Latest news with #estrangement
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Romeo Beckham shares impassioned message about 'appreciating people that truly love you' amid his older brother Brooklyn's heartbreaking feud with his family
Romeo Beckham has shared an impassioned message on social media amid his older brother Brooklyn's heartbreaking feud with his family. The 22-year-old son of Victoria and David shared the cryptic words to his Instagram Story on Thursday evening. David and Victoria have reportedly become resigned to the fact that they have become estranged from their beloved son after he failed to attend any of the football ace's 50th birthday celebrations in May. He since has pledged allegiance to his wife Nicola Peltz's side of the family sharing snaps with her parents in recent weeks. Romeo wrote in his post: 'Life is too short, love who you love and tell them how much you really do! Life can flash before your eyes at any moment! 'But the people that truly love you and care for you will always be there... Don't hold back from LOVE or APPRECIATION for ANYTHING OR ANYONE.' Romeo wrote in his post: 'Life is too short, love who you love and tell them how much you really do! Life can flash before your eyes at any moment!' New photographs of Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz in a Moncler campaign recently emerged after the couple flew to London without telling his family. It was made all the more painful for Posh and Becks because the shoot took place less than two weeks after they snubbed David's 50th birthday celebrations. One source close to the Beckhams reveals how they distraught David and Victoria were that they didn't tell them they were coming from LA to London for the job. 'Brooklyn and Nicola didn't have the courtesy to tell any of the family they were coming back to London. 'While by that point they knew that the rift was irreparable, what about Cruz, what about Harper? 'There were no issues between those to and Brooklyn yet he travelled 5000 miles and didn't arrange to see anyone.' The decision, I'm told, was regarded as 'disgracefully rude' by many in the Beckham circles. And it gets worse for the Beckhams in the press release which accompanies the pictures. Brooklyn and Nicola undoubtedly rub salt into their parents very open wounds with their words. 'London holds so many memories for both of us,' they said in a joint statement. 'We first said 'I love you' here, so coming back always takes us back to that moment. When Moncler first brought up shooting this special campaign here, we were excited about the opportunity to bring the London vibe to life.' There was, of course, no mention of David and Victoria, or Brooklyn's childhood in the capital. Rumours of a rift between the eldest son and his parents began when Brooklyn was noticeably silent on his former Spice Girl mother's birthday, a far cry from his usual sweet posts about her. Neither the former photographer nor his wife wished Victoria a happy 51st, while David, Romeo and Cruz posted gushing messages. And as well as snubbing dad David's birthday online, he also was notably absent from all of his 50th birthday celebrations - including a boys' fishing trip. Despite flying to London at the time, Brooklyn and Nicola also didn't attend the big family party at the Beckhams' Cotswolds home or an idyllic trip to France or a meal at Notting Hill restaurant, Core. Brooklyn reportedly 'told his famous family that he wants no contact' with them last month in the latest devastating turn of their ongoing feud. While a source close to Brooklyn denied the claims, a source told Page Six: 'Brooklyn told his family he wants no contact and he's not responding to those that try to connect.' According to the publication, the eldest Beckham boy has had no communication with his family following father David's knighthood being announced last month and only learned of the news in the media alongside the rest of the world. Denying he'd asked for no contact, a source close to Brooklyn told the publication: 'Everyone's focus should be David Beckham 's great honour'. Meanwhile a source close to Brooklyn also denied the claims as they told MailOnline, 'this seems to be another deliberate attempt to misrepresent the truth, and it only serves to distract from this honor being bestowed on Brooklyn's father.' MailOnline contacted David's reps for comment at the time. But Brooklyn has proven that not all ties had been severed amid the family feud with his own birthday tribute to David's mum Sandra on her 76th birthday. Sharing a throwback picture of him and his grandmother, he captioned: 'Happy birthday nanny xx love you so much.' In his own post for his mum, David ensured absent son Brooklyn got a mention despite their widening rift. The former Manchester United and England midfielder shared a carousel of photos featuring himself with mum Sandra from childhood to the present day. Taking to Instagram, he wrote: 'Happy birthday mum we love you so much I hope u have the best day. Thank you for always being there for us all. Love you.' He rounded off the tribute by including the Instagram handles of various family members, among them younger sister Joanne and the retired footballer's three sons with wife Victoria - Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz. Daughter Harper, at 13 too young for social media, was given a hashtag as he ended Thursday morning's tribute.
