It was just a few months after their £3million wedding that Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz attended a launch event staged by American fast food giant Wendy’s for a new summer dessert.

In keeping with the colour scheme of the pudding – a confection called Strawberry Frosty – they dressed in pink for their trip to Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.

There, Brooklyn posed in an ice cream van emblazoned with the Wendy’s logo while the couple kissed for the cameras.

The event got column inches across the world much, I’m sure, to the delight of the chain’s owner, Nelson Peltz – Nicola’s billionaire father – and her older brother Matthew, who runs the firm.

They were joined by Nicola’s other siblings, though it is undeniable that it was Brooklyn’s attendance that gave the event the stardust it needed.

It was one of the very first Beckham-Peltz joint endorsements – and it’s likely there will be many more to come. 

‘Nicola is very much making the most of the Beckham name,’ said a source close to the family. ‘She might hate David and Victoria, but she doesn’t half like their surname.’

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz at a launch event for Strawberry Frosty dessert at Wendy’s in Hollywood

David Beckham's pointed post yesterday for American Mother's Day showing Victoria and children

Nicola’s commercial ventures have certainly gone well since she married Brooklyn at the Peltz’s £76 million mansion in Florida.

There’s been a lucrative deal with Pepe Jeans, appearances in Vogue magazine and her movie, Lola, got far more attention than it would have done had Brooklyn and his parents not been there.

‘They are always together – you can’t help but think it’s Nicola who is making sure this happens,’ said the source. ‘She might be very rich, but she wouldn’t be getting any of the attention if it wasn’t for her husband and his family.’

This, say friends of the family, has irritated the Beckhams, who believe 30-year-old Nicola holds disproportionate sway in her marriage to their son, Brooklyn, 26.

‘They think Nicola is a bit of a horror but she isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,’ one said.

‘Nicola loves having Brooklyn at her side and she loves him very much. But he is also very useful.

‘The wider Beckham family and Brooklyn’s friends – many of whom he no longer sees – take the view that he does what Nicola wants. From Beckhams’ point of view, it’s not nice to watch.’

That why their friends fear the rift between the Beckhams and Brooklyn will not be healed while the young couple are together.

The Beckhams can hardly be blamed for their distress at the situation. Brooklyn and Nicola missed all of David’s celebrations to mark his 50th birthday this month – siblings Romeo, Cruz and Harper were all in attendance.

They were no shows at the big family party at David and Victoria’s Cotswolds home, an idyllic trip to France, and they were also notably absent from a meal at Notting Hill restaurant, Core. Brooklyn also missed a ‘boys’’ fishing trip with his brothers to the Scottish Highlands which his dad organised six months ago.

And he and Nicola also swerved an A-list bash at the upmarket Cipriani restaurant in Miami which players from his Inter Miami football team planned.

Keen for the feud to remain quiet, it was claimed they didn’t attend that one due to work commitments. Rightly or wrongly, the Beckhams blame Nicola.

‘She won’t change and Brooklyn’s parents are absolutely furious. They are done with her. Nicola seems to be well and truly done with them too so it’s a case of long-term estrangement,’ said the source. ‘The Beckhams feel that this has been going on since Nicola and Brooklyn married.’

It is Father’s Day in just over a month but it seems unlikely Brooklyn will be in touch for that. There is also Harper’s 14th birthday in July. Once the doting big brother, you can only hope Brooklyn makes a fuss of her, at least.

What is so terribly sad is that the Beckhams seem to have had a different life in mind for their son.

The family celebrate David's 50th without Brooklyn and Nicola in the Cotswolds, one of five parties the couple did not attend

When Brooklyn turned 14, his parents told him he had to get a job, wanting to teach him the value of money. Just back living in the UK after four years in Los Angeles, they wanted to avoid him becoming a brat.

How proud they were when he landed a job at a small French cafe in Kensington. He only worked a few hours on a Saturday morning but it gave him a work ethic they hoped would remain.

‘David and Victoria have done a great job of bringing their children up to be kind, have manners and also understand that they have to work for a living,’ said a friend.

‘Brooklyn is a nice young man. But his parents think Nicola is a bratty heiress and fear she wants to hang on to his coat tails.’

While Brooklyn tried his hand at numerous careers – sometimes with the help of his mother – before he met Nicola, he was studying photography and was working as a model.

Once he got together with Nicola, however, his new projects provoked open laughter. Who could forget the toe-curling cooking videos in which Brooklyn showed us how to make meals such as an omelette and a jacket potato with cheese and beans?

‘It made money and Nicola would have been encouraging him,’ said one insider.

Brooklyn has recently released a hot sauce, Cloud 23 – his father’s squad number at Real Madrid and latterly LA Galaxy. Earlier this year he revealed that he is also trying his luck at being a racing driver.

‘There doesn’t seem much of a desire to get a proper career,’ said one source. ‘The Beckhams hate the whole “nepo” label... this recent stuff is a bit embarrassing.’

Sadly, Brooklyn’s appearances on social media are about as close as his parents will get to their son, for the moment at least.

I’m assured by sources close to the family that they are bearing up – reminding themselves how lucky they have been in life.

‘It is all very difficult but they realise they are like any other family,’ said one friend. ‘There will always be one who loses their way. They just hope he finds his way back.’