Joseph Tsai, alongside his soon-to-be-former spouse Clara Wu Tsai, has announced the end of their three-decade-long marriage. The couple, known for their ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, are parting ways.

“Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai have made the joint decision to conclude their marriage, doing so with mutual respect and understanding,” a representative revealed in a statement provided exclusively to Page Six.

The spokesperson added that, over time, the nature of their relationship transformed into a collaborative partnership. Together, they have managed their business ventures and have shared the responsibilities of raising their children. While they have drifted apart personally, their divorce remains amicable, and their professional rapport continues unshaken.

Further clarification was offered regarding the impact of their separation on their business interests.

“Joe will continue to serve as Chairman, while Clara will uphold her role as Vice Chair of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment,” the statement elucidated. “Joe will carry on as Governor of the Brooklyn Nets, and Clara will persist as Governor of the New York Liberty.”

“They will continue to own and be stewards of the teams with professional management in place as they always have. In the long run, they also plan to involve their children.”

Joe and Clara have three adult children: Dash, Alex and Jacob. They married in October 1996.

Ownership of Alibaba, the technology company Joe helped found, will not be impacted.

“There are no plans to sell any Alibaba shares and Joe’s role as Alibaba Chairman is not affected by this development,” the statement read.

“Joe and Clara remain deeply committed to continuing their existing philanthropic and community work. They are both driven by the best interests of their family, businesses, and communities, and are dedicated to continue working together as partners.”

The couple acquired full ownership of the Nets and Liberty in 2019 for $2.35 billion, which was the most expensive purchase of an American sports franchise at the time.

They had obtained a 49 percent stake the year prior. Clara’s involvement led to the Liberty relocating from MSG to the Barclays Center, the home of the Nets in Brooklyn.

A mysterious spread of radioactive contamination beyond a restricted lab at one of America’s largest nuclear sites has raised alarms. The incident came to light when three workers set off contamination alarms while attempting to exit the facility.

Radioactive material was found on the soles of the workers’ shoes, with activity levels ranging from 80,000 to 300,000 disintegrations per minute, surpassing federal limits for contamination.

This concerning event unfolded at the Savannah River Site (SRS), managed by the US Department of Energy in South Carolina. The SRS is crucial for processing tritium and managing plutonium infrastructure, both vital components of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Details of this incident were quietly included in a federal safety report for the week ending June 26, yet site officials did not publicly announce it at the time.

Subsequent investigations uncovered contamination beyond designated containment areas. However, the source and the mechanism of its spread remain unidentified.

The three workers were decontaminated, and officials found no evidence that they inhaled or absorbed radioactive material.

The incident was one of two safety lapses revealed at the sprawling nuclear complex that week.

At another facility at SRS, an operator began transferring radioactive liquid without first adding a chemical required to protect nuclear-waste tanks from corrosion.

SRS, a 310-square-mile site in Aiken, focused on the production of plutonium and tritium for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons from its inception in the early 1950s until the end of the Cold War. 

In 1992, the focus at SRS turned to environmental cleanup, nuclear materials management and research and development activities.

The site generated more than 165 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste, which has, through evaporation, been reduced to about 34 million gallons, according to Savannah River Mission Completion.

There are still 43 of the underground tanks in use, while eight have been closed.

The three laboratory workers were inside a radiological buffer area, a controlled zone designed to prevent radioactive material from spreading into clean areas, when the personnel contamination monitor started blaring as they exited.

Follow-up radiation monitoring checks identified beta and gamma contamination on the soles of their shoes, according to the report.

Beta and gamma contamination occur when unwanted radioactive material, specifically atoms that emit beta particles or gamma rays, settles on surfaces, skin or inside the body.  

The follow-up investigation later found contamination beyond the laboratory’s restricted areas. 

Investigators learned that workers sometimes carried test wipes from radioactive fume hoods to the edge of those areas to scan them, a practice officials said should be avoided.

They also discovered problems with cleanliness and organization inside the laboratory. 

