Victoria Beckham has addressed her estranged son Brooklyn’s explosive claims in a recent interview.
In January the aspiring chef, 27, said he did not want to reconcile with his mother and father and claimed his parents and his siblings Romeo, 23, Cruz, 21, and Harper, 14, are ‘performative’.
Brooklyn also alleged that his family values ‘public promotion and endorsements above all else’, adding that ‘Brand Beckham comes first’.
Appearing on Emma Grede’s podcast Aspire this week, fashion designer Victoria, 52, said building their £500million empire known as ‘Brand Beckham’ was ‘never their intention’ and insisted she wasn’t a ‘pushy parent’.
During the interview, Dragon Den’s entrepreneur Emma asked the former Spice Girls star about how she decides what ‘remains personal’ and what is part of Brand Beckham.
The line of questioning appeared to allude to Brooklyn’s scathing six-page statement, in which he claimed he had been ‘controlled’ by his parents for most of his life with ‘performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships’.
Seemingly hitting back, Victoria told Emma: ‘When David and I first met it was never our intention to start a brand.
Victoria Beckham has said she never intended to start a brand when she first met her husband David
‘People talk about “Brand Beckham” – that has happened so organically. When I first met David, I mean he was a Brylcreem boy.
‘So 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 crips, Pepsi, Chupa Chups lollies, deodorant.
‘Do you know? 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.’
Victoria insisted as their success grew, they remained focused on their separate projects with David working on building his football club Inter Miami, while she created her fashion and beauty empire.
She continued: ‘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.’
Victoria went on to acknowledge how her children must have felt the pressure growing up in the public eye but she ‘always tried to protect them’. It comes after Brooklyn said he grew up with ‘overwhelming anxiety’.
In January Brooklyn Beckham, pictured with wife Nicola Peltz, said he did not want to reconcile with his mother and father
Victoria pictured with husband David Beckham, sons Cruz, left, and Romeo and their girlfriends Jackie Apostel and Kim Turnbull, right
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 then 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.’
However, the fashion designer insisted she was ‘never pushy’.
David and Victoria haven’t spoken to Brooklyn since last May, when he and his wife Nicola Peltz snubbed the former footballer’s 50th birthday celebrations.
Brooklyn and Nicola’s lawyers wrote to the Beckhams’ legal team demanding that they only converse through them.
In his statement, Brooklyn claimed his mother had called him ‘evil’ for not being on the head table at his wedding to Nicola Peltz and also said she ‘hijacked’ their first dance.
Victoria told Emma: ‘Ultimately, we want the kids to be hard-working and kind. I’ve always wanted to be the best mum that I could be and look after the kids. I also feel it’s been part of my job to really help them fulfill their full potential. It’s never about being pushy, it’s about being there to support.’
She added of the challenges: ‘I think it’s very different parenting adult children to parenting smaller children. I’m just trying to do the best that I can, you know. It’s my job to make sure my kids are the best versions of themselves.’
Victoria went on to talk about how both Harper and Cruz are adding to the Brand Beckham empire with their own ventures.
She said of Cruz launching his music career: When I look at Cruz, my little son, he’s on tour at the moment, I said: “the most important thing is to learn your craft”.
‘Cruz has spent years learning play five or six different instruments, writing his own songs, putting a band together and touring small venues and doing it in a very humble way. He’s incredibly talented and he’s building his brand. That’s just what we do.’
Victoria also revealed Harper’s ‘really bad’ battle with acne has inspired her to launch her very own beauty brand.
The teenager is said to be launching her debut beauty range aimed at Gen Z and Gen Alpha, inspired by South Korean cosmetics, this summer. Read the full story here.
Back in October it was revealed that the Beckhams had trademarked the name HIKU BY Harper, putting the steps in motion for the upcoming beauty line.
Victoria explained: ‘She came to me two or three years ago and she was really struggling with her skin.
‘She used to have beautiful skin, but like all young girls she was enticed by beauty brands and she was putting a lot of product on her face that was not suitable for her skin and consequently ended up going to see a dermatologist because her skin was really, really bad.’
Victoria detailed her own battles with acne and said she could relate to her daughter’s struggles: ‘[Harper] said “I want to create a brand because I know what I want and I don’t want other people to have to go through what I have been through.”‘
The former Spice Girls star said Harper even approached her with PowerPoint presentations in the early stages of getting her beauty line off the ground.
‘One [PowerPoint] about this brand that she wanted to create because she was struggling with her skin’, she said. ‘And the other one was a reason as to why I should let her have a perm’.
Victoria added: ‘I’m so proud of all my children, but you know Harper is very ambitious, she’s very appropriate but I don’t know what I expected to be honest.
‘I mean, she’s been sitting on my lap taking part in beauty development meetings ever since she was little.’
The business-savvy family have long protected the rights to their children’s names, with Victoria famously registering Harper’s name for use in a range of branded products, including make-up, toys and clothing when she was just five years old.
At the time, an intellectual property expert said it was unprecedented to trademark a child’s name because the move is usually reserved for those who are already celebrities.