Daily Mail
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kristin Cavallari shocks fans with bombshell claim about her estranged father
Kristin Cavallari claimed that her father once 'traumatized' her son while opening up about their years-long estrangement. The reality TV personality, 38, revealed that she has not talked to her dad Dennis Cavallari in three years since they became estranged. This comes just weeks after she admitted that there is 'not one day where I miss him' and added that the 'best decision' she's ever made was 'cutting him out of [her] life.' 'I always had a rough relationship with my dad,' the Hills alum said while sharing more details about their estrangement on Harry Jowsey 's podcast Boyfriend Material this week. The mother of three also claimed on the podcast episode that her father 'crossed the line with one of my boys.' Cavallari shares two sons, Camden, 12, and Jaxon, 10, and nine-year-old daughter Saylor with her ex-husband Jay Cutler. The fashion designer continued: 'That's a deal breaker for me, especially when he had zero accountability and no apology. 'He traumatized my kids,' she alleged. 'And I have no room for that in my life, and so that was it.' She also discussed how she would handle the situation if it were the other way around, admitting that she sees herself trying to 'do everything imaginable' to make amends. 'To be honest with you, as a mom, if I had a kid and I really f***ed up with my kid and they wanted to cut me out of their life, I would do everything imaginable to not let that happen,' she said. 'I would be like, "I am so f***ing sorry." Showing up at your house, like, doing everything imaginable and my dad in a lot of ways was like, "OK."' She claimed that her dad 'hasn't tried' to mend their relationship and added that their estrangement did not have to do with addiction issues. Cavallari then accused her father of being an alleged 'narcissist,' who has taken 'zero accountability,' before suggesting that he believes she is to blame for their falling out. Cavallari previously opened up about her and her dad's relationship during an episode of her podcast with psychologist Dr. Sherrie Campbell in December 2023. 'I actually didn't even realize that my dad was a narcissist until I was an adult,' she said. At the time, she talked vaguely about the incident that caused their estrangement. 'I can take the abuse. I have my whole life. But it's like, when you start now messing with my kids, I'm not doing it.' Earlier this month, the Wild Cherry actress told People that her father would 'gaslight' her, so she dissolved their relationship. 'I don't have time for that anymore,' she explained. 'If someone's not bringing you joy, if people are only bringing you hurt and sadness and anger, what is the point? Even if it's a parent, life's too short.' While appearing on Bunny Xo's Dumb Blonde podcast in December, she referred to her father as a 'typical narcissist,' and said she turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. 'The only way I found a connection was with my boyfriend. I didn't have a connection at home,' she explained. Cavallari said the break with her dad and her divorce from Cutler have made her stronger. 'I had to get very real with myself about the lack of self-love that I had, and I had to find self-love and build myself up again,' she explained. 'I finally, for the first time in my life, do love myself. I love my life. I've really worked hard to cultivate this peace and this happiness.' The reality star took her own podcast, Let's Be Honest, on the road to film her new docuseries. Episodes of Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour premiere on E! every Wednesday, with streaming available on Peacock the next day.
Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I poured my heart and soul into a Daily Mail article about a rift with my dad... within hours, AI stole my work and turned it into a YouTube video voiced by a robot
A few weeks ago, in this paper's pages I published a deeply personal account about my 25-year estrangement from my father, Robin. I shared the emotionally fraught story that began over a petty dispute in 1998 and the cold shadow of estrangement that crept in until, tragically, he died last December without us being reconciled. The piece was incredibly important to me and I was determined to stop it being copied, so I placed my copyright – ©RobMcGibbon – at the foot of the article in the hope of deterring thieves. As an interviewer of celebrities for nearly 40 years, I am familiar with my work being 'aggregated' by others without permission, so I wanted to retain some control. But within hours of my 'estrangement hell' being published in print and online on Mail+, it had been stolen. Was it by an individual – a journalist, perhaps – helping themselves to my work? No. It was Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and a very 21st-century version of copyright theft. On the very morning my feature appeared online, a YouTube channel called The World News published a 14-minute-long retelling of my piece, narrated by a female robot. It seemed Artificial Intelligence had got hold of my article from behind the Mail's online paywall, swallowed it and then spat it out again. It was sickening. For today's purposes, I'm naming the robot narrator Laverna, after the mythological Roman goddess of thievery, deception and gain. Laverna's delivery of my heartfelt story sounded like the directions you get from a sat-nav – but with less emotion. It was an upsetting experience to listen to a devastating part of my life being dictated with dead-pan disdain by an automaton that has scraped it from the internet. To add insult to injury, two precious childhood photographs of me with my dad – again copyrighted for single use in the Mail – were used as a rolling, zoom-in-zoom-out montage. There I was, as a three-year-old playing football with him, while a robot mechanically told our grim story. But then things got even worse. While Laverna had followed the structure of my piece, all 1,800 words of it, she had re-written my text and created factual errors. My then-girlfriend was suddenly my 'fiancée' and my father-in-law was, bizarrely, 'identical' to my estranged father, as opposed to an 'identikit' grandfather to my son. More worryingly, it referred to our feud as 'violent', when I had written 'vicious'. Most insulting of all, however, was that in the AI version of my work, Laverna had pointedly decided not to mention my name or the copyright notice itself. The mystery still remains: how did this video come into existence? Was it the 'work' of an AI-powered scraper, programmed to extract data from across websites, then robotically retell it? Would AI be intelligent enough to avoid broadcasting a copyright tag line in its stolen work? Surely some human hand is at play somewhere along the grubby line from theft to publication. Either way, the entire video was interjected with multiple video adverts for a bowel medication. So, presumably, money was being made for someone, somewhere. The World News channel had 23,400 subscribers and posted 16,000 videos during the past 13 years, with a total of 13million views. Imagine how the advertising revenue adds up. All of which brings me to YouTube – owned by mega-rich Google – and my fight after it broadcast the piece for my copyright to be recognised. A fight that turned out to be an object lesson in the struggle that awaits anyone who wants to stop their work being pillaged by AI. Essentially, it falls to you to make all the running, and it's a dispiriting circular race. My initial complaint to the YouTube/Google press office yielded a cop-out in the form of a standard statement: 'YouTube does not mediate copyright claims – it is between the parties involved,' it declared. How convenient. The World News channel had no website or contact details, so that was a non-starter. I took my challenge to the next level. YouTube/Google told me to file a 'copyright takedown claim'. This fiddly form requires you to submit personal data to Google. My desire went cold when it insisted on having my mobile number in order to activate the complaint. Why do they need that, I wonder? A week or so later, I suddenly got an email from Google saying that The World News had been 'terminated'. By some coincidence, it had been banned for 'violation of Spam policies', which meant my copyright complaint had been deftly side-stepped. I wanted to know how many views it had received off the back of my story, and if any income had come from that quack selling its miracle cure for tummy problems. Some hope. While this might be just one article, it sums up the entire hell-scape that awaits if Big Tech gets its evil way with copyright. The Mail has been at the heart of the battle to halt the Labour Government's plan to allow Big Tech companies to help themselves to creative works unless copyright holders register an opt-out, a huge burden for freelancers like myself. Part of this campaign involved amending the Government's Data Bill to force