A quick reading of Brooklyn Beckham’s revealing, and emotionally-charged, statement about his feud with his parents may bring deja-vu to royal watchers familiar with Prince Harry’s bitter memoir, Spare.
While comparisons between the Beckhams and the Windsors have been made before, the way the 26-year-old has gone about airing his grievances in public has once again highlighted the similarities between him and the Duke of Sussex.
And, much like Prince Harry’s very public defence of Meghan, Brooklyn has chosen to make his wife, Nicola, a focal point of his six-page essay of why he and his family are estranged.
Deja feud: Brooklyn Beckham’s family grievances have more than a few similarities to Prince Harry’s. (Getty)
The shared protectiveness over their wives, it seems, is the biggest thing that ties Prince Harry and Brooklyn together.
Last year, both were hit with the unflattering nickname “the hostage”, apparently in reference to the strong hold Meghan and Nicola have over their husbands.
The women, who are both American, have also been blamed for having key roles in both feuds, each accused of having taken their husbands away from their families.
Prince Harry and Brooklyn have many other things in common. Both are from two of the most famous families in the world: Harry, of the actual royal family and Brooklyn, of the Beckhams, Britain’s unofficial royal family.
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Like Harry’s very public defence of Meghan, Brooklyn has made his wife, Nicola, a focal point of the conversation. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Brooklyn has lifted the lid on his feud with his parents, Victoria and David Beckham, in a statement. (Darren Gerrish/WireImage)
Both were born in to enormous privilege and have struggled, at times, to forge their own paths out of the shadow of their famous parents.
Love, some may suggest, saw both Harry and Brooklyn finally find their life’s purpose.
But for each man, marrying the woman of their dreams has come at a cost.
It was Prince Harry’s relationship, and later marriage, to actress Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, that was the beginning of the end of his relationship with his father King Charles and brother Prince William.
In March, 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan cut ties with the royal family by moving from the UK to set up a new life in California where they remain six years on.
The reason for the feud between the Beckhams has been shrouded in secrecy and speculation until now. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
A year later, when their split from The Firm was finalised after a trial period, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex went on Oprah to make a number of damaging allegations against the monarchy.
Queen Elizabeth II responded on behalf of the Windsors with the “recollections may vary” comment while days later, Prince William tersely said “we’re very much not not a racist family” when confronted by the media about one of the claims made by the Sussexes.
Barely three months after the death of his grandmother, Prince Harry joined Meghan for their highly-inflammatory six-part docuseries on Netflix.
Their allegations saw the royal rift dominate headlines around the world
But that was not enough for Prince Harry. He had more to say about his royal relatives and in January, 2023, his tell-all memoir Spare was published.
The royal family pictured in 2019, soon before Prince Harry and Meghan’s departure. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Parallels can be found in the major themes of discussed in Harry’s book and Brooklyn’s lengthy statement on Tuesday.
‘No choice but to speak for myself’
Brooklyn says he was motivated to issue his statement now because “my parents and their team have continued to go to the press”, prompting him to “tell the truth” about “only some of the lies that have been printed”.
Prince Harry, too, has accused his family and members of the royal household of leaking to the press and briefing against him to get a particular narrative out there in contrast to his own.
In an interview promoting the launch of his book, Harry accused Buckingham Palace of “betrayal” for failing to defend him and his wife.
In that same interview, which aired on ITV, Harry made claims about “the leaking and the planting” of stories in the media by the palace, adding: “It never needed to be this way … I want a family, not an institution”.
Harry said: The family motto is ‘never complain, never explain’, but it’s just a motto, it doesn’t really hold.
“They [palace aides] will feed or have a conversation with the correspondent, and that correspondent will literally be spoon-fed information and write the story, and at the bottom of it, they will say they have reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. But the whole story is Buckingham Palace commenting.
“So when we’re being told for the last six years: ‘We can’t put a statement out to protect you,’ but you do it for other members of the family, there becomes a point when silence is betrayal.”
In 2025, when asked about the impact of Spare on the wider royal family Harry said: “It is not about revenge, it is about accountability”.
Prince Harry made a number of damming claims during an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby in promotion of his book, Spare. (AP)
In an interview with The Guardian Harry added: “I don’t believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public. It was a difficult message, but I did it in the best way possible. My conscience is clear.”
‘I do not want to reconcile with my family’
Brooklyn and Harry differ on this part only: reconciliation.
While the eldest Beckham offspring was adamant he does “not want to reconcile with my family”, Harry also addressed the chances of a reunion with his relatives both in Spare and on the promotional tour for his book.
In that same ITV interview ahead of Spare’s publication, Harry said he wanted to reunite with the King and the Prince of Wales, but claimed they are unwilling to reconcile with him.
Prince Harry has expressed a desire for reconciliation between his family and the royals. (Instagram/meghan)
“They’ve shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile … I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back.
“They feel as though it’s better to keep us somehow as the villains.”
More recently, Prince Harry told the BBC he was intent on ending the long-running feud with his family.
“There’s no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious,” he said.
‘I’m not being controlled’
Brooklyn used his Instagram stories feature to issue his personal statement, which stretched over six pages.
“I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life,” he wrote.
“The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards.”
In Spare, Prince Harry laid at his reasons for stepping back from public life with Meghan in 2020. Their shock exit was the biggest upheaval to hit the royal family in decades and many reasons were suggested by commentators and the media.
“The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards,” Brooklyn wrote. (Instagram/@brooklynpeltzbeckham)
Prince Harry called his decision a “careful retreat” and “attempt at self-preservation”.
In a speech given to a Sentebale charity event in London just days after their exit was announced, Harry said “there really was no other option”.