Although officials could not determine exactly how the contamination escaped, managers pledged to tighten housekeeping rules, increase supervision and retrain radiation-safety staff on proper testing procedures.

At another facility on the site, an operator mistakenly began transferring radioactive liquid between two waste tanks without first adding sodium nitrite, a chemical needed to prevent corrosion.

A control-room manager caught the error 30 minutes into the transfer. Officials decided it could continue because they could adjust the amount of liquid being moved and add the chemical afterward.

Investigators found that the transfer procedure had recently changed and the operator misunderstood when the chemical was supposed to be added. 

Staff acknowledged that the instructions were unusually structured and discussed improving briefings following procedural changes.

A federal inspector also recommended reviewing other procedures to determine whether they contained similarly confusing instructions.

The safety lapses emerged nearly a year after a radioactive wasp nest was discovered near tanks holding liquid nuclear waste at the same sprawling complex.

Workers conducting routine inspections on July 3, 2025, found the contaminated nest attached to a post in the Savannah River Site’s F-Area Tank Farm.

Tests revealed radiation levels 10 times higher than federal limits, although officials said there was no evidence that any of the underground waste tanks had leaked.

The nest was sprayed, removed and disposed of as radioactive waste. No wasps were found, and surveys detected no contamination on the surrounding ground.

Officials blamed the bizarre discovery on ‘onsite legacy contamination,’ radioactive residue left behind by decades of nuclear-weapons production during the Cold War.

However, the Savannah River Site Watch watchdog group criticized the government’s account for failing to identify the precise source of the radiation or explain whether other contaminated nests could remain undiscovered.

‘I’m as mad as a hornet that SRS didn’t explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of,’ executive director Tom Clements said at the time.

Site officials maintained there was no threat beyond the facility. 

The tank farm sits deep within the complex, while wasps generally travel only a few hundred yards from their nests.

The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Energy for comment. 

The defense claims that prosecutors have just revealed that there are still some untouched reserve DNA samples related to the murder case. This revelation has sparked their determination to have these samples assessed by an independent laboratory prior to any additional examinations by South Carolina’s investigative team.

Defense attorneys highlighted a concern in their filing, stating that if the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) proceeds with another round of short tandem repeat (STR) testing, it might use up or damage the remaining DNA. This would prevent Texas-based Othram Inc. from having the chance to conduct its own analysis.

According to a memorandum dated July 30, accessed by WSAV in Savannah, Georgia, and evaluated by News Media, Murdaugh’s legal team has petitioned a judge to pass the DNA samples to Othram before SLED carries out any further examinations.

The motion emphasizes the importance of the testing order, arguing that Othram’s particular method—single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP testing—requires DNA that remains untouched or untainted by previous analyses.

“Because SNP testing requires a genetic sample that has not been depleted or degraded by prior analysis, the sequence in which the reserve samples from Items 70 and 71 are tested matters,” the memorandum states. “SLED’s proposed STR retesting risks consuming the very material Othram would need, while proceeding with Othram’s SNP analysis first forecloses no STR testing SLED might still wish to conduct afterward.”

The memorandum noted prosecutors disclosed “for the first time” that reserve DNA samples from Items 70 and 71 remain unprocessed.

The filing described a July 7 Webex conference involving defense attorneys, prosecutors, SLED forensic scientists and Othram CEO Dr. David Mittelman following a June 29 hearing to discuss the proposed testing.

The defense further argued SLED had “articulated no scientific basis” for repeating testing already performed on the evidence. Attorneys wrote that another round of STR testing could permanently reduce the amount of DNA available for independent analysis.

“There is no scientific reason on the current record to consume additional reserve sample material to obtain a second STR result,” the filing states. “Absent some articulated basis for believing repeat STR testing will produce new or different information, the only apparent effect of allowing SLED to proceed is to consume irreplaceable sample material before Othram … has the opportunity to test it.”

The defense also renewed its criticism of SLED’s handling of forensic evidence, citing previous disputes over blood evidence recovered from one of Murdaugh’s T-shirts as further justification for independent testing.

