David Beckham's Response

[GrooveArmada]

The family feud has had a number of dedicated threads already, this is not a repeat.

I want to focus on DB's today's response, available here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/20/children-make-mistakes-david-beckham-brooklyn-post

"Children make mistakes" - I find it incredibly offensive and gaslighting. His son is a 26 year old adult man. A husband. He isn't talking about a 5 year old in Reception here.

I think his PR advised him to put children into his response to seemingly soften it, but I think he's very undermining to Brooklyn and this language smacks of being controlling.

AIBU?

I think the burning question of the hour is: What the hell is David Beckham doing at Davos??
It's bizarre!

He didn’t specifically mention Brooklyn in that interview.

Yes, that too!

But what else do you think he was referring to today?

None of us know why has really happened here. It’s sad for everyone in the family.

It’s one big cringe fest, so uncouth!

What word should be used for one’s adult offspring?

I saw that and I presumed it was made up.

It comes off as very superior and yes gaslighting.

He really is not doing himself any favours with those comments.

If he was open to meeting up to fix this he would have done so when they were in London for the week of his birthday. His words are cheap if his actions are the way this suggests.

Good point. It is accurate, but I can't get on board with his tone.

Good point. It is accurate, but I can't get on board with his tone.

Yeah, it's hard to know. My gut feeling is that the Beckham set up wasn't good but maybe not as bad as Brooklyn thought, but discussing it with his wife they came to the conclusion it wasn't acceptable and he was happier away from it.

I would presume he is not living off his parents money and fully financially independent from them?

Also his references to how he uses SM to support Unicef, again, a sly dig at his son using it to express personal issues. David Beckham loves to pose as holier than thou, but he's far from it and those of us remembering his multiple scandals over the years know it, this is not a secret. Denying the reality.

Yanbu. Really sneery response from David.

Pity all this didn't come out a year ago prior to him finally getting the knighthood he was always grasping for.

He said this as part of a panel discussion on social media. He didn’t actually reply to questions about Brooklyn. Not that facts matter to the press reports

I gasped at that. Total gaslighting. How about the parents mistakes?

Although if it wasn’t about BB as pp says maybe not as heinous.

Ok - but he is well versed in talking publicly and there is no way in which he would not have known how his words would be received today.

He's there as a 'global advocate for children’s rights' apparently. The man who has paraded his daughter in public from the age of 11 or 12 years old wearing what can only be described as an assortment of satin slips/wedding night negligees.

Only children make mistakes eh David? what about your multiple affairs....

”People”

Unless your intention is to infantilise your adult offspring and absolve yourself of any blame in a situation.

This entire situation is the epitome of dirty linen in public.

I don’t disagree. But at the same time it was in response to a direct question about children and social media. So any answer he’d given would have been taken as a comment on his son’s social media post.

It’s pretty textbook for narcissistic parents to infantilise their estranged children. Treating them as naughty/sulking children (rather than adults who have chosen to end a relationship) enables them to keep the drama live and immediate. Another way they do this is to wang on about estrangement being an act of daily ongoing cruelty rather than an ending. It means they don’t have to accept it or engage with the reasons why it happened (which they almost always have had spelt out to them, despite them being universally “baffled”).

I hope the younger Beckham chap has someone honest and intelligent advising him. Dealing with parents like this is difficult and painful. David may have a brain the size of a Brazil nut, but Victoria is apparently quite calculating and they are both selfish, greedy and colder than a witch’s tit.

He was at Davos last year too. Does events for UNICEF.

Is he such a great ambassador for children and UNICEF? Wouldn't be my first choice, whether before Brooklyn's comments or certainly now.

I take the point his comments today are at risk of being misconstrued, but then perhaps a better option would have been to be more cautious or maybe not do a panel discussion today. It doesn't sit right at all to me.