Few nepotism babies have had it as tough as Brooklyn Peltz Beckham in recent years, with the oldest son of Victoria and David Beckham becoming somewhat of a meme for the way he is relentlessly ridiculed on the internet.
Most of the mockery has stemmed from the fact that Brooklyn, at just 24 years old, has very publicly drifted from career to career in a bid to find his calling.
This started when he was let go by Arsenal Football Club at 16 years old after he'd been signed up as a youth prospect in his bid to follow in his soccer legend dad’s footsteps.
After that, Brooklyn started a very high-profile venture into photography. At just 18 years old, he even released a photography book called What I See, which faced brutal scrutiny and arguably secured Brooklyn’s long-running position as the internet’s punching bag.
When photography didn’t stick, Brooklyn tried his hand at modeling, but this venture ended less than a year after it started.
Then, in 2022, Brooklyn realized his love of cooking and started to market himself as a novice chef. Acknowledging his career false starts in an interview with Variety at the time, Brooklyn appeared confident that he had finally found his passion.
“They were kind of all hobbies,” he said of his past ventures. “I was still trying to find that one thing I would literally die for, and I found that with cooking.”
Despite sticking with this avocation so far, he hasn’t been able to avoid the merciless dragging on social media. In fact, last year, Brooklyn’s mom, Victoria Beckham, leaped to his defense when she saw that a roast beef he had cooked was being scrutinized.
Posting to her Instagram story, the mama bear told followers, “It’s rare people not raw.”
But while Brooklyn may have struggled to find his way career-wise, he has had much better luck in the relationship department and married actor and billionaire heir Nicola Peltz Beckham in April 2022.
And through this relationship, many appear to have softened their overall approach to Brooklyn as they realized that being a devoted husband might just be his actual calling in life.
Nicola often shares glimpses into their relationship on social media, and Brooklyn won high praise last year when he was shown making food and cocktails while wearing an “at your service, girls” apron as Nicola enjoyed a girls' night with her best friend, Selena Gomez, along with Selena’s little sister, Gracie, and three other pals.
Brooklyn has previously been seen being an A+ Instagram husband by crouching on the floor to get the best shot of Nicola and helping Nicola apply her fake nails. All of this has prompted people to claim that he is the “perfect” husband, and a man “written by a woman.”
This online discourse was reignited on Tuesday when Nicola took to her Instagram story to reveal that Brooklyn was baking her a cake from scratch for her 29th birthday.
The photo struck a chord with people, who took to a Reddit forum to admit that they’d totally changed their minds about Brooklyn in recent years.
Calling the infamous nepo baby “harmless,” one person pointed out, “He could buy her an expensive fancy cake but he insists on making her one. It’s sweet.”
“I am 100% all for this kind of golden retriever guy. He’s trying so hard! Was the cake edible? Who knows, who cares!” somebody else added. One more wrote, “I just find him so endearing. Just making a cake for his wife he clearly loves. They’re too cute.”
“I honestly think it's adorable that instead of ordering a cake and being done with it, he wanted to dedicate his time to make her happy,” another user agreed.
“I think people are too hard on him, I don’t see anything wrong with someone actively trying to find something they’re good at,” somebody else wrote. “Some nepo kids don’t even try to find hobbies or skills outside of being rich and connected.”
“And bless him for continuing to try things even when he’s not good at them. I wish I was that way,” one more added. Meanwhile, another redditor admitted, “Brooklyn Beckham is someone I've now come full circle on and root for.”
Others admitted that the recent Netflix docuseries about Brooklyn’s dad had altered the way they view Brooklyn too. In Beckham, David looks back at his life and career, in which the soccer star achieved immeasurable superstardom despite his incredibly humble beginnings.
In the series, it is evident that when David began dating Spice Girl Victoria in 1997, both of their careers skyrocketed as a result, and by the time they welcomed Brooklyn two years later, they had reached unfathomable levels of fame.
But at that point, David was at the lowest point in his career. The star was receiving relentless death threats from the British public for getting a red card and being sent off the field during a high-stakes soccer match. In the documentary, David's parents reveal that bullets were sent to their home as a threat to the family.
David also reveals that he and Victoria were receiving kidnapping threats from the moment Brooklyn was born. Recalling the night of Brooklyn’s birth, David shares, “That night, Brooklyn slept next to Victoria. Victoria was like, 'Come and squeeze on the bed with me,' and I said, 'Absolutely not.’”
“I’m sleeping with my head against the door because I was paranoid someone was going to steal him," he adds. "It's meant to be a happy moment, and it was, of course. But I was worried."
As Brooklyn grew up, David was eventually forgiven for the soccer match faux pas, but the frenzy that surrounded him and Victoria only grew. In a particularly upsetting home video that was filmed when Brooklyn was just a toddler, Brooklyn can be seen looking frightened as fans and paparazzi hound the car that David is driving the family in.
In the terrifying scene, Brooklyn starts to cry as the huge crowd of people bang on the car's doors, windows, and roof, with Victoria and David desperately trying to comfort their young son.
Reflecting on these revelations on the Reddit thread, one person wrote, “David's comments about Brooklyn's earliest years in the Beckham docuseries on Netflix made me want to cheer for him too,” later adding of David and Victoria, “they've understandably been overprotective of him his entire life.”
“That must've shaped their parenting approach to him especially,” somebody else agreed. Another said of Brooklyn’s upbringing, “I can't imagine what it is like to have his parents. There must be an immense amount of pressure from the outside world to live up to his famous last name.”
Meanwhile, one person praised Brooklyn for taking “on the chin” the constant scrutiny that he is under instead of playing the victim — an approach that was reflected when BuzzFeed spoke to Brooklyn just last year about the way he is treated online.
