The youngest Beckham boy, Cruz, is a fun-loving and ambitious soul and it seems nothing – not even a painful family feud – will stop the party.
On Thursday night, 250 posters featuring an eye-popping view of his crotch in navy ‘budgie smugglers’ were pasted up around London.
They were accompanied by slogans that bordered on the obscene.
‘Cruz Beckham is coming – are you?’ screamed one.
As ever with the Beckhams, there was something to sell – in this case the aspiring singer’s forthcoming single, For Your Love, which comes out this Friday.
To plug it, the whole family – including grandparents and cousins – have been pressed in to service.
No time to cry over the Beckham’s oldest, Brooklyn, and his extraordinary public assertion that he doesn’t want to reconcile with parents David, 50, and Victoria, 51.
Instead, it’s now all about Cruz, 20, and helping him to launch his career.
Now the Beckhams have turned to their youngest son Cruz (right) to launch his career amid their ongoing feud with their eldest son Brooklyn
Brooklyn Beckham and his wife Nicola Peltz are rumoured to be considering adoption or surrogacy
Heck, former Spice Girl Victoria even roped in Mel C, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell to sing around her dining room table while Cruz strummed his guitar on Instagram this week.
There is nothing she could do which would be more impactful than to reunite the Spice Girls, the most successful female band in pop history, in the service of her novice son with his beginner’s moustache.
Middle son Romeo, 23, commented underneath: ‘Sounds like they’ve done something like this before’, to which Cruz responded: ‘They kinda sound like Little Mix, no?’
Victoria instantly shot back: ‘I love you all.’
So that’s the Beckhams back in business. It all reminds you of Brooklyn’s complaints in the bombshell statement he released two weeks ago about ‘Brand Beckham coming first’, and ‘family love’ being decided by ‘how much you post on social media’.
Amid rumours he and Nicola may be about to adopt, he might now be feeling rather vindicated by the way his family have chosen to move forward.
His father-in-law Nelson Peltz this week shared his advice to his family amid the current furore had been: ‘Stay the hell out of the Press.’
What a contrast to the Beckhams. One online commentator observed: ‘As Brooklyn said, everything is done for publicity and a money making machine and this once again proves it.’
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Cruz is said to be his father’s son in that he appears to share that hot temper which David complains he inherited from his dad, Ted, a retired gas fitter from East London
Another opined: ‘[Victoria] just has to rule her social media footprint and boost her legitimacy for a new generation. What Brooklyn said is correct. The family are obsessed with self-importance in the media.’
The Beckhams naturally don’t see it that way. So how are they feeling?
A family friend told me at the start of this week that Victoria was already ‘bouncing back’ and was in fact in a ‘very positive frame of mind’ – something which I found hard to credit, but judging from all the social media activity, might just be true.
‘The feeling is that people are on their side and that has been comforting to them,’ said the friend.
‘Most people accept – they think – that Brooklyn has been cruel. Most people are on Team Beckham not Team Brooklyn. Victoria does care about opinion.’
She also cares – a lot – about being a success and it is peculiar but true that their personal crisis has been good for business. Her long-forgotten solo single Not Such An Innocent Girl briefly raced to No 1 after the Brooklyn statement.
Her make-up brand, too, enjoyed a huge surge in sales, in particular her foundation which retails for an eye-watering £104.
Meanwhile, her Alina Jeans – worn in her Netflix documentary – have also been flying off the shelves, particularly in the US.
On Thursday night, 250 posters featuring an eye-popping view of his crotch in navy ‘budgie smugglers’ were pasted up around London.
Not that it’s been an easy time. Lady Beckham will have needed all her reserves of sang froid to cope with the eruption which followed Brooklyn’s Instagram outburst on January 19, in which he said he had been left ‘humiliated’ after she ‘danced on’ him ‘inappropriately’ at his wedding to Nicola Peltz in 2022.
And David will have been greatly saddened to discover that his son had inked over his ‘Dad’ arm tattoo.
That’s not the only tattoo to be amended or erased and it seems Brooklyn is going to go about editing his family off his body – quite a task when you have more than 100 tattoos.
