in paradise" emerged after Brooklyn's lavish wedding to Nicola in 2022, said Maddy Mussen in London's The Standard. During the three-day Palm Beach celebration, Nicola wore three different gowns – none of them created by "esteemed" fashion designer Victoria Beckham, a decision that allegedly "bristled" the bride's new mother-in-law.

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Nicola did tackle the "dress feud" rumours in an interview with The Sunday Times later that year: "It's not a feud! I keep seeing everywhere that word, 'feud, feud, feud'!". The newlywed aspiring actor and heiress also told Variety that she was going to wear a Victoria Beckham wedding gown, "and I really wanted to, and then, a few months down the line, she realised that her atelier couldn't do it, so then I had to pick another dress".

But there was more than just dress drama on that wedding day, run the rumours. Eyebrows were raised when none of wedding pics Nicola posted on Instagram featured a single relative on Brooklyn's side. And bridal umbrage was apparently taken when "Victoria's close friend, singer Marc Anthony, gave a gushing speech – all about Victoria", said The Sunday Times.

'Last-ditch attempt'

Prior to the wedding, Victoria and Nicola had previously liked each other's Instagram posts "on a regular basis". There were a few "mutually appreciative" post-nuptial comments, said The Telegraph, but it's been "eerily quiet" since then.

Brooklyn's absence from last week's party was "all the more eyebrow-raising", given that the couple were apparently in the UK at the time, having flown in from their home in LA. And Victoria made no mention of her oldest son in an Instagram post last Wednesday, which featured photos of the entire family – with the notable exception of Brooklyn – at the Beckhams' Cotswolds mansion.

At the weekend, in what the Daily Mail said was perhaps a "father's last-ditch attempt to reach out to his beloved son", David posted a throwback photo of himself with Brooklyn as a young boy, with the "simple, heartfelt caption: '@brooklynbeckham I love you'".

'Stiff upper lips'

This whole saga is "playing out" much like another "British-family-meets-American-wife drama: The Sussexes", said Suzanne Duckett in London's The Standard. Like Meghan Markle, Nicola is a "glamorous", "outspoken" American woman who has married into a "high-profile British clan" and been "framed as the wedge between a beloved son and his heritage".

British families are built on a foundation of "stiff upper lips" and "silent sulking" that baffles "therapy-forward, emotionally articulate" Americans. Add to the mix fame, egos and "billion-dollar expectations", and you have a "transatlantic mini-series begging to be commissioned".

Like any parent-child estrangement, reconciliation hinges on both parties "re-engaging as equal adults", relationship counsellor Nicola Saunders told The Guardian. "With respect, boundaries and trust, you have to treat them like bone china – because if any of them are broken, then the relationship falls down again."