Victoria Beckham has finally addressed her son Brooklyn's explosive claim that in their family, 'Brand Beckham comes first,' during a new interview. The photographer-turned-chef, 27, first made the statement in an 821-word Instagram post in January, where he declared he does not intend to reconcile with his family. It is understood that Sir David and Victoria Beckham have become estranged from their eldest son, who is married to heiress Nicola Peltz Beckham.
Victoria's Response on the Podcast
Victoria, 52, made a veiled reference to the parenting of Brooklyn and his siblings—Romeo, 23, Cruz, 21, and Harper, 14—while discussing the family's commercial empire on Emma Grede's podcast, Aspire. The former Spice Girl was asked by the Dragons' Den entrepreneur how she decides what 'remains personal' and what is part of Brand Beckham, an apparent allusion to Brooklyn's January statement.
Victoria replied: 'When David and I first met, it was never our intention to start a brand. People talk about “Brand Beckham” – that has happened so organically. When I first met David, he was a Brylcreem boy. David was Adidas and Brylcreem and Pepsi and I was in the Spice Girls and that’s where I learnt so much about how to build a brand and marketing. While he was doing Brylcreem and Adidas, the Spice Girls were doing Walker’s crisps, Pepsi, Chupa Chups lollies, deodorant. True story, my mother still has a Spice Girls pizza in her oven. That pizza’s been in the freezer for thirty odd years. So when people talk about “Brand Beckham”, that was never something that we even discussed.'
Focus on Individual Projects
The fashion mogul insisted that the couple focused on their separate projects as their business ventures expanded, adding: 'We don’t have any deals together. David does what David does, I do what I do. That’s the way it’s always been. We have very different interests. I think it was the outside world that really talked about Brand Beckham. That’s never really how we saw it. We’re just doing what we do.'
Parenting and Family Dynamics
Victoria then acknowledged how her children have factored into their businesses, insisting she was 'never pushy.' She said: 'Our children have had a very different upbringing to myself and David and I think the world is also a very different place now to what it was when they were younger. We’ve always tried to protect the children as much as we can, we’ve always been very close.'
Brooklyn's Earlier Statement
This comes after Brooklyn's cutting statement on the Beckham PR machine in January, where he wrote: 'My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family “love” is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared.'
The Beckham family has not publicly commented further on the estrangement, but Victoria's latest interview appears to be a subtle attempt to address the rift.
