We’ve gently teased Brooklyn Beckham for years, but I do have a soft spot for him. He’s failed on a huge stage repeatedly, but he keeps changing course and trying to find “his thing,” his inspiration, his purpose. It helps that he doesn’t seem like a bad guy at all – he’s pretty harmless overall. His purpose is not football or photography or modeling. But he likes being married (to Nicola Peltz) and he likes being involved with food. Currently, he’s promoting his new hot sauce and eventual condiment line. He recently chatted with Grazia about his nepo-baby status, food and more. Some highlights:
His food business Cloud23. ‘Up until now, people don’t really know what I do. I’ve been working on this project for three years now. And still, everyone’s like, what does he do? He doesn’t work!’
On nepo babies: ‘Obviously I am one. But I couldn’t help how I was born, at all.’ Rather than dwell on it, he says he tries to let criticism slide off him, like egg from a non-stick frying pan. His determination to be Teflon is, he says, down to his parents’ long-standing advice. ‘There’s always going to be people that say rubbish. But as long as you do something that makes you happy and you’re kind to people, that’s all that matters.’ He has grown to accept, he says, ‘that I’m always gonna get it, no matter what I do. And I’m fine with that. It makes me work harder, because I’m like, I’m gonna prove these people wrong.’
His dad’s Netflix series reminded everyone how Brooklyn’s life has been crazy since birth: Watching it now, he recognises that ‘it’s crazy how I was so young. I was literally a baby. And I still remember so many little parts of that…. There’s a lot of me growing up, when my dad was playing for [Manchester] United and my mum was in the Spice Girls, and how hectic it was. I think people realised, a little bit, when that came out, and they’re like, “Oh sh-t, like, he really had it, he was really young.”’
He loves his wife & dogs: The idea of insulating himself with his wife and their dogs seems to appeal a great deal. Angel, Beckham’s three-legged rescue puppy, comes to every shoot he does; he seems reassured by her presence. He says dogs are ‘so much better than humans. Always happy to see you. Always make you feel better.’
He hopes he will be a dad soon. ‘Whenever my wife’s ready. I’ve always wanted to be a young dad. I love that my dad’s young. He was like my mate.’ He does want to replicate his own childhood, he says, in many ways. ‘Just how my dad raised me. So loving. I really know I’m going to be a great dad. My mum and dad were the best mum and dad ever. They did an amazing job. I think I turned out all right.’ That said, ‘I don’t think it’s going to be as hectic as when I was a baby. So that might be a little bit different.’
Putting out a hot sauce: ‘I’ve never been that lazy person to just sit back and just do nothing. I really want to make a name for myself. I want my kids to grow up and be like, “My daddy did that.” That’s what I think about. I worked so hard on not just attaching my name to a hot sauce and just putting it out. I decided every little aspect. I’ve never worked so hard on something,’ he says. He is keen to differentiate it from previous projects which, he says, ‘didn’t turn out the way I had wished. I did enjoy photography for a minute, then I ended up not enjoying it; I wasn’t passionate about it.’
My impression of Brooklyn is that he’s not all that ambitious, actually. Which is fine – as much as I admire go-getters and hustlers, some people aren’t built that way and that’s okay. Some people aren’t about the grind life. Brooklyn doesn’t want to be the best, the greatest whatever. He wants to be a homebody with his wife and dogs. And now he’s dabbling in the condiment industry. Normalize having little to no hustle! And he really wants to be a father. I suspect he wants to be a stay-at-home dad while Nicola works. Which is also fine and something which should be normalized.
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Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