The memorandum estimated Othram could complete its analysis within 60 to 90 days at Murdaugh’s expense.

Last month, prosecutors urged a judge to reject Murdaugh’s latest requests for independent DNA testing and expanded access to electronic case materials while he remains in prison awaiting retrial.

In the June filings, prosecutors opposed two motions from Murdaugh’s legal team: one seeking independent DNA testing tied to evidence recovered from beneath Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails and another requesting permission for Murdaugh to review case materials electronically while incarcerated.

The filings come as Murdaugh prepares for a second murder trial after the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his convictions in May, finding former Colleton County court clerk Rebecca “Becky” Hill engaged in jury tampering that compromised his right to a fair trial.

Murdaugh was convicted in March 2023 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, at the family’s Colleton County hunting estate in June 2021. The jury also found him guilty of two weapons charges.

During a recent address at Camp David, President Trump issued a stark warning, suggesting that the tumultuous breach of Ceuta, a minor Spanish enclave, by thousands of migrants would pale in comparison to potential consequences in the United States if citizens opt for Democrat-led open-border policies in the upcoming midterms.

The president described the sudden influx into Ceuta as a “catastrophic” event, likening the chaotic scenes at Morocco’s boundary to an “invasion” and warned of similar consequences if Republicans lose ground.

Once inside the city, the migrants swiftly began utilizing public spaces such as city fountains and streets for personal hygiene and sanitation, underscoring the lack of order.

Trump asserted, “If Republicans are not elected, the same situation will occur here, only on a much larger scale. This is true despite the construction of thousands of miles of border wall that I promised, emphasizing the ease of unauthorized entries.”

He further proclaimed, “Our borders are the most secure globally. Without us holding office, the extent of the invasion would dwarf what happened in Spain, appearing insignificant by comparison.”

The shocking surge followed a ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court earlier this month which said migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another autonomous Spanish city in northern Morocco, cannot be immediately deported.

The socialist Spanish government just months ago also launched a program giving legal status to some 500,000 illegal immigrants in the country.

Trump blasted Spain’s government for these new policies, deriding them as “bad management” and “weak,” “very liberal” laws.

“They passed a couple of laws, and people read. You know, people are smart. They read from other countries, and they swam that three-mile swim, or however they got in. But nobody’s seen anything like it. That will look good compared to what’s going to happen to the United States,” he said.

“The biggest thing, the worst thing that Biden did is allowing 25 million people into our country, because many of those people are criminals, they’re murderers.”

The State Department pointed to the humanitarian disaster exploding in Spain as directly to blame for its failed immigration policies.

“The United States stands with the people of Spain, and all Europeans, against this egregious violation of their sovereignty and human rights,” the department wrote on its official X account Friday.

“This unacceptable incident is the direct result of the Spanish Government’s deliberate efforts to enable and facilitate mass illegal migration into Europe,” they continued, pledging support for foreign allies who also want to crack down on immigration.

“We are considering actions to defend Americans at home and abroad from this threat and stand ready to assist other European allies considering similar options.”

As January 2026 unfolded, a rift that once quietly simmered within the Beckham clan exploded into public view, casting shadows on Britain’s famously united family, aside from the royals. The tension, particularly among Sir David Beckham, his wife Victoria, and their eldest son Brooklyn, reached a boiling point, leaving no doubt that discord was brewing.

Libby and Tallulah, Brooklyn’s perceptive cousins, were among the first to sense a seismic shift approaching. Closely connected through their mother, Victoria’s sister Louise, these social media-savvy young women in their twenties could read the digital tea leaves.

By January 18, their instincts were vindicated as Nicola Peltz, Brooklyn’s American spouse, took a dramatic step by metaphorically setting the Beckham family bridge ablaze on her Instagram account.

Swiftly, Nicola erased countless posts that once depicted warm family moments, whether at birthdays, holiday getaways, or festive celebrations. Tributes extolling the Beckhams’ generosity and declarations of love towards them vanished, leaving a void where camaraderie once reigned.

