Paris Fashion Week is one of the most prestigious events in the showbiz calendar, where celebrities and fashionistas from all corners of the globe flock to the French capital. And last Friday marked a long-time-coming career milestone for Victoria Beckham, as the designer unveiled her S/S23 collection at her debut show in Paris, held at the 17th-century church and monastery of Val-de-Grâce.
But milestone achievements aside, what we all really wanted to know was: would eldest son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz turn up to support her, amid the ongoing very public family feud?
The couple were already in Paris to attend events at Fashion Week, and thankfully for Posh, they chose to accept their invite to her show. However, the newlyweds arrived separately from the rest of the Beckham family, with David, 47, Romeo, 20, Cruz, 17, Cruz’s girlfriend, and 11-year-old daughter Harper all there early to support Posh before the show started. The Peltz-Beckhams were seen hugging the rest of the clan as they met for the first time on the Frow, just minutes before the models took to the floor – signalling an uneasy truce for now.
“It’s been a tough week for Victoria, wondering if Nicola and Brooklyn would show up or publicly snub her, but she’s delighted they were there. At the start of all this, she felt frustrated and furious with Nicola, but she’s done with letting her dictate the narrative, and has decided to play her at her own game by making sure she uses all the publicity from it to her advantage.”
Twenty-three-year-old Brooklyn married American actress Nicola, 27, in April, and while relations appeared rosy on the big day, rumours began to circulate not long after about a rift between Victoria and her new daughter-in-law, thanks to claims that the bride opted for a Valentino wedding gown rather than one designed by Vic. The social media relationship between the women also appeared to turn frosty, as fans noticed their regular gushy interactions had become a thing of the past.
Speculation of tension mounted further when Victoria referred to her son and daughter-in-law as “Mr and Mrs Beckham” after the wedding, despite them choosing to double-barrel with “Peltz-Beckham”. Nicola also failed to include her in-laws in any Instagram galleries of the nuptials.
With relations still difficult between Posh and Nicola, we’re told that Victoria’s priority remains Brand Beckham, and no amount of drama could threaten that.
“The way Vic is trying to see it, is that it’s all free publicity for her brand,” our insider says. “That’s definitely helped her stay zen and not lose it. She’s approaching it all with a straight head. She knows all the speculation helped make her Paris show one of the biggest events of Fashion Week – so she’s saying, ‘Merci, Nicola!’ She’s told her team to make the most of all the extra attention and to push the products out there, and look for collaborations and deals, because this is a golden opportunity. Nicola is no match for Vic when she’s got her business head on.”
In a recent interview, Nicola – who is based in Miami with Brooklyn – added fuel to the fire when she appeared to accuse Victoria of withdrawing from an agreement to make her gown for the wedding.
“I was planning on wearing Victoria’s wedding dress and I was truly so excited to be able to wear a design that my future mother-in-law created. I thought that was so beautiful and such a beautiful story,” said Nicola, whose close friend Leslie Fremar and mother Claudia were also helping design the dress. She added, “I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be so fun. One of my best friends and my mum.’ We connected to start designing the dress, and then a few days went by and I didn’t hear anything. Victoria called my mum and said her atelier couldn’t make it.”
Nicola added that it was a “bummer” people thought she never intended to wear Victoria’s dress and that such a perception “hurt her feelings”.
Rushing to his wife’s defence and touching on headlines about his family, Brooklyn said that Nicola is “obviously my first priority” and he “never wants to see her upset”.
In the wake of Nicola’s interview, David is said to have read the riot act to his eldest son, reportedly telling him, “We don’t do that in this family.” According to sources, he also warned Brooklyn that whatever he does next is up to him, but “we are done with the drama”.
Earlier this month, heat reported that Victoria had been in tears over the shattered family dynamic, and had been leaving Brooklyn messages about how much she loved and missed him. And now, we’re told, she is desperate to regain their close bond.
“Vic messaged Brooklyn to say she would love to see him and Nicola at the show, as all the rest of the family and inner circle would be attending,” our insider says. “She knew everyone else there would all have her back, so Paris was a good opportunity to hopefully give Brooklyn and Nicola a wake-up call. She doesn’t feel things can ever be the same between them again – and she can’t truly forgive Nicola – but she desperately wants her son back.”
The young couple, who started dating in October 2019, were keen to soak up all Paris had to offer during Fashion Week. Not only were they spotted at a series of shows, they also enjoyed being typical tourists, stopping for an obligatory photo in front of the Eiffel Tower, and heading out for romantic dinners.
And heat has been told there may have been an ulterior motive for this trip. “They tried to attend every event they could at Fashion Week and it definitely raised a few eyebrows, as they seemed to be doing it off the back of all the drama. Neither of them are regulars at the shows or are linked to any of the big fashion houses. Everyone knows they were just there to work the ‘hot new couple’ angle – in order to get leverage and maybe strike a deal to be the face of one of the elite brands,” our insider says.
In July, Brooklyn was dropped from his £1million Superdry contract after less than a year, leaving Victoria, reportedly feeling “frustrated” with her son. But, according to our sources, Nicola is determined that she and Brooklyn cement themselves as a power couple – in the same category as the likes of Hailey and Justin Bieber – and Paris was a good way to boost their personal brand.
Our insider says, “Justin and Hailey are the ‘super-couple’ in demand at the moment. They are the ones who set the trends and who everyone is falling over themselves to get. That’s what Nicola wants, and she believes this feud with her mother-in-law will give her that platform. But while Brooklyn is on board with her ambitions and vision for their future, he wishes it didn’t have to involve trashing his family and mum so much. He was brought up to never air family stuff in public – that was drilled in to him from an early age. He’s getting really uncomfortable with how much Nicola is divulging, as he really doesn’t want her to cross any lines.”