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What started out as a fairytale romance between Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham has quickly become the root of one of pop culture’s most public family feuds.
As tensions among the family continue to rise after Brooklyn’s social media claims against his parents, all eyes are back on Peltz — the Hollywood actress and billionaire heiress whose private ways have rapidly been made public.
Here’s everything you need to know about Peltz.
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Nicola Peltz’s past has been pushed into the spotlight as the Beckham family rift continues. (Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
She’s the heiress of a billionaire
Peltz is the daughter of Nelson Peltz, a billionaire investor, and Claudia Heffner Peltz, a former supermodel. The couple share seven other children, including Will, Brad, Brittany, Matthew, Diesel, and Zachary, and Gregory. Nelson is also father to two children from his previous marriage to Cynthia Abrams.
Peltz has opened up about her parents’ “beautiful” relationship.
“My parents have been together more than 40 years, and they always make fun of each other,” she said during an interview with Cosmopolitan in 2023.
Nicola Peltz is the heiress of billionaire, Nelson Peltz. (Nicola Peltz Instagram)
“My dad is just so cute,” she added. “When my mom leaves the room, he’s always just like, ’She’s so beautiful.’ They still act like young kids in love. Literally, they’re always making out, to the point where my brother’s like, ‘I’m closing my eyes. Stop making out.’ They’re so in love, and being able to grow up with that is so beautiful. I would never settle for anything other than that. Brooklyn and I are always on each other’s laps. Anytime we walk around, we’re holding hands.”
How she got her start in Hollywood
Peltz got her kickstart onscreen at an early age. But it wasn’t always smooth-sailing.
During an interview with Coveteur in September 2019, Peltz said she had to convince her parents to let her pursue acting.
“I grew up playing ice hockey, and my dad really wanted me to focus on playing ice hockey, he thought it was so cool. I was center-right and right-wing,” she said. “Then, when I was 11 years old, I asked my mom if I could try acting — it started because I loved my drama class. My parents were very against it [at first]. They didn’t get it.”
“We lived an hour away from Manhattan, and I convinced my mom to bring me to one manager,” she continued. “She was like, ‘Listen, if they take you, great. If they don’t, do not bring it up to me until you’re 18 years old.’ So I begged the woman to take me. I think she just felt so bad for me that she took me on as a client. My first audition, I ended up booking, and it was a play at the Manhattan Theatre Club called ‘Blackbird.’”
The actress, who starred in “The Last Airbender” in 2010, had to convince her parents to let her pursue acting. (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)
She later told Grazia, “I think my parents saw how much I really, really enjoyed it, how much I loved it, and how hard I worked at it, and that’s all they really care about. Now, they’re really supportive.”
She made her film debut as Mackenzie in the Christmas comedy “Deck the Halls” in 2006. She later went on to star in films such as “The Last Airbender” in 2010, “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in 2014, and a handful of others. Peltz released her feature film directorial debut, “Lola,” in 2024.
Her whirlwind romance with Brooklyn
The couple were first linked in 2019 after being introduced through mutual friends, and their relationship moved quickly into the public eye.
After getting engaged in July 2020, the couple tied the knot on April 9, 2022, at the Peltz family’s oceanfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in a traditional ceremony attended by 500 guests, including celebrities like Serena and Venus Williams, Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria.
The couple met in 2019, and tied the knot in 2022. (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vogue)
“We took a quick drive, just the two of us. It was perfect,” Brooklyn told Glamour of the moment they shared before walking down the aisle.
“Weddings can be intense, especially when you’re busy making sure everyone else is having fun. That little break reminded us what it’s really about: us,” Peltz added.
The lavish wedding, however, seemingly became the start of an ongoing family rift that would linger for years.
Beckham family rift
After years of rumored tension among the family members, Brooklyn confirmed the rift by posting scathing claims about his parents on social media.
“I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private,” Brooklyn 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. 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.”
The 26-year-old alleged that his parents had been trying to sabotage his relationship with Peltz long before their wedding.
The Beckham family tension was rumored to have started around the time of Brooklyn and Nicola’s wedding in 2022. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
“My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped,” he wrote. “My mum canceled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh 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.”