Adding to the familial estrangement, Brooklyn had taken the step of severing digital ties with his parents and siblings, going as far as blocking them from his online world just before the holiday season.

This, then, was the canary in the coal mine, warning the Beckhams to brace themselves for something worse.

David and Victoria were alarmed, but it wasn’t as if they hadn’t weathered storms before.

Over the years, they’d found themselves embroiled in scandals, and yet had always emerged victorious, building a multi-million-pound empire based on a meticulously constructed family brand.

They’d written the playbook on image control and manipulation. Their daughter-in-law’s purge of her Instagram account was unpleasant, but did it really herald catastrophe?

They didn’t have to wait long to find out.

The next day, Brooklyn posted an extraordinary six-page statement, blowing apart the Beckham myth of family unity his parents had spent decades perfecting.

It began: ‘I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed. I do not want to reconcile with my family.

‘Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out.’

The reaction was instantaneous. Within minutes, the statement was being run on news websites around the world. It rapidly became the most-read story even for ‘serious’ outlets, like The Guardian and the BBC.

There was astonishment – and, frankly, ravenous excitement – about how messy and public the Beckham/Peltz feud had become.

After months of rumour and speculation, here was Brooklyn confirming the rift in excruciating detail, exposing a side to the Beckhams that the world may have suspected but had never seen before.

‘For my entire life,’ Brooklyn, then aged 26, continued, ‘my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into.’

As the internet went into meltdown, so did the Beckhams themselves.

Although they had been blocked by Brooklyn, so couldn’t directly see the Instagram post, David and Victoria found out about it almost immediately. Brooklyn had not blocked his wider family, including cousins and grandparents, the Spice Girls, members of the Beckham team, or mutual friends, like chef Gordon Ramsay and his wife, Tana. David and Victoria’s phones started pinging with screen shots.

David had to keep his distress in check: he was in Davos, talking sport and business at the World Economic Forum. But Victoria, at home in Holland Park, west London, with her three other children, Romeo, 23, Cruz, about to turn 21, and Harper, just 14, was inconsolable.

In fact, she was in such a bad way that her mother Jackie was alarmed.

Brooklyn, with his wife in Los Angeles, presumably felt relief at having got years of resentment off his chest.

For it had been no secret that there was bad blood between his parents and his wife, which had all played out via increasingly nasty anonymous briefings to the press.

But the House of Beckham was a fortress. They had never expected such a personal and public attack – least of all from one of their own.

One friend told me: ‘Victoria was [already] on a war footing. This, though, was a major bomb.’

But a friend of the Peltz Beckhams claims the Beckham parents only had themselves to blame from the dramatic escalation. ‘David and Victoria knew that the statement was coming, because they had pulled the pin out of the grenade.’

He adds: ‘They just didn’t stop. They just kept pushing and pushing it. Brooklyn didn’t want to do this, but in the end he though f*** it, f*** this. The Beckhams kept on gambling that Brooklyn would never dare to speak. They just misplayed it, because, one day, it was going to be time.’

What’s worse, as I’m told the Beckhams now fear, is that this may not be Brooklyn’s final act of clan warfare – but rather his opening shot.

The source adds: ‘The biggest problem for the other side is that there is so much more that Brooklyn can say if he wants to.’

Initially David and Victoria could scarcely believe those painful words had been written by their gentle son.

As the full horror of it began to sink in, they started to wonder whether the angry, long statement was really his work at all. They weren’t entirely wrong.

A friend of Brooklyn’s says: ‘He definitely wrote the first draft, but there was interest and input from other people. It’s silly to think your wife isn’t going to weigh in on this one – he was representing the sentiment of his wife as well. Little bits she wrote. But he was the one to deliver it.’

It was his view that nothing short of a complete rupture would get through to his parents.

A friend says of the expectations of his family: ‘It was intolerable for Brooklyn. He tried, but nothing was enough. You have to be an indentured servant. You can’t do 75 per cent of what is asked, you have to be all in.

