Brooklyn Beckham is besotted. ‘Me and my girl. Luckiest man in the world. Love you baby,’ he writes.
His slightly older girlfriend responds: ‘Thank you for making me the happiest girl in the world. I love you! Happy Valentine’s Day.’
The pair have only been dating for a few weeks but already the ‘L’ word is being used, and on social media, too.
Then there is the new tattoo on Brooklyn’s arm which reads ‘I will always love you’.
This is not, however, a scene from the early days of his romance with actress Nicola Peltz, the woman who is now his wife and at the centre of the most toxic public family fallout since Prince Harry fled Britain and denounced the royals on primetime TV.
Rather, it is a description of the relationship that preceded the Beckham-Peltz marriage: that between David and Victoria’s eldest son and model Hana Cross, whom he dated for around ten months from late 2018.
And if the parallels between the beginnings of the two love affairs are striking – soppy social media posts, flamboyant inkings and a girfriend clad in VB designs with more than a passing resemblance to his mother – it is the demise of the relationship with Hana that has prompted close scrutiny this week.
Indeed it could be that the seeds of the current schism in the Beckham family actually lie in the lessons Brooklyn learned from what happened with Hana.
Brooklyn Beckham dated Hana Cross for around ten months
Indeed it could be that the seeds of the current schism in the Beckham family actually lie in the lessons Brooklyn learned from what happened with Hana, writes Katie Hind
Just days after I revealed this week that Hana had been warned off telling her side of the story by some in Brooklyn’s camp – although her spokesman says she acted ‘of her own free will’ – I can now reveal a fuller picture of that ill-fated union and the role his parents had leading up to their break-up.
In scenes highly reminiscent of today’s feud, with little hope of reconciliation following last week’s bombshell statement from Brooklyn, I can reveal that his relationship with Hana was also subject to parental interference.
Incredibly, there were complaints from the Beckhams that Brooklyn was not putting the family first when he was with Hana, that he was neglecting his grandparents and that his girfriend wouldn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), preventing her from talking about private family matters.
I can even reveal that the Beckhams staged ‘an intervention’ to see more of their son and also disinvited Hana to David’s 44th birthday celebrations.
A source at the time said: ‘The relationship is becoming an increasing problem for the Beckhams. It is causing friction.’
This week a friend of the family told the Daily Mail that Brooklyn was ‘besotted and naive’ in the romance with Hana from the very beginning – as the family believe he now is with Nicola.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, the friend says: ‘He was always like that – naive. He and Hana were together about a year as I recall but he was much younger then. She wasn’t “The One”.’
‘It became clear during the relationship that David and Victoria really didn’t like Hana. This was difficult and painful and she felt that they put pressure on Brooklyn over it.’
Meanwhile friends of Hana, now 27, say that she remembers issues with his parents at the time and that he was treated as the family ‘black sheep’.
But more than that, she was left distressed and needing to ‘heal’ after their ‘toxic’ relationship.
According to a song she recorded after the break-up, her young lover had a ‘habit for dishonesty’, thought of her as ‘temporary’ and, woundingly, broke up with her without even giving a reason why.
Victoria Beckham, friends tell the Daily Mail, ‘really didn’t like Hana’
But if, as we shall see, there was a clear link between the end of the relationship with Hana and pressure exerted on Brooklyn from his parents, the motivation behind his incendiary 1,200-word repudiation of his family on Instagram last week, becomes clearer.
To recap: Brooklyn said that his family had tried to ruin his marriage, that he doesn’t want to make up with them, and that all that matters to them is looking good on social media.
His parents are, he claimed, ‘performative’ and ‘inauthentic’, and this had caused him anxiety which only stepping away and being with his wife have healed.
Back in 2018, the relationship with Hana got off to a promising start.
The pair were introduced by a friend of Brooklyn’s cousin Libby Adams, the daughter of Victoria’s sister Louise. They stared dating in December of that year when he was 19 and she was 20, nearly 21.
At the time Hana was a very successful young model, feted for her perfect brows and effortless cool.
No nepo baby, she was born Hana Mahmood in Leeds, to Sarah, a shop manager and Khalid, a shop proprietor. Later, the family – including older brother Haris – moved to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, where Hana left secondary school after her GCSEs to pursue a modelling career under the surname Cross.
Her big break was winning a talent competition to be the face of fashion brand New Look. Appearances in Glamour and Tatler magazines swiftly followed.
The first sighting of her with Brooklyn was – where else? – at a Brand Beckham event. In this case, it was a party in London’s fashionable Notting Hill in December 2018 to celebrate whisky brand Haig Club, which David was plugging at the time.
A week later the romance was confirmed when they strolled around the British Fashion Awards at the Albert Hall hand-in-hand.
At this point, the Beckhams were having a period of what seemed to onlookers like a spell of marital discord. Inside the ceremony, David chatted with his best friend Dave Gardner and with Rita Ora, while Victoria, stony-faced, turned her back on him.
But the blossoming love affair enjoyed by Brooklyn captured at least some of the headlines.
Hana’s first (and only) Christmas chez Beckham followed, including New Year celebrations to mark the start of 2019 with an ostentatious fireworks display at the family’s Cotswolds home.
