BROOKLYN “Buster” Beckham has hero-worshipped his dad since the day he was born.
His first ever tattoo, eight years ago, was dedicated to Becks, and just six months ago the aspiring chef excitedly launched his Cloud 23 condiment range – a nod to his talented father’s Real Madrid shirt number.
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A lot, then, can happen in half a year.
Today the once seemingly unbreakable father/son bond has been smashed to smithereens. And with it, David’s heart.
As a showbiz reporter covering the Beckhams for 20 years, I know first-hand how much this rift is hurting a devoted family man: a chap who would readily trade in every medal and trophy for the health and happiness of his inner circle.
About six years ago, I wrote a story about David explaining some of the unpleasant online rumours circulating to the then 20-year-old Brooklyn.
David was FURIOUS. How DARE I drag his son into this?
His former publicist rang me one Sunday, sounding equally furious.
I was on a train to Bath, and he told me: “David is very, very angry.
“I’ve not really heard him like this before.
“He’s asked for your telephone number and wants to call you now, and give you a piece of his mind.
“I’m trying to persuade him not to but he seems pretty adamant.”
It’s fair to say I was bricking it; not aided by a series of tunnels from Paddington to Bath meaning I kept losing signal and Wi-Fi.
The call never came.
David, apparently, had calmed down. (Or Britain’s pathetic rail service saved me; we shall never know).
But in a world of media advisers and social media, I was impressed.
He clearly cared, and was absolutely resolute in defence of his family.
It was the reaction of a truly loving, loyal, passionate dad.
We would all want a David Beckham in our corner in that situation.
In the intervening years, we completely and utterly patched things up.
David has gone on to do wonderfully kind things with The Sun’s Who Cares Wins teams, selflessly giving up him time to make a legion of kids’ dreams come true.
He has been a joy to work with, looks and smells incredible, and for the past two years I’ve received Christmas cards from him and the dogs.
After helping me with a charity campaign – he and middle son Romeo, another wonderfully polite, endearingly shy boy – helped coach an incredible young Down’s Syndrome football team called the Penguins, he sent me a huge bunch of beautiful flowers to say thank you. (Romeo quietly went on to become an Ambassador, a move he did off his own back.)
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David and his kids are as kind as they are generous, and old-school thoughtful.
I have genuinely never met someone with a bad word to stay against any of them.
Which perhaps explains why pals are laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of Brooklyn’s glamorous American wife, Nicola Peltz, for this latest feud.
I mean, doesn’t the woman always get the blame…?
Fiercely ambitious – no bad thing – she wants to be one half of an influencing power couple.
And by its very definition, a “couple” means two people – there isn’t room for David and Victoria and co.
To her credit, she has never sponged financially off her in-laws – indeed, her parents are the real fiscal powerhouses, and billionaires – but it’s clear infatuated Brooklyn is choosing his wife over his parents.
As many young men do.
I mean, look at Prince Harry…
Hopefully this is a rift that will mend – but for now, it’s a hammer to the heart of the Beckhams’ greatest patriarch.
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