‘He wanted to speak because it had become completely inauthentic and all for social media. The posts for birthdays when you haven’t spoken in months which say: “mum and dad love you” he found weird and they gave him anxiety.’

Indeed, relations had become so fraught between Brooklyn and his parents – because of tensions with his fiancee Nicola – that I can reveal that they weren’t actually on speaking terms for some three months before the young couple married in Palm Beach, in April 2022.

And yet still the Beckhams smiled for the cameras there, and posted adoring posts on social media after the event.

It has since become common knowledge that it was the myriad problems around Brooklyn and Nicola’s wedding – the row over the bridal gown, the five sets of wedding planners, the apparently ‘inappropriate dancing’ from Victoria – which set what was an already tense relationship on a collision course.

What is not commonly known, however, is the sheer scale of the chaos and in-fighting which characterised the day itself.

Such was her distress that at one point, Nicola, the bride, ran from the marquee in tears, followed by, it seemed, her entire family.

And as one guest remarked of the atmosphere at the ‘day-after’ brunch at the super-opulent Peltz house in Palm Beach: ‘Honestly? It was like someone had died.’

It all makes one unusual pre-wedding request made by the bride’s mother, Claudia, seem highly prescient.

She asked the seamstresses at the Valentino atelier in Rome who were making her daughter’s bridal gown to secretly sew an ‘evil eye’ talisman, in blue thread, to the inside of the dress, ‘for protection’.

Certainly, given the stream of crises that had preceded her big day, Nicola was going to need all the luck she could get.

Brooklyn had met Nicola, an actress, at a Halloween party in Hollywood in 2019. As was his habit, he fell in love, fast. After five months he was ready to propose – but managed to contain himself until July 2020.

Nicola accepted his proposal, and both families – particularly Claudia Peltz – embarked on wedding planning with vigour.

Relations between the Peltzes and Beckhams were then still cordial – and a very different celebration was originally envisaged: one held in the UK, arranged by the unflappable and unimpeachable Peregrine Armstrong-Jones, half-brother of Antony Armstrong-Jones, former husband of Princess Margaret. He had taken care of the Beckhams’ own iconic 1999 nuptials in Ireland.

A source confirms: ‘Initially, the Brooklyn and Nicola wedding was going to be in the UK, in the Cotswolds, and Peregrine was hired.’

The young couple looked around all the venues you might expect, like the magnificent Blenheim Palace, which was near to the Beckhams’ country home in Great Tew, Oxfordshire.

The issue, naturally, then, was Covid, and the Covid restrictions. Brooklyn was keen to get on with it and be married, but had to be told, repeatedly: ‘It can’t be done so fast’ and ‘it can’t be done now’.

From July 2020 until around February 2021, Armstrong-Jones was in charge, and trying to make the wedding work.

A well-known dog-lover, one of Nicola’s big ideas for the wedding at this stage was apparently that she wanted to give away dogs as parting gifts to all the guests.

But as the euphoria of the summer engagement was succeeded by a long dreary winter, with the brutal second Christmas lockdown, the bride’s mind about what shape her dream day would take changed.

A source says: ‘Nicola is not an English bride, and ultimately an English wedding did not suit her. English life would not have suited her either; she is an American through and through. She is culturally American, which is why she and Brooklyn will always stay in America.

‘Look, the Americans love Daylesford and Harrods, but Nicola realised that the reality of the UK was too much for her. Basically, the weather was just too cold for her. When Nicola was in the UK, she was always on FaceTime to her mum in Palm Beach, saying: “Oh my God, it’s raining again!” Her mum would have blue sky and beaches behind her.’

Finally, when Covid restrictions lifted and people could travel, it became a family decision, made by the Peltzes, to move the nuptials to Palm Beach. Armstrong-Jones was let go.

This was all done, apparently, in an ‘extremely respectful’ way, and there was, as yet, no overt conflict between the Peltzes and the Beckhams.

