You’d never believe this pair, floating down a river in France like a couple of teenagers, were actually a pair of forty-somethings who’ve been married for 24 years. David and Victoria Beckham looked more in love than ever last week, taking a trip on a rowboat as they attended the Jacquemus Le Chouchou fashion show on a romantic getaway in Versailles.
Designer Victoria later called it a “special day” – but behind the loved-up scenes, insiders tell heat things haven’t been quite so idyllic, as tensions bubble away over their daughter Harper’s future.
It all kicked off last week when the former England captain shared a video titled “Burrito Saturday”. In it, David, 48, and his “little helper” Harper were seen cooking chicken and preparing salsa in their £50k outdoor kitchen at their Cotswold home. Harper jokingly salsa danced for David’s 80million followers, while her dad laughed in the background. But while Victoria is happy to share family photos – including one last week of her, Harper and David enjoying dinner, which VB captioned, “J’adore @davidbeckham #HarperSeven” – friends say videos like this are different.
An insider close to the couple, who married in 1999, and are also parents to Brooklyn, 24, Romeo, 20, and Cruz, 18, tells us, “Vic knows celebrity kids are a hot trend right now – she’s aware Kim Kardashian has a TikTok account with North – but she’s concerned Harper isn’t quite ready for it. Vic suffered from a lot of insecurities growing up and she doesn’t think she could’ve handled this level of attention at that age. She wants them to be cautious.”
But our source says David sees things differently. “David thinks Harper is a little star and loves seeing her come to life when she’s in front of the camera,” we’re told. “He sees a really bright future ahead of her in the spotlight and knows she absolutely loves showing off, so sees no harm in encouraging it. As far as David sees it, Harper can do no wrong and there’s nothing bad about putting her talents out there for everyone to see. David blocks out all the negative trolls and doesn’t give them air time.”
Another issue, says our source, is that Vic is upset because she feels like, “David’s encouraging Harper to follow in Brooklyn’s footsteps when it comes to cooking”. The couple’s eldest son recently launched himself as a food influencer, after various other stalled career attempts. He previously tried his hand at football, modelling, and photography. He even released a widely-mocked book of photos in 2017 entitled What I See, including one much-memed shot of a blurry elephant shadow, captioned, “Elephants in Kenya, so hard to photograph, but incredible to see.” But even his cooking show on YouTube has been subject to mockery from followers, with his online series Cookin’ With Brooklyn reportedly requiring a 62-person crew, at a cost of $100,000 per episode, all to make culinary masterpieces such as a sandwich.
As heat has previously reported, the former Spice Girl is keen for her daughter to follow in her fashion footsteps, but worries Harper could face the same kind of mockery Brooklyn’s dealt with.
Our source says, “Harper’s been begging her parents to be able to do more tutorials and videos online to build her fanbase, just like her big brother. But she has no idea of the backlash Brooklyn has faced. Vic thinks it’s bad enough that Brooklyn has to face all this ridicule, but at least he’s an adult. She says Harper is far too young to be in the firing line and worries what it could do to her confidence or her relationship with friends at school. Kids can be cruel and Vic knows all it could take is one mean comment for Harper’s confidence to be knocked.”
The source continues, “David thinks everything Harper does is great and doesn’t see the problem with sharing that, but Vic is a bit more sensible. She feels that some achievements should be kept between the family – at least until Harper’s a bit older and can defend herself against any hateful comments.”