AI developers to be transparent about the content they exploit. Unfathomably, last week the Bill passed through Parliament with the transparency clause vetoed by the Labour majority in the Commons. It will soon receive Royal Assent, essentially giving the voracious Goliaths of Silicon Valley free rein to train their AI tools on creative works – think The Beatles' catalogue – without the need to pay or even ask. If my experience shows the thankless outcome from challenging one AI video made from one article, what on earth will it be like complaining to Google, Meta or OpenAI after they have bastardised your life's work into thousands of pieces across millions of unaccountable websites? This brings me to the final glaring, absurd obfuscation amidst all this, which I believe should become central in the current fight to protect copyright: the giant digital platforms are complicit in this conspiracy. YouTube takes a cut in advertising revenue generated by all content 'creators', so they benefit from the financial exploitation of copyrighted material even when it has been taken without permission. In effect, YouTube is handling stolen goods – in plain sight. It is as bang to rights as any dodgy trader in a street market selling cheap stuff with 'no questions asked', wink wink. For YouTube to absolve itself of all responsibility in the way that it does is ludicrous and should not be tolerated any longer. Imagine if John Lewis took a cut from a few thousand new independent sellers on its website that openly sold stolen or counterfeit goods, but explained it all away by saying: 'Well, we aren't selling anything – it's the independents,' despite the fact that their website and sales system is giving them a platform. In the real world, there's such a thing as Trading Standards. If you run a physical shop that brazenly sells stolen goods you will be fined or shut down. It's time similar rules are enforced by Governments on the rogue traders of the virtual space. AI is going to become the Master Villain in the stealing of copyright. Look what it did with my one article, from behind a paywall. Imagine what it will do to the works of The Beatles or Elton John (who, by the way, last week described the Government as 'absolute losers' over its AI plans). It must not win. ©RobMcGibbon!
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Brad Pitt makes shock family remark amid estrangement from the children he shares with ex Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt is reflecting on his mistakes after his bitter divorce from Angelina Jolie officially came to an end — while his fractured relationship with their six children remains unresolved. Pitt, 61, and Jolie, 50, who share Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 20, Shiloh, 19, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, married in 2014 after falling for each other on the set of Mrs. & Mrs. Smith. Jolie filed for divorce in 2016—just days after a now-infamous private plane incident in which she accused Pitt of being abusive toward her and the kids. Though the acrimonious divorce was finalized in December, the fallout has lingered, with several children reportedly dropping Pitt's last name and the actor now believing his relationship with two of them is 'unfixable.' On Monday night, amid the turmoil, Pitt opened up about how important family is to him - amid his ongoing and escalating estrangement from his children. Speaking at the F1 premiere in Mexico City - he said: 'No matter the mistake, you just learn from [it] and move on,' he told ET. 'It'll lead to the next success.' The Oscar winner continued, 'When you get to my age, you realize how important it is to surround yourself with the people you love, the people that love you back.' 'Friends, family, and that's it,' he added. 'From there, we get to go make things. It's a pretty simple, I think, equation.' The interview comes after a source exclusively told how Pitt felt after Pax was pictured last month stumbling out of the Chateau Marmont, propped up by several friends. 'He has zero concern with what Pax does or doesn't do. [Pax's] actions reflect who he is,' the insider said. 'Brad honestly considers his relationship with Pax unfixable,' they added. The source went on to say that the actor doesn't appear to be planning any outreach to either of his adopted sons: 'Pax and Maddox have made it abundantly clear how they feel, and Brad has nothing to say about either of them.' As to his other children, Pitt, the source says, 'holds out hope that the others will one day come around. Time heals wounds.' A source close to Jolie hit back at her ex husband, saying: 'Brad continues to play the victim. His fractured relationship with his children is a direct result of how he has treated them. Nine years on from Angelina and Brad's split, Pitt now appears ready to cut ties with at least two of his children while desperately holding out hope for reconcile with the other four; (Pictured: Brad and Angelina with Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne in 2011). 