A source suggests that an inexperienced American team was hired in February 2021, before being fired in April 2021 and replaced by renowned American celebrity wedding planner Preston Bailey, who had previously organised the wedding of Nelson Peltz’s long-time friend Donald Trump to Melania.

His appointment seemed to indicate that Nicola’s father was taking control – but he left after 11 months – only around six weeks before the big day. Bailey himself claims there was a ‘scheduling clash’.

Nelson then hired party planners Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba, only to fire them by phone after nine days, when Nicola grew ‘tired’ of their mistakes, which included flubs over the RSVP list and flowers that were ‘not white enough’. Peltz later sued them to recover his $159,000 deposit.

For their part, Grijalba and Braghin say they inherited a crime scene rather than a wedding plan.

With just six weeks to go, the guest list was incomplete and out of date. Some guests still hadn’t been invited, and, extraordinarily, some vendors still hadn’t been booked.

The bride and her mother had the additional concern that word of the chaos would leak to the in-laws.

The planners said that Claudia and Nicola ‘insisted that Victoria Beckham could not know about any internal mistakes regarding the ongoing planning of her son’s wedding, including any errors with the guest list’.

During the legal action in 2023, hundreds of text messages between the couple and the planners were uncovered, showing how tempers had frayed under pressure. In one message, Nicola instructed the planners: ‘Fire Preston’s assistants. Cut them off… I hate them.’

In another, Claudia Peltz asked, somewhat extraordinarily, if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, had been invited. ‘Did Megan get an invite… And Harry,’ she wrote.

Meanwhile, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton was mistakenly invited – leading Nicola to write to the planners: ‘He can’t come so explain why you said he RSVPd yes. I’m tired of catching mistakes on this RSVP list honestly.’

Brooklyn’s input is perhaps best characterised as good-hearted but not helpful. He asked if the Wendy’s burger truck, which he had requested as a nod to his father-in-law’s stake in the fast food outlet, should have a ‘Nicola’ burger with lettuce and no bun.

He also asked if they should get a gun that would shoot a net, to bring down any paparazzo drones.

After Grijalba and Braghin were fired, celebrity planner Michelle Rago stepped in, becoming the fifth wedding planner, with a hair-raisingly narrow time frame of just over four weeks to the wedding itself.

According to Vogue Magazine, who were invited to attend, the wedding was picture-perfect nonetheless.

Around 500 guests came, including tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, actress Eva Longoria, chef Gordon Ramsay and family, and two Spice Girls, Mel B and Emma.

The wedding was set up across three huge air-conditioned marquees with ocean views. A floating aisle had been constructed, and the most-anticipated moment was the appearance on it of the bride in her Valentino dress – not made, of course, as is now showbiz folklore, by her fashion designer mother-in-law.

Nicola came down the aisle on her father’s arm, with UK artist Sekou, accompanied by a string orchestra, singing the mournful Fleetwood Mac ballad ‘Songbird’. An odd choice, since it is more commonly heard at funerals.

Brooklyn was so overcome with emotion when he saw Nicola that she needed to use her dainty handmade gloves to dab away his copious tears.

After the fall-out over Victoria not making the bridal gown, there was an assumption by many of the Beckhams’ friends that at least one of the bride’s other outfits would be by Victoria, who is known for her tailored trouser suits. This didn’t happen, and it’s hard to see those decisions as other than a pointed snub to Victoria.

‘Nicola is a big f***ing pain in the ass and she comes across as spoiled and annoying. However, Brooklyn chose to marry her,’ notes a family friend.

In the event, only Victoria and a tiny handful of loyal friends wore Victoria Beckham designs at her son’s wedding. Mrs Beckham wore a metallic silver slip dress with lace and a 21-carat diamond pendant.

You might have called the necklace spectacular, except for the fact that the bride’s mother, Claudia, was wearing the fabled 95-carat Star of the East diamond, a museum quality gem. Posh was entirely outgunned. A brave smile was worn despite everything, however.

