I know first-hand how Victoria Beckham and King Charles feel… a bitter, selfish family member ripped our lives apart too
EVEN as my father lay dying in hospital last year, my selfish brother held onto his grudges rather than swallow his pride and say goodbye.
They had clashed repeatedly in recent years and at the very end the rift was too deep.
Our family never got the reconciliation we needed and now it’s too late.
The youngest son of our six siblings, my brother Ed, now 35, had been adored and indulged all his life.
From his school days he was difficult and unpredictable, not academic like the rest of the family.
Nowadays he’d likely be called "neurodivergent".
He was expelled from four different schools, then tried a stint on an offshore oil rig. Since then, he has drifted from one job to the next.
The fallout with my father was rooted in money.
Every time my brother got into debt, my father – who passed away last year aged 81 – bailed him out financially.
From losing all his money abroad as a teenager to investing in failed start-ups as a grown-up, my father came to the rescue.
When my brother was in his late twenties and earning good money in computing, my father asked about repaying him.
But instead of doing the decent thing, my brother turned against him.
It’s a common thing, to turn against the people who love us the most, when we feel inadequate, guilty and full of resentment.
And just like Prince Harry, his behaviour became even less forgiving and more callous as my father became old and frail with cancer.
My family is nothing like the Beckham dynasty, which has imploded in recent weeks after Brooklyn and his wife, Nicola Peltz, failed to show at David’s lavish 50th birthday celebrations - which included an intimate family dinner at their Cotswolds home, a family trip to France two days later and a Saturday night soiree in London.
Earlier this week a dressed-down Victoria was pictured putting on a brave face in New York, doing her best to support her husband, who is said to be “devastated” over this latest twist in the family fallout.
I understand from personal experience what Victoria and David, who also have sons Romeo, 22, and Cruz, 20, and daughter Harper, 13, are going through right now.
Online, a lot of the blame for the fallout has been directed at Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola, 30, the aspiring actress and daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz.
Ever since their multi-million dollar Palm Beach wedding three years ago, there have been repeated rumours of tension between Nicola and her mother-in-law, Victoria.
But the rift between Brooklyn, 26, and the rest of the Beckham clan isn’t the only high-profile family drama being played out in public.
Recently the Duke of Sussex fanned the flames of his ongoing feud with The Firm, with his bombshell BBC interview just hours after losing his latest high court battle for taxpayer-funded police protection in the UK.
Dishing the dirt on his spectacular fallout with the King, Harry simultaneously blamed his father for “this security stuff” while also suggesting he was hopeful of a reconciliation.
Harry’s father and brother, Prince William, apparently won’t take his calls, feeling they can no longer trust him.
As with Brooklyn, tensions appear to have escalated with the influence of Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle.
My brother was born in 1990, and his new wife, who is Hungarian, also had a toxic influence on our family dynamic.
Is it unjust to blame my brother’s wife – or Nicola Peltz and Meghan Markle – when things turn sour?
She started out friendly and sweet, the model daughter-in-law, keen to get into my parents’ good books.
She would bake cakes for family birthdays, pop in for coffee with my mum uninvited, and help with gardening.
But she quickly became controlling, badgering my brother about inheritance, whether my father had a will, and even if they could have an "advance".
It was impossible for any of us to meet up with my brother on his own, without her being there, and soon she stopped him from visiting my parents altogether.
So the grievances and grudges, and the sense of victimhood, began.
Is it unjust to blame my brother’s wife – or Nicola Peltz and Meghan Markle – when things turn sour?
Probably, yes.
But there’s no doubt that angry, lost young men (whether they’re 26 or 40) are easily influenced by attractive, forceful women.
Rumours abound about Nicola’s fiercely ambitious streak.
Since marrying Brooklyn, she’s landed a modelling deal with Pepe Jeans, made a movie, and had appearances in Vogue.
The Peltz family is vastly wealthy, but her association with brand Beckham has turbocharged her modelling and acting career.
Sources close to the family say that the fallout can never be healed while Nicola and Brooklyn are together.
TOXIC PARTNERSHIPS
“She won’t change and Brooklyn’s parents are absolutely furious. They are done with her… it’s a case of long-term estrangement,” said one.
As a feminist, I hate this "blame the new wife" thing.
But there’s no doubt what a powerful influence a partner like Meghan Markle, or Nicola Peltz, can have – especially if someone is emotionally unstable or looking for others to blame.
I no longer recognise my little brother.
He’s had a chip on his shoulder ever since he was a child, but his new wife has fuelled that narrative of victimhood and anger against the family.
Just like Meghan, who is alienated from her father, Thomas Markle, my brother’s wife "liberated" herself from her parents years ago.
She has manipulated and controlled my brother since the day they met.
These toxic partnerships are deeply destructive to family bonds and loyalty.
Family dynamics are complicated and these feuds all seem to have different sources.
I no longer recognise my little brother.
Maybe it’s Nicola and Victoria, maybe the other Beckham brothers and their beautiful girlfriends are involved too. After all, Romeo’s girlfriend Kim Turnbull is said to be an ex of Brooklyn’s.
But who knows?
It’s clearly causing David and Victoria a lot of heartache, and it’s the same for King Charles and his close family, too.
As well as battling cancer in his late seventies, he is having these painful family dramas played out in public by his angry and immature youngest son.
For us and for all families, the ripples go deep. This fallout isn’t confined to my brother and father.
We were very close as children, but my siblings and I have lost the love and respect we had for my brother. None of us can ever trust him again.
Everything he does seems suspicious now and on the rare occasions when he messages any of us, our first thought is: “What does he want? What’s this about?”
The rift has splintered our family, and my brother’s absence has haunted every happy occasion for years.
My message to Brooklyn Beckham and Prince Harry is this: swallow your pride – before it’s too late
At every Christmas dinner there’s an empty chair, at every wedding or christening, there’s a missing sibling where he should be.
And it drives a wedge between us all.
I am very close to my mother, but I’ve lost count of the number of arguments we’ve had over this.
She’s desperate to hold on to her youngest child, of course, and she’s in denial, unable to accept how our family has fallen apart.
The father-son dynamic is a dangerous one, as David Beckham and King Charles are no doubt finding out.
Mothers and daughters have arguments and tensions too, but the male ego – especially in Alpha Males like David and Brooklyn and Harry – often results in a stand-off, and a refusal to apologise or back down.
My father never got to say goodbye to his youngest child, and for our family, there won’t be another chance.
My message to Brooklyn Beckham and Prince Harry is this: swallow your pride – before it’s too late.
- Some names have been changed
