Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Becks’ nephew on breadline
Family rift as he lives in poverty
DAVID Beckham’s hard-up teenage nephew today tells of his heartache at being cast adrift from the superstar’s family.
Freddie Every, 17 – who lives with his struggling father in squalid temporary housing – tells how he grew up playing with his cousins at Posh and Becks’ home and idolised his famous uncle.
But when his dad Colin, 50, and David’s elder sister Lynne split up after 11 years of marriage in 2010 everything changed – and their lives went in totally different directions.
Now jobless Freddie is taking a bricklaying course to make ends meet while watching old playmate Brooklyn, 19, living the high life.
And while his mum and younger brother Josh, 13, live in a £470,000 home his dad claims was bought for them by Becks, Freddie and his old man live on benefits in a one-bedroom flat on a council estate.
Now the shy lad is making a moving bid to get back in touch with the extended family that meant so much to him in childhood.
“I’m filled with mixed emotions,” he says. “I just want to be able to go for a meal and talk and catch up. I’m not asking for more than that.
“Growing up we saw them loads and I have so many happy memories of playing at their house, doing Easter egg hunts and playing on quad bikes.
SADDENED
“Then suddenly it all stopped and I am on the outside looking in, only seeing them live their lives on Instagram or on the TV. We have so much in common still. I love football and am into fashion too – but I never get to share that with them.
“I watched a documentary David did for TV three times to see if he mentioned me at all. But he didn’t, and that was hard.”
The teen looks embarrassed and saddened as he tells how his prized possession is a pair of £200 Yeezy trainers David once sent him as a late Christmas present. At just 21 months younger than Brooklyn, his life couldn’t be more different.
Brooklyn is a millionaire in his own right, modelling for Burberry, recently releasing a book of his photography and snapping models like Cara Delevingne.
While he motors around London’s West End in a £35,000 SWB series 3 Land Rover, Freddie pedals around the East End on a dilapidated mountain bike because he can’t afford driving lessons.
Freddie’s first job at 14 was on a noodle stall at Romford Market, taking home £50 a week. Would-be photographer Brooklyn recently earned £100,000 for a single advert for Chinese mobile brand Huawei.
Freddie admits it’s difficult seeing the cousins he knew including Romeo, 15, and Cruz, 13, flaunt their superstar lifestyle online while he and his dad, LOST COUSINS Freddie, centre, with Brooklyn and Romeo at match
living on government handouts of about £75 a week, swallow their pride and scour supermarket bargain bins up to three times a day for reduced items to put food on the table in their flat in Dagenham, Essex.
Downcast Freddie says: “I think about the difference in our lives sometimes, but it’s hard to explain. Their lives are hard to imagine.
“I don’t really like seeing it but it is what it is at the end of the day. They
are still my family and I’d like to see them again.”
Dad Colin and Lynne Beckham had three children together. After the split an informal agreement saw Colin agree to raise Freddie and his sister Georgina, 20, while Lynne took Josh.
But the relationship between Colin and Lynne is said to be difficult.
Freddie rarely sees his mum and younger brother who are close to David and wife Victoria. Josh is said to enjoy VIP days out in David’s private box at Wembley.
Freddie says he can never imagine having the fortune of Brooklyn, but he is working hard to pull himself out of financial hardship. Every day he goes on a bricklaying course at Barking and Dagenham College, where he gets a much needed £150-a-month bursary as an apprentice.
And while Brooklyn dates models like Chloe Grace Moretz, single Freddie half jokes that he can’t even take a girl on a date as he is so skint.
His wardrobe is just cheap High Street gear, while Brooklyn often flaunts his top-end couture clothes online, being spotted in labels like Louis Vuitton and Givenchy.
Looking sheepish, Freddie jokes he’d struggle to buy designer threads, adding: “I have £1.36 in the bank.” Freddie and his dad have been stuck in temporary accommodation for two years while they wait for the council to move them.
The flat is so small Freddie’s sister Georgina is sofa surfing even though she is four months pregnant. Meanwhile the Beckhams live 20 miles to the west in a huge £30million mansion in London’s upper crust Holland Park.
Freddie says he dreams of meeting up with his cousins to watch a football
match
I just want to go for a meal and talk and catch up. I’m not asking for more than that
FREDDIE EVERY ON YEARNING TO SEE HIS UNCLE AND COUSINS AGAIN
or go out for a meal like the old days. The last time he saw David, 43, was about nine years ago at a Chinese restaurant in Harlow where his uncle bunged him £40 as a treat.
And he last saw his famous cousins and Becks’ wife Victoria, 44, at Pizza Express in Loughton in 2012 when they went for a group meal.
PROUD
One of Freddie’s fondest memories is playing in the garden with David and Cruz at Grade II-listed Rowneybury House in Hertfordshire, which he affectionately calls Beckingham Palace.
He also cheerfully remembers David buying him Happy Meals from McDonald’s when he was a tot. Despite the family split, Freddie says he doesn’t begrudge his rich relatives their success.
“At the end of the day I am proud of my uncle,” he says. But he no longer tells anyone about his superstar cousins, because they would never believe him.
Freddie says: “I don’t know how I’d explain it.”
Football superstar Becks enjoyed a modest working-class childhood himself in Chingford, Essex, where mum Sandra cut hair, and dad Ted repaired hotel kitchen equipment.
He grew up in a semi-detached house and attended the local comprehensive alongside sisters Lynne and Joanne.
Meanwhile Victoria was born in Harlow, Essex, but raised in Goffs Oak, Herts, where she was dropped off at her private school in a Rolls-Royce by dad Tony – earning her the nickname Posh Spice.
She grew up with younger sister Louise and brother Christian, and Tony ran a profitable successful electrical wholesale business.
While Victoria has said she is keen to forget her Essex roots, David has been spotted taking his youngest son, Cruz, for his favourite childhood meal of pie and mash. Yet he has lucrative sponsorship details with upmarket Haig Club whisky, clothing retailer H&M and Breitling watches. Georgina – a hairdresser like David’s mum – barely makes enough to rent a home and cannot afford the deposit on a rental property.
Georgina and Freddie say they understand their famous relatives have their own lives. But both hope they can improve the relationship with their family. Georgina says she would love to see the Beckham boys and her sevenyear-old cousin Harper – but makes do with following her famous uncle online.
“I’m lucky he’s famous and he’s all over the internet. Everywhere you look, he’s there, so I can see him,” she says. “I don’t need to have a phone call to see what he’s up to. That is better than nothing.”