As the bride and groom joined hands, the sparkling blue ocean behind them, it seemed like, despite the disastrous run-up, the wedding might actually go to plan.

That was, until, the rabbi started speaking. The elderly gentleman, not the Peltz’s regular rabbi, twice called Brooklyn ‘David’ during the ceremony.

This awkward error was explained away by the celebrant, saying that he was a ‘soccer fan’. It felt highly embarrassing, though, as it rammed home Brooklyn’s son-of status as the overshadowed child of a globally famous father, and at the very point where he was fully stepping into his adult identity.

After the ceremony, the guests were offered cocktails decorated with white cherry blossoms as a jazz quartet played, and then moved into the wedding tent for a black-tie dinner. Halibut, filet mignon and a vegan osso buco were served.

After dinner came the speeches. Romeo and Cruz, Brooklyn’s best men, gave a joint speech in which they teased their brother about his soppy declarations of love for the bride.

David – who had then not actually been speaking to his eldest child for three months – also spoke, making a long, heartfelt speech all about the groom.

On a day when it is customary to sing the praises of the bride, David did not do so. Instead, he talked for longer than anyone else who spoke, and all about the joys of their father-son relationship growing up, and his fond memories of Brooklyn as a child and teen.

Was he trying to remind his son of the ties between them – almost trying to make up with him at this crucial moment?

One guest said: ‘The speech went on, and on. It was one of the oddest bits of the day. It was as if David was getting married to Brooklyn.’

Some of the speech was about David’s haircuts down the years. He also jokingly ‘asked for forgiveness’ for dressing Brooklyn in a miniature cowboy hat at his and Victoria’s wedding.

And then David – who, of course, attracted endless headlines for his alleged affair with his then PA Rebecca Loos when Brooklyn was five years old – had the nerve to deliver some advice on how to be a good husband. He said: ‘The most important thing is to make each other happy. And treat your Mrs like gold.’

Nicola’s brother, Brad Peltz, was his sister’s man of honour and, in his speech, gave two pieces of advice: ‘Rule number one: Happy wife, happy life. Rule number two: Don’t f**k up rule number one.’

Everyone laughed approvingly.

The bride’s father, Nelson, then spoke, a short, serious speech, mostly about the suffering of Ukraine, which had been invaded by Russia two months previously.

He spoke about the couple’s donation page to the humanitarian organisation Care, which was funding work in the region. The contrast between the bride’s stoic, moneybags father and the groom’s tearful and emotive dad could scarcely have been better underlined.

The first dance followed. South African singer Lloyiso performed a cover of the Elvis Presley standard ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ as the bride and groom took a turn.

Next it was the turn of Nelson Peltz to dance with his girl, to Bette Midler’s ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’. The dancing continued.

At 11pm, the circular stage revolved 180 degrees and singer Marc Anthony – one of David’s best friends, who has known Brooklyn since he was small – ‘magically appeared’ for a live set. This performance was the Beckhams’ wedding gift to the couple.

Anthony had agreed to perform ‘for free’; however, speaking to sources familiar with the wedding planning, constructing the requisite stage had cost $200,000 – which was added to Nelson’s bill.

The bride’s cost-conscious father was also forking out for Anthony’s experienced, professional live musicians, and the costs of bringing them and their equipment to the venue.

In all, that ‘gift’ made a $250,000 dent in Nelson’s wallet.

According to friends of Nicola, the plan was always that the first dance to Marc Anthony would be her and Brooklyn. She even left the wedding to get changed out of her Valentino wedding dress and into a new Versace ‘party outfit’ specifically for the second first dance, as performed by Anthony.

In the event, of course, as is now legend, Brooklyn danced with his mother, after she was invited on stage by the singer.

Who asked him to call Victoria to the stage? The Peltz camp believe this was down to the Beckhams, and specifically blame Victoria for the hurtful turn of events.

One source says: ‘Victoria thought it was her event. Victoria is so attention starved or attention needy that this was viewed as an opportunity for her to shine and to find herself at the centre. My view is that she is very needy of attention and this was a way to satiate that need.’

