Has there ever been a husband more soppily, publicly, hound-dog-devoted to his wife than Brooklyn Peltz Beckham?
On Thursday this week Brooklyn, 24, was on television showing off a tattoo in honour of his wife Nicola in the form of a large portrait of her that covered most of his upper arm.
For most men, one large inked image of their wife would be considered an ample display of devotion.
Not so for Brooklyn: he already had between 80 and 100 tattoos, and many are either of his 28-year-old wife, or inspired by her.
For example, her family name ‘Peltz’ is scrawled artfully across his chest. An eerily accurate image of her eyes is inked on the back of his neck. His wedding speech is on his arm (highlights of which include: ‘You are my world . . . I can’t wait to live out our dreams together and have lots of babies and be yours forever because you are forever mine.’)
Another tattoo reads: ‘My life, my love, my truth, my breath, my reason, my beauty, my precious’ — not forgetting two separate tributes to her two grandmothers, one of them inked as a birthday gift for his bride.
As we approach the Peltz Beckham’s one-year wedding anniversary on April 9, heavily inked Brooklyn already looks to be running out of space to do much more in the way of tribute
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham showed off a giant tattoo of his wife’s face on the Jennifer Hudson Show this week
‘She always cries when I get another tattoo,’ he said.
He told another interviewer of the tattoo habit: ‘They’re very addicting, especially when you love someone. You want to cover everywhere.’
Well, as we approach the Peltz Beckham’s one-year wedding anniversary on April 9, heavily inked Brooklyn already looks to be running out of space to do much more in the way of tributes. Given the permanence of the art form you can only pray Brooklyn’s true love is for keeps, otherwise an enormous amount of laser tattoo removal will be required.
Almost 12 months into their union, and it’s not just Brooklyn’s physical appearance which has been irredeemably altered by his love for Nicola. His entire being, it seems, has been subsumed by his adoration for his wife — and her stupendously wealthy, high-achieving family.
So much so that, as he’s settled into married life, Brooklyn has become known as what Americans call ‘the Wife Guy’ — everything revolves around Nicola.
When she bought rescue dogs, he walked them. When she booked an acting job, he drove her to it. Christmas was spent with her family. He’s taken her surname. Her parents and some of her brothers even came on honeymoon with the newlyweds.
The way that Brooklyn has been so thoroughly engulfed by the Peltz family wounds and worries his parents: ‘He’s always been the kind of boyfriend who gets in very deep and they fear he could be hurt,’ one source tells me.
An eerily accurate image of Nicola Peltz’s eyes are inked on the back of Brooklyn’s neck
No doubt this feeling is all the more pronounced because, until now, the Beckhams have always been a publicly tight-knit clan, with David in particular a very hands-on father.
More than this, much of the Beckhams’ professional and commercial success is embedded in their family image, with regular pictures of their children shared across social media, helping burnish their currency among younger audiences.
However, as we shall see, it seems the enamoured Brooklyn is no longer readily playing ball with Brand Beckham, and its many layers of commercial enterprise. Instead, one thing looms large on his horizon: starting a family with his wife. And quickly. Indeed, ever since they married at the Peltz family mansion in Florida, Brooklyn has been taking about becoming a father.
In an interview last year, he said: ‘My parents had me at 23. I’m 23 now. I’ve always wanted to get married young, I’ve always wanted to have kids young, to grow up with my kids when I’m still young.’ He added he felt Nicola ‘needs a little bit more time . . . I always said: ‘Whenever you’re ready, I’m ready.’
This week, he says he wants ‘as many kids as my wife wants. I want a lot, but it’s obviously up to her’.
Family sources indicate the idea of starting a family is now uppermost for both of them, and Nicola, who has eight siblings and two half-siblings, has decided she, too, wants to be a young parent.
In an interview last year, Brooklyn, pictured with his parents and wife, said: ‘My parents had me at 23. I’m 23 now. I’ve always wanted to get married young, I’ve always wanted to have kids young, to grow up with my kids when I’m still young’.
Family sources indicate the idea of starting a family is now uppermost for both of them
‘She wants a baby,’ I’m told.
Not everyone, though, is thrilled by the idea of a brood of little Peltz Beckhams. Victoria is, apparently, rather mixed emotionally.
A source says: ‘She loves her son, and wants him to be happy — so you know that what delights him delights her. Of course. However, she isn’t sure she wants to be a grandmother.’
