Cruz Beckham has shared a throwback photo of himself with his estranged older brother Brooklyn, marking a rare public acknowledgment amid their ongoing family feud.
The 21-year-old posted the childhood snap to his Instagram page over the weekend, tucking it between summer photos with his girlfriend Jackie Apostel, 30. The image shows Cruz, Brooklyn, 27, and Romeo, 23, as young boys on holiday, all topless in sporty shorts with Brooklyn standing tallest in the middle. Cruz offered no caption addressing the photo’s significance, letting the image speak for itself.
The post arrives months after Cruz last broke his silence on the family rift. In December, he fired back at reports claiming his parents had unfollowed Brooklyn on social media. “NOT TRUE,” Cruz wrote on his Instagram Stories alongside a screenshot of coverage. “My mum and dad would never unfollow their son … Let’s get the facts right. They woke up blocked … as did I.”
That defense came just weeks before Brooklyn’s explosive January 19 statement on his own Instagram Stories, where he declared he had “no choice” but to speak out after years of silence. “I do not want to reconcile with my family,” Brooklyn wrote. “I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life.” He accused his parents of trying to “ruin” his relationship with wife Nicola Peltz, claimed they had “controlled” his life, and alleged “Brand Beckham” always came first.
Brooklyn’s six-post takedown included specific allegations about his 2022 wedding to Nicola at her family’s Palm Beach estate. “My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour,” he wrote. “My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song.” He described Victoria dancing “very inappropriately” with him on stage after Marc Anthony called him up, adding: “I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life.”
David Beckham had attempted his own outreach before Cruz’s latest post. On March 4, he shared an old childhood photo of Brooklyn to mark his 27th birthday, writing: “27 Today. Happy Birthday Bust. We love you.” He tagged Victoria but could not tag Brooklyn, who had blocked him. Brooklyn met the gesture with public silence. David tried again on Father’s Day in June, posting a family photo including Brooklyn with the caption: “Being a dad is my most important job… I love you all.”
The brothers still do not follow each other on Instagram as of this writing.
In the viral moment that launched the public phase of this feud, Brooklyn’s January statement shattered years of carefully maintained Beckham family image. He claimed his parents fed “countless lies” to the press, that they pressured him to sign away rights to his name before his wedding, and that family members told him Nicola was “not blood” and “not family” the night before the ceremony. He said his brothers were “sent to attack me on social media” before blocking him, directly contradicting Cruz’s earlier claim that the family had simply “woken up blocked.”
Victoria Beckham finally addressed the estrangement in April, telling The Wall Street Journal: “I think that we’ve always — we love our children so much. We’ve always tried to be the best parents that we can be. And you know, we’ve been in the public eye for more than 30 years right now, and all we’ve ever tried to do is protect our children and love our children. And you know, that’s all I really want to say about it.”
Cruz’s own social media activity has drawn scrutiny for possible hidden messages. Days before the throwback post, he shared a video of himself cracking an egg with the caption “The shell is the best part,” which some followers interpreted as a dig at Brooklyn’s cooking career. His song “Wear & Tear” played in the background with lyrics including “I wanna wear you down.” One commenter noted: “It took me a minute, but this has to be a dig.”
Brooklyn has made his own apparent jabs, including in a recent DoorDash World Cup advert where he told the camera he was watching from home because “it’s a long story,” laughing.