He adds: ‘At some level, it was just alpha females fighting it out – but Nicola is the bride and it’s her wedding.’

This other ‘first dance’ – seen only by the 500 guests, who had all surrendered their phones ahead of the party – was, of course, later derided by Brooklyn, who described his mother’s dance moves as ‘inappropriate’.

First things first – Victoria had not been drinking. Because of the very real tensions with Brooklyn and the Peltzes, she hadn’t had even one glass of wine by that point.

One of the few who have seen the footage that was captured on the night by a cameraman describes the ‘close’ dance as ‘honestly, very weird’, and adds: ‘It is uncomfortable to watch.’

Victoria was seen putting her arms around her son’s neck and around his waist, which is what Brooklyn found ‘very inappropriate’. However, two other wedding guests, both friends of the Beckhams, insist they saw nothing untoward.

The dancing went on until the early hours, before the bride and groom and their guests retired to their respective accommodation. The next day, everyone was assembled again for a post-wedding brunch, held in a marquee in the tropical gardens.

Ahead of the bride and groom’s entrance, it resembled a post-mortem as guests gossiped and dissected what had occurred the night before.

The chatter died away with the entrance of Nicola, in a metallic-trimmed ivory minidress, and Brooklyn, casually dressed in khaki trousers and cream sweater. David, in a cream linen suit, and Victoria, in funereal black, arrived in a baby blue vintage convertible Jaguar, modified to run on electric.

It was a gift for the newlyweds from David, who was an investor in Lunaz, the British firm who had made it. The Founder and CEO, David Lorenz, said in a press release about the $500,000 car: ‘In creating this beautiful, electrified Jaguar XK140, we are honoured to bridge the gap between David Beckham’s professional life, where he is an investor in Lunaz, and his family life. This remarkable car is the perfect gift to his son Brooklyn and daughter-in-law, Nicola, on their wedding day. In every respect, this extraordinary electric classic car by Lunaz symbolises a bright, positive future.’

Nicola and Brooklyn duly posed in the car for pictures for Vogue Magazine, although some at the wedding detected a reluctance to be used for commercial gain on this occasion. A source says that, by this point, they were pretty much ‘over’ the whole business with the Beckhams, who seem to have lost their boundaries somewhere along the way.

Later that weekend, Vogue interviewed Nicola as part of their coverage of the wedding. Asked if she and Brooklyn had been inspired by David and Victoria’s own ceremony at Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland – with the now notorious thrones and bride and groom’s matching purple satin outfits – she and her new husband laughed.

‘Their wedding was incredible and those pictures are iconic, but the wedding we were most inspired by was Iman and David Bowie’s,’ said Nicola.

It was a most delicate swipe with the finest of knives. And there were plenty more cuts to come.

Part two of Alison Boshoff’s jaw-dropping new book on Sunday 

In a surprising turn of events on Friday, a senior adviser to FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced his resignation, triggered by a contentious proposal to sell stakes in future football tournaments to private investors.

Carlos Cordeiro, making his stance crystal clear through a statement on LinkedIn, distanced himself from the proposal, stating, “I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally.” He emphasized his belief that the deal would be detrimental to FIFA’s Member Associations, the sport of football, and its enduring legacy.

Discussing his concerns further, Cordeiro, who also served as a senior adviser to the White House task force for the 2026 World Cup, argued that FIFA already possesses substantial financial resources. He described the plan as reckless, asserting it would be “mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification.”

His departure follows a critical move by UEFA’s 55 member associations, who voted on Thursday to boycott the World Cup if FIFA proceeds with the controversial proposal.

UEFA, the organization that oversees football across Europe, convened in an emergency session to make this significant decision on Thursday.

CONCACAF, the group that runs the sport in North America, Central America and parts of South America, also said it would reject the proposal after its members met Thursday afternoon.

UEFA made its opposition very clear in a statement, stating “the World Cup is not for sale.”

“As a result of today’s discussion,