'He should stop blaming others. If he wants to rebuild a relationship with the kids, he should acknowledge his own actions and make amends.' Meanwhile, Shiloh legally changed her last name last year on the day she turned 18, dropping Pitt and officially opting to be known as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie. At least three of the other four kids appear to have informally dropped the famous last name. Zahara, a student at Spelman College in Georgia, adopted in 2005, reportedly goes by the surname Jolie - as does Vivienne, who with her twin brother Knox will turn 17 on July 12. Brad's F1 interview also comes after he made a rare — and slightly defensive — comment about his girlfriend Ines de Ramon. The Oscar winner was first linked to the 32-year-old jewelry designer back in 2022 after they were spotted together at a Bono concert. The couple has kept their relationship mostly private, only making their public debut in July 2024 at the British Grand Prix, while Pitt was filming his upcoming Formula 1 movie. In a new interview with GQ for the magazine's 2025 Summer Issue — alongside F1 co-stars Damson Idris and Lewis Hamilton — Pitt was asked whether their appearance at a Formula 1 race was intentionally timed to promote the film. 'No, dude, it's not that calculated,' Pitt replied bluntly. 'If you're living—oh my God, how exhausting would that be? If you're living with making those kinds of calculations? No, life just evolves. Relationships evolve.' He also addressed the constant scrutiny over his private life, noting it's been part of his reality for decades. 'My personal life is always in the news. It's been in the news for 30 years, bro. Or some version of my personal life, let's put it that way.' One example of that media scrutiny, of course, is his split from ex-wife Jolie. But when asked whether he felt any relief after their divorce was officially finalized in late 2024 following years of drawn-out legal battles, Pitt downplayed the moment.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
I'm estranged from my parents. How do I explain this to my child?
I am estranged from my parents. I was once close to them but after having my son I could no longer justify their poor and hurtful behaviour and I made the difficult decision to cut contract with them. They always said they had no interest in having grandchildren and they have made it clear they want no relationship with my son. I am mostly at peace with my decision, as sad as it is, as I feel that protecting my child from them is an act of love. What I struggle with is how I will explain this to my son as he gets older. He is five now, and doesn't question their absence, but I know this might change. How do I say 'my parents are cruel and self-centred people who have no interest in our lives' in a more palatable way and in a way that, most importantly, makes it clear that he is in no way to blame? Eleanor says: I'm so sorry you've had to make this decision. In telling him, I think you can be led by what he wants to know. It's amazing what we don't think to question when we don't know anything else. Kids grow up in all kinds of setups – three dads, two mums, raised by siblings, parents unknown – they don't always have the same sense as adults for what's noteworthy or what calls out for explanation. One strategy might be to level the explanations in an age-appropriate way as he gets older. 'Lots of families have lots of different relationships, and Grandma and Grandpa aren't in ours' could be a starting response that becomes incrementally more thorough as he seeks to know more. That way it doesn't feel as though there's one big day with one big reveal. When we handle facts gingerly we indicate that they're scary or that they might blow at any moment. If there's no sense of a big sombre reveal, we can make the opposite seem true: we can demonstrate that these are facts that don't have to be feared. People do this sometimes when telling kids they're adopted, for example. No big 'sit down we have to talk' moment, it's just always part of the wallpaper. A similar thing might be possible for you. He has loving, emotionally intelligent family near him already, there hasn't been a sudden change to his relationship with his grandparents – even once he learns more about the estrangement it might not occur to him to wonder about the details or think it could be his fault. Also, when you explain to him that they're not in your life, you don't have to add the moral adjudication of why not. I'm not sure how incomplete the explanation would be if you just said 'we aren't very friendly with each other so we've decided not to hang out'. The concept of 'bad people' and especially 'bad people in your family' can be tricky for kids, and making your parents figures of Bad or Evil might make them more fascinating than they'd otherwise be. The difficulty with giving full moral explanations of interpersonal conflicts – even if you're totally in the right – is that it makes them seem heated and therefore more curiosity-compelling, and it raises an imagined right of reply. If it's just 'we don't get on', there's not much more to say. If it's 'they're bad and we're better off without them', the curious listener might want to know more. They might even wonder how reliable the narrator is. You've had to make a difficult decision for yourself and your child. You don't need to submit all the inner workings of that decision to him for it to make sense. You can be led by age-appropriate honesty and his own questions. The letter has been edited for length.