“It brings me great sadness that it has come to this. The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back, is not one I made lightly.
“It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges.”
He appeared to address some of the rumours that it was Meghan who was the controlling force behind their decision to step back.
Harry and Meghan in London on January 7, 2020. The couple announced their intention to quit their roles as senior royals the following day. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Harry said: “I also know you’ve come to know me well enough over all these years to trust that the woman I chose as my wife upholds the same values as I do. And she does, and she’s the same woman I fell in love with.”
During the promotional tour for his memoir Spare in 2023, Prince Harry went much further in his praise for Meghan, telling one interviewee: “My wife saved me, I was stuck in this world and she was from a different world and helped draw me out of that”.
‘Trying endlessly to ruin my relationship’
Brooklyn claims efforts by his parents to sabotage his relationship with wife Nicola “hasn’t stopped”, even blaming his mother for attempting to ruin her wedding gown forcing her to desperately search for a replacement at the “eleventh hour”.
Prince Harry, too, made accusations about his family and their attitudes towards Meghan leading up to the royal wedding in 2019.
Prince Harry made many claims about his brother and sister-in-law, and their treatment of Meghan, in his book Spare. (AP)
Speaking to ITV, Harry accused the Prince and Princess of Wales of “stereotyping” Meghan as a “divorced biracial American actress”.
Prince William and Catherine, Harry claimed, never got on with Meghan “from the get-go”.
“There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning,” he said.
“American actress, right, and that was playing out in the British press in the media at the time as well.
“Some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law – some of the way that they were acting or behaving – definitely felt to me as though, unfortunately, that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of, you know, introducing or welcoming her in.”
Like Meghan, Nicola is an American actress who has come under scrutiny. (Getty Images for ENTER Works)’My wife has been consistently disrespected’
Brooklyn suggests his wife has been “consistently disrespected by my family”.
The defence of the wife is a common theme between Brooklyn and Harry, with the duke calling out in Spare what he believed had been mistreatment of Meghan at the hands of the press.
Attempting to set the record straight about Meghan’s first joint engagement with Queen Elizabeth II in 2018, just after the royal wedding, Harry wrote:
“Things are going to turn around now, we both said. The papers, however, pronounced the trip an unmitigated disaster. They portrayed Meg as pushy, uppity, ignorant of royal protocol, because she’d made the unthinkable mistake of getting into a car before Granny.”
Meghan joined the Queen in 2018 for her first solo engagement following the royal wedding which Prince Harry referenced in his book. (Getty)
In 2016, a year before they became engaged, Prince Harry famously issued a statement to the media condemning some sectors of the press for introducing “racial overtones” into the reporting of his relationship with her.
He went on to attack the media for subjecting the then-actress to a “wave of abuse and harassment”.
‘My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife’
One of the more personal attacks in Brooklyn’s statement was that directed at his mother, Victoria, who he accused of dancing “very inappropriately”.
“I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life,” he added.
Victoria Beckham and Nicola Peltz Beckham in happier times. (Getty)
It was Prince Harry’s stepmother, Queen Camilla, who bore the brunt of his criticisms in Spare.
Most damaging was Harry’s allegation that he and Prince William “begged” their father King Charles not to marry her, fearing she would become their “wicked stepmother”.
Harry claimed Camilla leaked stories about the royal family to improve her image and “sacrificed” him “on her personal PR altar”.
In an interview to promote his memoir, Harry described the Queen Consort as “dangerous” and a “villain” who left “bodies in the street”.
‘Nicola wasn’t invited’
When David celebrated his 50th birthday in London last year, much was made about why Brooklyn and his wife were absent.
Now, Brooklyn claims he and Nicola did travel to the UK for the milestone but they were “rejected” by David and Victoria.
“When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited,” he said.
A similar situation happened when Queen Elizabeth II died, Prince Harry claimed, when Meghan was excluded from joining her husband and the royals at Balmoral Castle.
Brooklyn claims he and Nicola went to the UK to celebrate David’s 50 birthday but were “rejected”. (WireImage for Victoria Beckham)
Harry said it was his father who told him not to bring Meghan.
“He said I was welcome at Balmoral but he didn’t want….her,” Harry wrote.
Charles’ explanations were “nonsensical, and disrespectful and I wasn’t having it”.
“Don’t ever speak about my wife that way,” he told the King.
“No other wives were coming, Kate wasn’t coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn’t.
“Then that’s all you needed to say,” Harry added.
Prince Harry claims the King excluded Meghan from joining him at Balmoral when the Queen died. (Getty)’Brand Beckham comes first’
Brooklyn’s scathing statement comes with the most damming of claims, that “my family values public promotion and endorsements above all else”.
“Brand Beckham comes first,” he adds.
While Prince Harry has not gone as far as making such a claim about the royal family, he has suggested the Firm operates under a philosophy where the preservation of the institution takes precedence over everything else.
In 2021, two years before Spare was published, Prince Harry told the documentary The Me You Can’t See the royal family disregarded the couple’s pleas for support as they struggled with the intense spotlight on their relationship.
Prince Harry married Meghan in May, 2018. (Getty)
Saying the situation had left them feeling “completely helpless”, Harry said, “I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning just got met with total silence or total neglect.
“We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything we possibly could to stay there, and carry on doing the role and doing the job. But Meghan was struggling.”
World-shaking secret Harry, Meghan were keeping in this pic
And in May last year, Prince Harry directly accused the palace of neglecting his safety by denying him automatic police protection when he returns to the UK – a decision which is now under review.
He described feeling “let down” by losing his court appeal and described the outcome as a “good old fashioned establishment stitch up” and blamed the Royal Household for influencing the decision to reduce his security.
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