I can’t believe I’m going to sit here and defend Brooklyn Beckham, but that’s exactly what is about to happen. First off, the backstory: the Spice Girls’ Mel B has a 25-year-old daughter named Phoenix Chi Gulzar. Phoenix has made a documentary called Born in the Limelight: Nepo Babies. Within the documentary, Phoenix claims that Prince William is the ultimate nepo baby, and that there’s barely a difference between William and someone like Brooklyn Beckham. While I agree that William is a nepo baby, I disagree with the Brooklyn Beckham comparison!
The Prince of Wales is the ultimate nepo baby, according to the daughter of Spice Girl Mel B, who has compared him to Brooklyn Beckham. Phoenix Chi Gulzar, 25, has made a Channel 4 documentary called Born in the Limelight: Nepo Babies.
In the programme she asks why Brooklyn, the son of David and Victoria Beckham, is pilloried for having career opportunities handed to him on a plate, while Prince William, whom she describes as “the most famous aristo nepo”, is not.
“I wonder why society has accepted the ultimate nepo baby in the Royal family but not in the world of celebrities?” she asks.
The documentary includes analysis of social media posts about the two men, finding that 51 per cent of references to Beckham’s career are negative compared with 35 per cent of those about the Prince’s endeavours. Beckham’s varied career includes working as a model, photographer and chef. He hosted an online cookery programme which reportedly required a team of 62 to film him making a sandwich. The 25-year-old currently describes himself as an “entrepreneur” and recently launched a company selling organic hot sauce for £29.
The Beckhams’ middle son, Cruz, 19, gave a bizarre response recently to jibes about his “nepo baby” status. The aspiring musician shared a taster of his new song on Instagram on Christmas Day and wrote: “Jesus was also a nepo baby.” He later deleted the comment.
Gulzar, a DJ and entrepreneur, is the daughter of Melanie Brown and her first husband, Jimmy Gulzar, who was a dancer with the Spice Girls. She argues in the programme that young aristocrats who receive money from trust funds are no different to the children of celebrities, but they avoid criticism by going under the radar.
If anything, I think society should be a lot kinder to someone like Brooklyn. Yes, he’s failed up multiple times and he’s gotten bored and abandoned various careers, but none of it was taxpayer-funded. No one is paying for a celebrity nepo-baby’s lifestyle but their parents. UK taxpayers are paying for William to play with shovels. UK taxpayers are paying for Kate’s buttons and Camilla’s booze. That’s a lot worse! Honestly, though, Phoenix’s general thesis is correct, and she should talk more about the class divide between nepo babies. As in, the son of some lord or earl isn’t called a nepo baby because he was born into the aristocracy. There’s also an implicit conversation about new money versus old money – the old-money people look down on new-money parents financing their kids’ careers, all while the old-money parents do the exact same thing.
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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
