One of Brooklyn Beckham’s former partners has opened up about what it was like dating the son of one of the planet’s most famous footballers, saying she noticed early “warning signs” that, looking back, feel linked to the family drama now dominating headlines.
Brooklyn, who has pursued cooking and media projects in recent years, married actress Nicola Peltz — the daughter of a billionaire investor — in 2022. The couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at the Peltz family’s Palm Beach estate.
Before his relationship with Peltz, Brooklyn dated several well-known names, including actor Chloë Grace Moretz and British model Hana Cross.
Now, Cross has spoken publicly for the first time about her relationship with Brooklyn, which ran from December 2018 to September 2019. The romance drew heavy tabloid attention worldwide, and she suggests there were already hints of deeper issues around the Beckham family dynamic.
Although that time brought her intense paparazzi scrutiny, Cross told Hello! Magazine she doesn’t look back on that chapter fondly.
She said she now wishes the relationship had ended earlier, explaining that being around Brooklyn — and spending time with the wider Beckham family — left her feeling deeply uneasy and overwhelmed.
She said: “There were a lot of warning signs and things that happened during the relationship that, in hindsight, should have made me think and maybe end the relationship or walk away from it a lot sooner than I did.”
Cross also described how disorienting it was navigating a high-profile relationship at such a young age, with both of them only around 20 or 21 at the time. “I came from living on a farm to moving to London and being thrown into a relationship like that,” she shared.
Being suddenly immersed in celebrity circles, she said, made it difficult to know how to respond to situations as they arose. “No one really knew, and I didn’t, really. It wasn’t something that I was super-open about, so advice from outside was hard to take,” she added.
Cross explained that she decided to speak now largely because of the ongoing feud linked to the period after the 2022 wedding — and because her name continues to be dragged back into conversations about the Beckhams.
The latest round of headlines intensified in January, when Brooklyn shared a long social media statement that appeared to lend weight to allegations at the centre of the rift — claims that have been tied to reports he has stopped speaking to his parents.
“There’s been a lot of press and a lot of talk. I haven’t really spoken out about Brooklyn or my time with the family since then; I had that chapter in my life and wanted to move on from it,” Cross told the magazine.
“But with the constant press that comes out, and with my name always being linked back into it, it’s hard not to be mentally drawn back into that part of my life, especially with all this feud stuff coming out.”
Cross said she was taken aback by the tone and intensity of Brooklyn’s post, particularly as it touched on the idea of “Brand Beckham.” However, she suggested she wasn’t surprised by the substance of what he implied, saying it echoed what she experienced.
Cross said this did ‘sum up a lot of [her] own experiences as well and the way that their family as a brand does act’.
“But then, nobody knows what’s going on behind closed doors,” Cross added. “But I do think it’s sad that everything had to be put out there on his side, so openly and publicly.”