‘Brooklyn’s nans are devastated – they only want he’d come again into their arms’: KATIE HIND on the Beckhams’ first Christmas with out their estranged son

It is the photograph which, above all others, sums up how much hope the extended Beckham family still have of a Christmas miracle.

Posted on Instagram by Victoria last week, the snap was taken at the Hertfordshire home of her parents, Jackie and Tony Adams, and revealed a fireplace resplendent with traditional festive cheer.

Twelve Christmas stockings had been carefully lined up in a row – one for each of their grandchildren. And in pride of place was one reserved for Brooklyn, 26, David and Victoria’s eldest son, who has had no contact with his family since a devastating rift tore the clan apart earlier this year.

However hard this separation has been on the Beckhams, including Brooklyn’s younger siblings Romeo, Cruz and Harper, it has taken a particularly acute toll on Jackie, as well as David’s mother Sandra.

Some argue that hanging up Brooklyn’s stocking, regardless of the feud, is a sign of hope on Jackie’s part that – somehow, despite everything – Christmas might finally persuade her grandson to put aside his grudges and step on a plane to rejoin the family.

But it might be the one gift that all the Beckhams’ millions cannot buy. Sources say the best anyone can hope for – which, admittedly, ‘could happen’ – is a phone or video call from the other side of the Atlantic where Brooklyn lives with his billionaire heiress wife Nicola Peltz.

‘Brooklyn loved his nan, both of them, and he couldn’t do enough for them before this awful row took hold,’ says one insider.

‘He and his grandparents, who haven’t done anything wrong, were extraordinarily close,’ the source adds.

‘Brooklyn always loved being around his family at Christmas, but that has all changed. The way things are at the moment means his family won’t see him.

‘It has hit them hard. Everyone misses Brooklyn, they wish he’d come back into their arms.’

Friends of the Beckhams say Jackie and Sandra are ‘extremely sad’ about the situation.

Their relationship with Brooklyn was cemented when they looked after him as a young child while David and Victoria were busy with their respective football and pop careers. The affection went both ways. Sources say Brooklyn beamed in both Jackie and Sandra’s presence at family get-togethers.

While David and Victoria are begrudgingly making their peace with not having their firstborn around, one source familiar with the fallout says that it’s the grandmothers who are struggling to accept it.

‘They’re not getting any younger and the cold truth of it all is that nobody knows when they will see Brooklyn next. It’s Jackie and Sandra who everyone feels so sorry for,’ the source says.

I’m told Brooklyn failed to contact his grandfather Tony on his birthday in May, just weeks after not attending any of David’s milestone 50th birthday celebrations.

And both Jackie and Sandra were said to have been ‘very surprised’ to learn that Brooklyn and Nicola had renewed their wedding vows earlier this year without telling anyone.

‘Imagine waking up and seeing that, if you’re a woman in your 70s who absolutely adores your grandson,’ says an insider. ‘It would have been absolutely devastating.’

On David’s part, a reunion hasn’t been for the lack of trying. On Thursday, the former England captain shared an Instagram photo of himself alongside Victoria, 51, Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20 and Harper, 14, as they celebrated his Inter Miami football team winning their first MLS Cup title last weekend. 

Most poignantly, David included a throwback snap of himself with Brooklyn and his brothers, which was taken after he won the same cup as a player with LA Galaxy in 2011 and again in 2012.

An emotional Becks captioned the snaps ‘Licence to cry’, in what has been perceived by some to be an olive branch to Brooklyn.

‘David will never give up trying,’ says a source close to him.

He and Victoria will spend some of the festive period in the £60million home they recently bought on Miami’s waterfront.

It was where they were joined last year by Brooklyn and Nicola, and photographs of their Christmas celebrations show everyone having what appeared to be a lovely time.

But in reality, the cracks were already surfacing. And those days were among the last the family spent all together.

Brooklyn and Nicola, 30, who live in Los Angeles, have spent previous festive seasons at the Beckhams’ stunning £12million converted barn in the Cotswolds.

But this year, I’m told, the family is bracing itself for a slew of happy photographs the young couple will post online of their Christmas with Nicola’s parents – US businessman Nelson Peltz and his wife Claudia – who Brooklyn is said to be increasingly close to.

It is claimed that the young runaways will only countenance peace if the Beckhams issue a public apology for allegedly ‘briefing stories to the Press’ about the ongoing feud.

There will be nothing of the sort, I’m told. For a start, David and Victoria have not put anything into the public domain about their son and his wife.

And I know for a fact (I have the emails) that Brooklyn and Nicola have themselves tried to lash out at his parents with some abhorrent slurs.

The sorry saga has been simmering since 2020 when Brooklyn flew to LA to spend lockdown with Nicola.

Tensions increased when Victoria and her daughter-in-law clashed during preparations for the couple’s £3million wedding at the Peltz estate on Palm Beach, Florida, over who would design her wedding gown.

But relations unravelled completely in March, when Brooklyn snubbed his father’s early birthday celebrations in Miami.

He subsequently failed to attend a series of events to mark the occasion back in the UK, leaving his parents devastated.

‘David and Victoria have accepted where this is at,’ says a source. ‘But their primary worry now are their parents. It’s awful and it hits home at a time like Christmas.’