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Brooklyn said he has received “endless attacks” from his parents, both publicly and privately, before detailing the embarrassing moment his mom “hijacked” his first dance with Peltz at their wedding.
“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song,” he claimed. “In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum 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 in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.”
David and Victoria Beckham were noticeably absent at their son Brooklyn and daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz Beckham’s wedding vow renewal ceremony in 2024. (Justin Goff Photos/Getty Images; Steve Granitz/Getty Images)
Since Brooklyn’s social media rant on Monday, younger brother Cruz has stayed active on Instagram while promoting his upcoming U.K. concert, but hasn’t directly responded to his brother’s claims. In a post shared to his Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Cruz thanked his fans for selling out his show and noted that he may be adding more dates. However, he accompanied the post with a popular Spice Girls song, “Who Do you Think You Are” — a song about how someone can lose themselves and get trapped in the glitz and glam of fame.
The lyrics read, “The race is on to get out of the bottom / The top is high so your roots are forgotten / Giving is good, as long you’re getting / What’s driving you is ambition I’m betting / Who do you think you are? / Who, some kind of superstar?”
While not directly calling out his brother, Cruz’s song choice hints at where he might stand and where his loyalties lie.
Criticism and friendship fallouts
Peltz and Brooklyn used to be extremely close to Selena Gomez up until recently. Though the three were often photographed together – and Gomez once said, “Fine calls [sic] us a throuple” – the friendship seemed to sizzle circa 2024.
A source told The Sun that Gomez felt “betrayed” for being cut off from the couple.
“There is no love left between the throuple, this trio is an old story,” the source said. “Selena really understands how his [Brooklyn’s] parents feel, she just doesn’t get how they [Brooklyn and Nicola] could be so cruel.”
However, a source refuted the report, telling People: “Relationships evolve, and it’s true they’re not as close as they once were, but there wasn’t any one thing that happened.”
Nicola Peltz and Selena Gomez were once close friends before their fallout circa 2024. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Celebrity hairstylist Justin Anderson, who once worked with Peltz, took to his Instagram to share his own experience working with the “not nice” 31-year-old actress and revealed why he thought the marriage wouldn’t be good for the Beckham family.
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“I’ve worked with her,” he said on his Instagram story. “Not nice. Not nice. I can say with my full chest, not good energy, bad news bears. And then, yeah, based on how many wedding planners she went through, I think she’s the issue.”
“I mean, Google her. Google her. Go into Reddit, go into the dark corners of Reddit and read a little bit about her. Not a good person. So, I perked up right when I saw that they were getting married.
Nicola’s reps could not be reached for comment.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this isn’t going to be good for that family. It’s not going to be good for that family.’ Spooky energy, very spooky energy. I don’t even feel bad saying that because when someone’s just so not nice, it always comes out. You can’t hide that. So, yeah, I do. I feel really bad for [the Beckham family]. I do. And I put my foot in my mouth when I talked about her years ago.”
A source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital: “He worked with her over ten years ago, bleached and burned her hair to the point it was in the sink. He was fired by the studio. They had to promptly hire someone else to do her hair for the ‘Transformers’ press tour.”
Peltz was once accused of being a “monster” by a former hairstylist. (Getty Images)
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Peltz’s ex-boyfriend’s sister Alana Hadid also gave her two cents on the Beckham family drama.
After photographer Eli Rezkallah commented about Brooklyn’s post, saying, “Ending an eight paragraph rant about his family’s dirty laundry with ‘all we want is privacy’ is all I need to know,” Alana — whose brother Anwar Hadid dated Peltz from 2016 to 2018 — said, “Right and that girl doesn’t want privacy she’s been trying to be famous for a decade.”
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Philanthropy
Nicola was honored by PETA as a “Pawsome Adoption Advocate” in 2022 for her work in promoting pet adoption and fostering animals.
During his social media rant on Monday, Brooklyn accused his mom, Victoria, of refusing to help support Peltz’s efforts in re-homing displaced dogs during the LA wildfires.
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“The one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused,” Brooklyn wrote.
The couple reportedly raised nearly $60,000 during their relief efforts.