Mrs Beckham is a beautifully preserved and presented 48 years old, and her image is vital to the success of her fashion business.
It’s fair, too, to say it’s unlikely that Granny Victoria would be top of Nicola’s list for pregnancy and child-rearing advice, nor that there will be a future glossy magazine cover with mother and daughter-in-law posing with a grandchild.
Although they managed a polite and friendly meeting in Paris for Victoria’s fashion show three weeks ago, I am told behind the scenes it is ‘ice’ between the two women.
My source tells me: ‘The current situation is there are smiles through gritted teeth and in a group situation it is perfectly passable. Both David and Brooklyn kind of pretend that it is OK, but relations between Victoria and Nicola are ice.’
It seems the passing of a year since that wedding day has done little to heal relations between the two women. ‘The wedding helped a feeling grow that Brooklyn was becoming a Peltz, rather than that Nicola was joining the Beckham family,’ I’m told. And that’s worrying for the future of Brand Beckham.
One incident from the wedding which has come to light showcases this. The Beckhams gave a car to Nicola and Brooklyn for their wedding present: a $500,000 vintage two-door open-topped Jaguar, which had been modernised and converted to electric energy by the British firm Lunaz. Among the investors in the company was one David Beckham. Imagine the boost for the firm if newlywed Brooklyn and Nicola had posed in the car for pictures, which could then be shared across the Beckhams’ social media platforms?
Nicola, however, was reluctant to pose up for David’s Instagram, although she did so in the end.
Some have read much into the fact that, on the big day itself, David and Victoria were on a table with Spice Girls Mel C and Mel B and their partners.
This week, Brooklyn said he wants ‘as many kids as my wife wants. I want a lot, but it’s obviously up to her’
Not everyone, though, is thrilled by the idea of a brood of little Peltz Beckhams. Victoria is, apparently, rather mixed emotionally.
Victoria, however, has explained she was fine not being on the top table: the wedding followed the American tradition where the top table is for bride and groom, not their families.
But less all right were the speeches. Apparently, there was no plan for David to say anything, but he felt he wanted to anyway, so stood up to say his piece, a sweetly sentimental speech largely about how much he and Victoria adored their eldest son.
A deeper blow, it seems, which still cuts through today, is what was seen as a lack of support for the Beckhams’ parents, who attended the wedding and are not in the best of health.
By contrast, much fuss was apparently made of Nicola’s beloved grandmother, who was one of her maids of honour. This pattern of behaviour seems to have continued, with Brooklyn spending virtually all his time since the nuptials with Nicola and her family.
Of all the spats the wedding seemed to generate, that of the wedding dress is perhaps most prominent.
Nicola, notoriously, chose not to wear any of her mother-in-law’s creations for her extended wedding celebrations, instead choosing Valentino for her bridal gown.
She has since addressed this, saying she wished Victoria had made her gown, but claims the designer said she wasn’t able to, and so she chose Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino instead.
Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz are seen leaving their hotel earlier this month in Paris
Interestingly, Brooklyn is not shy of taking business advice from his powerful father-in-law, Nelson Peltz, a corporate behemoth who is worth £1.3 billion (comfortably dwarfing David and Victoria’s £370 million fortune).
The influential American has advised Brooklyn on various nascent business ventures: ‘I love watching how he learns from my Dad,’ said Nicola, mistily.
Alpha male father Nelson, known as a ‘crocodile’ when it comes to business matters, was 52 when Nicola was born, and had an exacting parenting style.
The Peltz children were raised in a huge house in Bedford, New York, complete with an indoor ice hockey rink, Renoir paintings and a flock of albino peacocks. Expectations were high and competition was a constant.
Nicola’s brother Will recalled: ‘It was a zoo, to be honest. It was constant battles. My mom was pregnant for most of my childhood, and she’s chasing us around trying to split up fights with a huge stomach on her. ‘Now when we all get together, it’s so fun. That fighting and everything ends up bringing you closer in the end.’
The Beckhams have always been a publicly tight-knit clan, with David (right) in particular a very hands-on father
Given the permanence of the art form you can only pray Brooklyn’s true love is for keeps, otherwise an enormous amount of laser tattoo removal will be required
And it’s in this populous, noisy, ambitious clan that Brooklyn — good-natured, shy and sensitive — has found himself.
His parents couldn’t seem to bring themselves to like any of the Instagram posts he put out in September to celebrate the couple’s six-month anniversary. Will that have changed come April 9?
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