Estrangement for celebrities

The legal expectation of parents is that they be good enough. The Beckhams have certainly been that imo, despite the glare of publicity in which they live their lives (and make their living 🌞)
Brooklyn has benefitted as well as being, he now says made anxious by the family lifestyle. His failed attempts to build a career all funded by brand Beckham. I hope the rest of the family stay quiet and that Brooklyn stops the character assassination of his parents. IMO it says more about him than his parents

User138562

I love all the creative writing in this thread.

😂

It takes two to parent. If he was mollycoddled his dad is also responsible.

Hindsight is an odd thing, but I think Master Brooklyn was well spoiled from the beginning by his mother.

Hiring Chester Zoo when the Beckhams were little, having the public banned for the day and having a private tour and similar events were over the top.

Victoria's mollycoddling of the junior Beckham could only go one way.

Getting bored with his 'career' in photography and then launching him as a chef when all he did was show us how to make a sandwich?

David seems fairly down to earth, still, but it's too late to hold Lady Beckham back.

I love all the creative writing in this thread.

Grannynannywanny

I’m surprised with all the worrying world events that it was deemed appropriate to have this tedious saga reported on the national news.

I agree.

SueDonim

How does publicity for the Beckhams translate into benefits for the charities? That’s what I don’t get. As I say, I can’t name a single charity the Beckhams support.

If you or I donate to charity no-one knows.

If celebrities support charities they give their time, his high profile ensures the charities receive publicity, etc.
UNICEF
Malaria No More
The King's Foundation
Armed Forces charities
The Beckhams Trust for children needing wheelchairs
Donated his salary from Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to charity
As well as private donations to charities.

I’m surprised with all the worrying world events that it was deemed appropriate to have this tedious saga reported on the national news.

You’re right, Franski. I’m just musing on this topic as a means of escape from all the horrors in the news. I keep telling myself not to look at it but then I do. 🤦‍♀️

SueDonim

How does publicity for the Beckhams translate into benefits for the charities? That’s what I don’t get. As I say, I can’t name a single charity the Beckhams support.

He was knighted a few months ago for his services to charity, namely his long-standing role with Unicef and his involvement with the King's Foundation. It was on the main TV news, and there was also a thread here on GN. I think something to do with malaria prevention too, I remember he did a documentary.
Because he is famous, people follow him and respond to his appeals for donations which benefits the charity.

Franski, 👍🏻👏

None of us know what is going on and why would we or should we? I think all of us on GN know how complex family life can be and how a whole variety of narratives are a mix of truth, perception, exaggeration or plain old misunderstanding. I do love a good soap opera but seeing a public family rift being played out to a watching world
just makes me sad.
I hope the Beckhams work it out.somehow, privately and discreetly. We dont need to know the details x

How does publicity for the Beckhams translate into benefits for the charities? That’s what I don’t get. As I say, I can’t name a single charity the Beckhams support.

They get publicity just for being who they are and I'm sure the charities they support consider that support to be extremely worthwhile, even if they don't actually get their hands dirty.

So they support charities? Lots of us do that. Why do they need all this publicity to support charities? Other ‘celebs’ support charities, without all this kerfuffle. I’ve been moderately aware of the Beckhams over the years because they age with my own children but I cannot name a single charity they are associated with. Maybe the charities are just a useful foil for their self-image. D&V could volunteer with RVS if they want to do something worthwhile, get their hands dirty.

SueDonim

What baffles me is why the Beckham Brand needs all of this publicity. Surely they have more than enough money to live on until the end of time? Why not enjoy what you’ve got and concentrate on your home and family. If that’s too boring, they could train as teachers or lawyers or landscape gardeners or binmen and find fulfilment in contributing to society. .

Publicity is their Oxygen. Without that the brand is dead.
Who do you think arranges all those publicity shots= the Beckhams.

It is of course possible to be David and Victoria, support charities relating to children and the homeless. Have children who no one has any idea what those children look like, how old they are or where they go to school. They're David and Victoria's children enjoying a childhood, they're not mini celebrities who are being launched as social influencers.

David and Victoria are both famous, successful, make numerous tv appearances and then it seems they retire to live their lives privately and enjoy the fruits of their labour, without putting out copious snapshots of that private life via Instagram.

David Mitchell and Victoria Coren

SueDonim

What baffles me is why the Beckham Brand needs all of this publicity. Surely they have more than enough money to live on until the end of time? Why not enjoy what you’ve got and concentrate on your home and family. If that’s too boring, they could train as teachers or lawyers or landscape gardeners or binmen and find fulfilment in contributing to society. .

Sir David Beckham received his knighthood mostly for his extensive charity work.
The couple have established their own charity in the UK helping vulnerable children.

Promoting charities means publicity.

As I said previously, there is often a common denominator in these high-profile and very public estrangements.

What baffles me is why the Beckham Brand needs all of this publicity. Surely they have more than enough money to live on until the end of time? Why not enjoy what you’ve got and concentrate on your home and family. If that’s too boring, they could train as teachers or lawyers or landscape gardeners or binmen and find fulfilment in contributing to society. .

I wonder if Brooklyn struggled to succeed and resents his parents. He’s tried several possibilities, photography etc now cookery. His parents will have funded these things. As our Queen might have said, recollections may vary

Yes, I think recollections may well vary.

It's interesting that different meanings might be put on the recollections too, new interpretations, and all these very public estrangements we have heard about recently have one thing in common.

Photographs of Brooklyn over a fair tone seemed to reflect a far from happy person. Smile not reaching eyes.
I don’t feel he’s done himself any favours by estranging his parents in such an unkind public way.

The wedding dances - as others have said, every minute of the day will have been meticulously planned. Brooklyn and his wife could have changed it

The wedding dress - her wedding planner told the press she’d been to Italy several times in the year before the wedding to see the dress being made

I wouldn’t choose the lives D and VB built but they built their brand from ordinary beginnings. I wouldn’t want to live in the public glare, or to expose my children to that. Their children seemed well loved. There seems to have been a level of protection, where they went to school, academic success/not hasn’t been publicised that I’ve seen.

I wonder if Brooklyn struggled to succeed and resents his parents. He’s tried several possibilities, photography etc now cookery. His parents will have funded these things. As our Queen might have said, recollections may vary

My own mother RIP was a very difficult woman, we would say nowadays she was a narcissist. However despite the many, many difficulties we would never have gone no contact

James Bolam for example.
His wife got some very bad press at one time so perhaps they prefer to avoid the limelight.

Why do people have to go public with their family problems? There are famous people who never utter a word about private life, and it does not seem to harm their careers - James Bolam for example. Once the tabloids, the influencers and the trolls have started to wind everything up there must be little hope of truth or reconciliation. It's worth reflecting that so often the feuds are amongst those who are famous for being famous, and therefore a constant trickle of 'excitement' with interviews back and forth is needed to keep the funds coming in.

Curlywhirly

I read a few months ago that Victoria had the first dance with Brooklyn at the wedding. So this is not new news. If true, I can't imagine what she was thinking; what mother would expect to have the first dance with her son at his wedding? This alone would be a recipe for disaster for a sucessful relationship between MIL and DIL. I only hope it isn't true.

Well, Victoria got confused with the traditions there !

Traditionally the bride and groom start the first dance, then the father of the bride cuts in and partners the bride, and the groom asks his mother to dance.
Then the wedding party joins in and then anyone else who cares to dance.