But, for sensitive Brooklyn, this step was necessary. ‘There is so much hurt and pain on his side, it would not be genuine to keep such a tribute on his body,’ says a source.
The view from Brooklyn’s side is that it wasn’t intended as a public insult. But how could it land otherwise with his parents?
However, things are not at quite such an acute pitch as you might imagine.
It is easy to forget that the Beckham family have known and grasped the depth of the schism for months, even though the wider world has only had it confirmed for a matter of weeks.
Brooklyn sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the Beckhams’ lawyer, asking for there to be no contact in any form, including on social media, last July.
It is easy to forget that the Beckham family have known and grasped the depth of the schism for months, even though the wider world has only had it confirmed for a matter of weeks.
It was only revealed last month in my Friday column in this paper. That said, there is still upset.
Sources indicate that the past few weeks have been very hard on Victoria’s parents, Tony and Jackie, in particular.
It emerged last month that while he had cut off contact with his immediate family, Brooklyn had still been sending texts for occasions like Christmas and birthdays to his grandparents – Jackie and Tony and David’s parents Ted and Sandra.
However, it can be revealed that he has now gone ‘no contact’ with Tony and Jackie, too, and they fear that the family feud may never now be mended.
They believe that his in-laws, the Peltzes, have dazzled and ‘bought’ him with their fortune.
My source says: ‘They are devastated and the little bit of contact they had before he made the statement has stopped. That seems to be it now.
‘The view is that if the Peltzes had no money, he wouldn’t have done this, but Brooklyn has jumped from a pot of gold into a swimming pool of gold.’
His grandparents noted some American phrasing in that 1,200-word statement and fear that Brooklyn may have been encouraged to blame his parents for his anxiety issues by American therapists.
Cruz – whose girlfriend, music producer Jackie Apostel, 30, has nurtured his musical ambitions – is putting the Beckham family in the spotlight once again as he launches his career
They note that he always seemed happy to be pictured and to line up for family events before he met and married Nicola.
But Brooklyn’s friends say that talk of therapy is ‘rubbish’ and that the idea that he has been ‘bought’ by the Peltzes is just inaccurate and insulting.
The position for Brooklyn and Nicola remains that his parents have deeply hurt them both by refusing to accept the marriage and by their behaviour to the young couple over a long period characterised as ‘controlling’.
It can be revealed that Brooklyn feels aspects of the way he was raised were ‘not ideal’ and that he wasn’t helped with some elements of his life as a young man, and as a result is prey to anxiety.
As he said in his statement, going ‘no contact’ has brought him peace.
As to what’s next for him and Nicola, there is talk about adoption and surrogacy, although no news to share as yet.
Brooklyn meanwhile dropped a huge hint last month when he said in his statement: ‘All we want [is] peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.’
The Beckhams, minus Brooklyn, will sail on as if nothing has happened. Last week, there was another of those famous ‘line up’ pictures – including daughter Harper and Cruz and Romeo’s girlfriends – in Paris to celebrate Victoria being given a national honour.
And of course Cruz – whose girlfriend, music producer Jackie Apostel, 30, has nurtured his musical ambitions – is putting the Beckham family in the spotlight as he launches his career.
A source says: ‘They are all concentrating on Cruz now with his tour and his girlfriend. He has become the centre of everything family for the Beckhams now.
‘Cruz’s girlfriend is modelling Victoria Beckham lingerie and Cruz’s cousin Libby is involved with his band, and he’s referencing his grandad Tony being in a band. The waters have closed over the crater.’
We’ll no doubt come to know him better as his success grows. He’s nothing like Brooklyn, who is a shy and sweet lad.
Cruz is sparky and funny, a party boy. He is also his father’s son in that he appears to share that hot temper which David complains he inherited from his dad, Ted, a retired gas fitter from East London.
That was in evidence when Cruz angrily posted in December that he had ‘woken up blocked’ as did his parents after reports suggested that they had blocked Brooklyn and not the other way around before Christmas.
‘He is a “speak first and think later” kind of person,’ says a source.
An interesting phase is now beginning for the family. And – while the bond with Brooklyn appears to be utterly broken – the brand rolls lucratively on.
