Best of Brattish: How Brooklyn Beckham became the ultimate nepo baby

Little did any of us know that in a week of global political instability, an impending AI employment apocalypse and catastrophic fires raging across Southern Europe that all we need is love. Thank God we have Brooklyn Beckham to remind us. After all, it’s been a whole three years since his first wedding to Nicola Peltz, described by Vogue as “the stuff that modern fairy tales are made of” – a three-day Palm Beach extravaganza complete with A-list guests and a reputed $3m price tag.

But memories are short these days. And none more so apparently than that of the happy couple themselves, who seemingly needed to remind each other and us – repeatedly – of just how committed they are to each other. And their love. This time, courtesy of a vow renewal earlier this month – plus a series of just-released images intimately shared with their 19 million Instagram followers.

“This day meant so much to us,” Peltz declared.

“Forever my girl,” Brooklyn incisively ruminated.

Kudos to the couple, however, for stripping their latest celebration back to the basics. In 2022, there were 500 guests, Valentino couture and legal action against two of the event’s four planners. This time, they economised. Just a couple of hundred guests, Peltz’s octogenarian billionaire dad officiating, and the bride wearing her mother’s repurposed dress. What miserly soul could begrudge this pair another low-key opportunity to celebrate?

Well. A significant part of social media, for a start.

“Just a bunch of rich kids wondering what to do with their parents’ money and excessive free time,” commented one user.

“Spoiled entitled brat!” declared another.

In the ongoing debate about the politics of privilege, inheritocracy and the 1 per cent, even the groom’s parents – not exactly known for their parsimony given their penchant for gold wedding thrones – recoiled.

“It seems like quite a gratuitous display of obscene wealth,” a source close to the family told one newspaper. As tone deaf nepo baby power moves go, this one is a doozy.

The top line is that it appears to be the latest skirmish attack in the ongoing alleged feud raging between Brand Family Beckham and Brand Beckham Peltz. After years of speculation about tensions between Brooklyn, his bride and the rest of the Beckham fraternity, it’s unlikely their eldest child would have failed to grasp the storm the pictures – and his family’s notable absence in them – would create. No David. No Victoria. No Romeo, Cruz or Harper either. Just Brooklyn, his wife, her parents and a series of ecstatic-looking friends.

But as political and financial tensions rage worldwide, Brooklyn Beckham has proved yet again that in the rarified ether of nepo baby ultimate privilege, the only metric worth consideration is the attention economy. He has become the poster boy for knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, happily monetising his life with commercial deals with companies eager to partner with the offspring of one of the world’s most recognisable family brands – despite him reportedly wanting nothing to do with his said family.

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At just 26, Brooklyn has promoted companies selling everything from smartphones and cars to jeans and sustainable fashion. The latest saw him and Nicola partner with luxury brand Moncler earlier this year for a campaign called “London: A Love Affair” – an interesting choice given that he didn’t love London enough to stay in the city for his father’s 50th birthday bash despite jetting in just a few days before it.

Arguably, the senior Beckhams must surely be questioning themselves as they watch their son’s life march on from the sidelines. They have, over the years, consistently involved him and their other children in building an image that’s core to an empire worth a reported £500m.

But, on the other hand, it wasn’t handed to them.

Talent, tenacity and hard work can be added to the mix of their masterful manipulation of the media. By the time they were Brooklyn’s age – 26 – Victoria had achieved global fame as part of the best-selling female group of all time, and David had garnered the treble and Uefa Champions League with Manchester United, plus 39 England caps. Neither of them started out wealthy or connected and both put in the hard yards on the path to success.

But despite all his economic advantages, or maybe because of them, Brooklyn’s work ethic seems confused to say the least.

It’s not a question of a lack of ambition. Such is Brooklyn’s pursuit of professional excellence, he’s already segued between an impressive four careers in just over a decade. First came the teenage stint at the Arsenal Academy before modelling at 15, pivoting aged 16 behind the camera to shoot a campaign for Burberry, much to the ire of fashion photographers who labelled it as everything from “a bit of an injustice” to “sheer nepotism”.

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Brushing off the criticism, Brooklyn decided to actually train in photography and enrolled for a degree at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York. But even dropping out in the first year didn’t prove to be a barrier and his first book of photography was published. Some critics lambasted it, others defended it. Meanwhile, the public reaction was often characterised by confusion about pictures that included the blacked-out shape of an elephant taken against the light with the caption “so hard to photograph”.

His latest professional iteration as a chef launched in 2021 with the imaginatively titled Cookin’ with Brooklyn – an 8-part YouTube series that cost a reported $100,000 an episode and started with baby Beckham declaring, “I’m not a chef. Yet.”

Don’t sweat it, Brooklyn. A lack of training didn’t hold back your photography career, so why not cheffing?

The series lasted eight episodes, but ever undaunted, Brooklyn has continued to post food content that pushes the boundaries of accepted culinary science. In the past week alone, he’s been lambasted by Italian chef Aldo Zilli, who declared that he “maybe needs a masterclass” after adding burnt bacon lardons to his carbonara recipe, and royal chef Darren McGrady, who said Italians would be “horrified” by his decision to cook pasta in seawater. Presumably, Brooklyn has access to pristine seas, rather than the 61 per cent of US beaches that had potentially unsafe contamination levels in 2024.

Thankfully, however, the aspiring chef doesn’t let the negativity get him down.

“I’m used to the hate,” he told Business Insider in 2023 as he launched his latest partnership with kitchen appliance company Typhur. “It doesn’t really bother me.”

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And why should it when Brooklyn appears to be revelling in the fact he’s jumped ship to another family – one much wealthier than his own. Quite literally, in the case of this summer’s holidays, where he vacationed on the superyacht Project X with Nicola’s parents. This lavish vessel is estimated at around £85m and rents for approximately £1.2m per week, while just days later, the rest of the Beckham clan arrived in the same area – Saint-Tropez – but aboard their notably smaller yacht, Seven, valued at a mere £16m

But on he goes, his lack of self-awareness hitting the stratosphere and to hell with the consequences. A recent naked picture of his wife in the bath – posted with a series of pictures of the happy couple on the yacht and annotated by Brooklyn’s illuminating comment “I took the photo in the bath” – provoked reactions ranging from “generational wealth looks fun” and “what do they do for a living again?”

But fear not. These days, Brooklyn is staying true to his unique mix of commerce, content and culinary dreams. Last October, he launched Cloud23 hot sauces (which his parents dutifully turned up for to guarantee publicity for their son’s endeavour). The good bit? Food critics seemed to like them. The downside? They cost £15 a bottle compared to the far more wallet-friendly three quid Ed Sheeran’s asking for his Tingly Ted’s.

But perhaps this is exactly the point we’re all missing. Brooklyn is aiming to connect with the masses, not necessarily to those whom he’s flogging his hot sauce to. He’s all about the 1 per cent, the attention economy – and love, remember. Just maybe not for his famous parents who he has conveniently forgotten were the ones who made him in every way.