Victoria, David and Brooklyn all posted pictures of the party, with the whole clan lining up on a sofa, including David’s sister Joanne and his mum Sandra.
Dave Gardner joined them with his then-wife, the Hollywood actress Liv Tyler.
None of it seemed to phase Hana in the slightest.
Come early January and she was on the front row of a Kent & Curwen show at London Fashion Week at which David presented his own clothing range, inspired by the TV drama Peaky Blinders. On her Instagram page, Hana showed off a VB ensemble and wrote: ‘Love love love my new beanie, hoodie and bomber from #reebokxvictoriabeckham.’
Victoria, for her own part, wrote on Twitter that Hana was ‘looking great’ dressed from head-to-toe in another outfit from her range – a £1,195 parka jacket, £1,765 leather trousers and a £100 T-shirt.
In February, Hana was on the front row of Victoria’s fashion show in London in VB £575 orange trousers and a £420 lace T-shirt, sitting close to Vogue boss Anna Wintour.
Two months later in April and Hana was front and centre again at the celebrations for Victoria’s 45th birthday in Los Angeles with everything from the doughnut-themed breakfast to the family dinner at Italian restaurant Giorgio Baldi documented on Instagram.
Amid all this synergistic plugging, things appeared to be moving fast for the young couple, and it was revealed that Brooklyn and Hana were being given the self-contained staff quarters in the Beckhams’ London house in Holland Park ‘for privacy’.
A family source revealed: ‘David and Victoria love having Brooklyn at home when he’s in London.
‘But he’s nearly 20 and they have decided that he needs some independence. It’s a great way for Brooklyn to make steps towards moving out, but not for good just yet, and it means he can spend as much time with Hana as he likes.’
Soon afterwards it was said that one of the three barns which make up the Cotswolds house was being turned into similar accommodation for the young couple.
But away from the carefully curated public pronouncements about the relationship, cracks were beginning to show.
And some might interpret the Beckhams’ close involvement in the burgeoning romance as more controlling than supportive, possibly sparked by concerns that tensions were building in the romance.
In March a row had erupted between Brooklyn and Hana when they attended a music gig in Camden, North London.
A source said: ‘It had been a bit of a wild night out and it got a bit messy. Brooklyn got really upset and ended up storming into the street. Hana read him the riot act and told him she didn’t like it when he was acting up, drinking too much.’
Away from the carefully curated public pronouncements about the romance, cracks were beginning to show in Brooklyn and Hana’s relationship
Brooklyn and Hana have a tearful argument after dining at restaurant Madeo in Beverly Hill, Los Angeles, in 2010
Then in May came a public spat that seemed to come out of nowhere at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The two of them were there to attend the premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
But over lunch a few days later, a truly nasty, noisy fight kicked off between them on the terrace of the Martinez hotel where both had been drinking champagne.
Hana apparently confronted Brooklyn about something and then angrily turned away from him. There was ‘screaming and crying’ and the Beckhams’ security intervened to tell them to cool down.
Brooklyn was, it was reported, jealous of his girlfriend drawing male attention.
Sources said that David and Victoria were ‘seriously frustrated’ and also concerned by what appeared to be a ‘toxic’ relationship and a ‘humiliating public drama’.
Not only that, but according to friends a source of tension was Brooklyn’s refusal to make Hana sign a non-disclosure agreement – which had pitted him against his famous parents.
David and Victoria reportedly wanted to gag Hana to protect Brooklyn in case they split – but their romantic son didn’t want to put the ‘brand’ first.
A source said at the time: ‘The Beckhams make nearly all employees and associates sign NDAs and they’ve asked that Hana sign one. But loyal Brooklyn refuses and thinks it’s insulting.
‘Brooklyn has a wonderful life and enjoys the trappings of fame, but his family are worried that he’s going out in the middle of the night, getting up to God-knows-what.’
The source went on: ‘They’re hoping this is just a phase, and he will soon focus entirely on his photography career, which is now really beginning to flourish. These are exciting times for him, and understandably Victoria and David don’t want any distractions.’
Hana was not invited to David’s birthday celebrations that May – which is strikingly similar to reports that David wanted Brooklyn to come alone to his 50th birthday celebrations last year.
And by June, reports suggested that his parents were ‘staging an intervention’ to freeze Hana out.
At that time, David apparently asked his son simply to spend more time with the family than with Hana.
In late June there was reported upset over Brooklyn not attending his grandmother Sandra’s 70th birthday celebrations. Instead he was on holiday in Malibu with Hana.
A source said at the time: ‘It’s pretty much a three-line whip to turn up at family events. Instead, Brooklyn went on holiday, which frankly, he could have taken another time.’
How reminiscent this is of the recent criticisms of Brooklyn for not being in touch with his grandparents.
Soon afterwards, within a matter of weeks, he and Hana had parted for good.
All of which raises the question – did Brooklyn learn from the demise of his romance with Hana, under pressure from his family, that he needed to protect Nicola from those same demands?
Back in 2019 he was asked to show up, to conform to the family timetable, and to put his love life second to Brand Beckham.
That was the end of the romance. This time around, as we all know, he chose to do things very differently.