Watching the breakdown of Brooklyn Beckham’s once-close relationship with his parents David and Victoria, I am reminded of another celebrity marriage mired in acrimony. Neither Brooklyn, nor his wife Nicola Peltz, turned up for any of his dad’s 50th birthday celebrations earlier this month, despite being in England when the parties were being held, something David and Victoria are said to be ‘absolutely furious’ about.

The row between the Beckhams and their eldest son bears all the hallmarks of Meghan and Harry’s catastrophic rift with the Royal Family when they ‘Megxited’ Britain for Montecito.

Indeed, Harry’s relationship with his father also reached a dramatic climax earlier this month when he revealed in a BBC interview that he is now so estranged from his family that King Charles won’t take his calls – and even that he doesn’t know how long his ailing father has left to live.

Yes, Brooklyn hasn’t yet ‘done a Harry’ and written his own memoir about how awful the Beckhams are. Nor have he and Nicola offered Oprah a sensational tell-all interview accusing their family of being racists. Or launched their own series on Netflix.

But I’ve watched what Nicola and Brooklyn have done over the past few weeks and now wonder if Nicola – who friends say Victoria has dubbed the ‘Viper’ – has long been taking notes on how the Duchess of Sussex managed to separate her husband from his family and friends, before monetising their relationship off the back of his fame.

For the sad truth is that Nicola appears to have used the Meghan Markle handbook, how to gorge off your husband’s celebrity, while simultaneously cutting him off from everything he knows.

Let’s look at the similarities. Both Nicola and Meghan were ambitious, aspiring B-list actresses who never made their big break into Hollywood as they’d dreamed.

Meghan’s brush with ‘stardom’ was in the US legal drama Suits which, until she married Harry, not many had heard of in Britain. Meanwhile, Hollywood hopeful Nicola had an agent from the age of 12 and a film debut in Christmas comedy Deck The Halls, which sank without trace.

Pictures of Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham at a Wendy's bash in matching pink outfits went viral just months after their £3million wedding

The row between the Beckhams and their eldest son bears all the hallmarks of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's catastrophic rift with the Royal Family when they 'Megxited' Britain for Montecito. Pictured in 2020

Two bright, beautiful and fiercely ambitious alpha-women seeking the limelight, their dream Hollywood careers dashed. So what did they both do? Marry a really famous guy from a family dynasty and ride the coattails of their name and celebrity status.

Meanwhile, they have latched on to famous acquaintances, as Meghan did with stars such as Serena Williams and the Clooneys, inviting them to her £32million wedding even though she hardly knew them. Or as Nicola has always done, embracing the famous supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid during her relationship with their brother, Anwar, which ended in 2018.

Just as the TV actress Meghan Markle achieved her dream of becoming the Duchess of Sussex before fleeing the UK, trashing the Royal Family and reinventing herself as a feminist and philanthropist in America under her married name, Nics now insists on the title ‘Mrs Nicola Peltz Beckham’.

Her billionaire dad, who made his fortune with his profitable but rather unglamorous frozen food business Peltz & Sons, wasn’t a name associated with the glitz of the A-list.

Just as when Meghan married Harry, Nicola’s relationship with Brooklyn offered her entry into worlds she had long dreamt of.

Meghan's brush with 'stardom' was in the US legal drama Suits which, until she married Harry, not many had heard of in Britain

Nicola embraced a relationship with the supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid (left) while dating their brother, Anwar

The daughter of a frozen food empire tycoon suddenly took centre stage. Just months after their £3million wedding, she and Brooklyn attended a bash hosted by American fast-food giant Wendy’s – in which her father Nelson is an investor – wearing matching pink outfits.

As Nicola had probably calculated, the pictures went viral. It was one of the first Beckham-Peltz endorsements and as one insider said: ‘Nicola is very much making the most of the Beckham name. She might hate David and Victoria but she doesn’t half like their surname.’

They added: ‘She might be very rich, but she wouldn’t be getting any of this attention if it wasn’t for her husband Brooklyn and his family.’ That attention has since seen Nicola land a lucrative deal with Pepe Jeans and various appearances in Vogue magazine.

Which brings us to another stark similarity. The tragedy is that both Harry and Brooklyn married ‘strong’ women who, despite their charades of being carefree and kind, are control freaks. Meghan and Nicola have both embarked on their own commercial ventures, while leaving their husbands isolated from their own support networks.

It is reported that Brooklyn has lost contact with all his former friends – for example Madonna’s son Rocco Ritchie and Noel Gallagher’s daughter Anais. The same has happened to Harry, who now has but a handful friends left from his inner circle, the ‘Band of Brothers’. Even his beloved Sentebale charity, set up in tribute to his late mother, is in chaos. He’s now chook-feeder-in-chief to the rescue hens he and Meghan house at their Montecito mansion.

Both men have settled into their role of the useful idiot: plus ones and arm candy for their ambitious wives.

What a pity Nicola hasn’t learnt from her mother-in-law Victoria. After all, the woman who can’t sing became a member of the most famous girl band in the world, The Spice Girls, encapsulating girl power – while also letting her husband David shine in his own right.

As we saw in the Netflix series Beckham, the mother-in-law Nicola reportedly loathes is funny, smart, hard-working, a devoted wife and mother – and the creator of an international fashion empire. She is a woman to admire.

How it must hurt David and Victoria to now be so isolated from their first child. How different it could have all been had Nicola, no doubt jealous of Victoria’s success both as a designer and loving mum, not cut her hapless husband off from his family.

Sadly for the Beckhams, I guess that’s what you get when your dim-witted son marries an ambitious, social-climbing viper. Just ask Harry, currently out feeding the chickens.