Brooklyn Beckham Married Into A Billionaire Family With A Very Bizarre Inheritance Story Side Story

Back in April 2022, Brooklyn Beckham, the son of soccer star David Beckham and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, married actress/heiress Nicola Peltz.

As an actress, Nicola is best known for her roles in movies like "The Last Airbender," "Bates Motel," and "Transformers: Age of Extinction." She's an heiress because her father his billionaire Nelson Peltz, who made his fortune in the 1980s through leveraged buyouts, activist investing, and high-stakes corporate takeovers that reshaped major American companies.

Nicola's mom, Claudia Heffner Peltz, is a former fashion model. She is Nelson's third wife. Nicola has one sister and six brothers, including former professional hockey player Brad Peltz and actor Will Peltz.

(Photo by Callaghan Walsh/Getty Images)

When Brooklyn and Nicola married in Palm Beach in April 2022, the union was widely portrayed as a glamorous joining of two wealthy, famous families. Unfortunately, the union was cursed almost from the start.

At their wedding, one moment in particular would later take on near-mythical status. As a gift to the couple, singer Marc Anthony took the stage to perform. Before beginning, he addressed the crowd and invited "the most beautiful woman in the room" to join him. Most guests assumed he was speaking about the bride. Instead, Anthony called up Victoria Beckham.

According to multiple accounts from attendees, the room went quiet. Nicola was reportedly stunned, and the moment landed as deeply awkward at best and humiliating at worst. In the years that followed, fans and tabloids would repeatedly point back to that scene as the symbolic start of the Beckham-Peltz cold war. Whether fair or not, it became the anecdote everyone cited when trying to explain why the families never quite seemed to blend.

What followed was a slow, public unraveling. Brooklyn and Nicola began skipping Beckham family events. Social media interactions vanished. Birthdays went unacknowledged. Vacations were taken separately. When David Beckham celebrated his 50th birthday, Brooklyn and Nicola were notably absent, despite having traveled to London. Official explanations were vague. Rumors filled the vacuum.

For a long time, the situation was framed as typical celebrity family drama. A clash of personalities. A wedding slight blown out of proportion. Brooklyn said nothing publicly and appeared to accept being portrayed as distant or difficult.

That changed this week.

In a lengthy and unusually direct public statement, Brooklyn Beckham said he no longer wishes to reconcile with his family. He accused his parents of attacking him and his wife through the press, spreading lies to protect their public image, and repeatedly disrespecting Nicola. He described years of feeling controlled, said he grew up with overwhelming anxiety, and claimed that stepping away from his family was the first time that anxiety had disappeared.

Brooklyn also alleged that his parents attempted to interfere with his wedding, pressured him to sign away rights to his name shortly before the ceremony, and refused to spend time with him unless it was on their terms and on camera. He said his family prioritized "Brand Beckham" over private relationships and genuine reconciliation.

David and Victoria Beckham have not responded publicly.

What once looked like a fairytale wedding between two powerful families now reads very differently. The Marc Anthony moment, the missing Instagram likes, the skipped birthdays, and the wedding gossip no longer feel like isolated incidents. They look like early warning signs of a deeper rupture that has been quietly widening for years.

But Brooklyn's new family is not without its own history of extraordinary wealth, unconventional relationships, and internal fractures that suggest money has a way of complicating even the most intimate bonds. Case and point? Nicola's aunt (her mother's sister), Chandi Duke Heffner…

Chandi Duke Heffner

As a reminder, Nicola's mother is Claudia Heffner Peltz. Claudia's sister, who today goes by Chandi, was born Charlene Gail Heffner. She was born in 1953. The sisters were raised in a modest, religious household. As a young adult, Charlene gravitated toward spirituality, dance, and Eastern philosophy, eventually becoming a Hare Krishna devotee and a belly dancer. In the 1980s, she moved to Hawaii, changed her named to Chandi and through a chance connection from a dance instructor, met Doris Duke at Duke's legendary Honolulu estate, Shangri-La.

At the time, Doris Duke was a deeply lonely figure. In case you've never heard of Doris Duke, open the following article in a separate tab and read it in a minute: In 1925, The Second-Richest Person In The World Was A 12-year-old Girl. TLDR: Doris Duke inherited a tobacco fortune that made her one of the wealthiest women in the world, but her personal life had been defined by failed marriages, numerous affairs, and a single devastating tragedy. In 1940, her only biological child, a daughter named Arden, was born prematurely and died within hours. Duke never recovered from the loss.

For some reason, not long after meeting Doris came to believe that Chandi was the reincarnation of Arden. The belief was not metaphorical. Duke reportedly stated it openly, repeatedly, and sincerely.

The two women became inseparable. Chandi moved into Duke's homes, traveled the world with her, managed staff, and advised her on personal and financial matters. They visited Russia, Romania for experimental "fountain of youth" treatments and shopped for a private Boeing 737. Doris bought Chandi a horse farm on Hawaii's Big Island and promised to take care of her for the rest of her life.

Here's where it gets even weirder: Doris legally adopted Chandi in 1988. At the time, Chandi was 35 years old. Doris was in her mid-70s.

Upon adopting the 35-year-old, Doris reportedly promised to take care of Chandi in the manner she'd become accustomed to for the rest of her life and make her the executor of her will.

Once Chandi was adopted, she took control of Duke's life – running her households, advising her on finances, and traveling with her all over the year. Duke bought Chandi a horse farm on the Big Island of Hawaii, where she lives to this day. And then, in 1991, Duke cut Chandi off. The reasons for this are unknown to this day. But Duke had reportedly promised to take care of Chandi for the rest of her life.

Doris Duke died in 1993. According to the terms of her will, the vast majority of Doris's massive fortune went to charity. Today, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation controls assets worth approximately $2 billion. The Foundation has already given away $1.84 billion in its roughly 30 years of existence.

Chandi was left $0.

Chandi sued.

After years of bitter litigation, the case ended in a settlement. In exchange for dropping all claims to the estate, Chandi received $65 million, a staggering sum, but a fraction of what she once believed she would inherit. Adjusted for inflation, the payout was worth roughly $125 million in today's dollars.

Today, Chandi lives quietly in Hawaii, running an animal rescue and devoting herself to philanthropy and spiritual pursuits. The episode is rarely discussed publicly, but among people familiar with elite wealth, it stands as a cautionary tale about power, dependency, and how quickly proximity to vast fortunes can turn into exile.