It’s 2022. Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz have just thrown the A-list wedding of the year, with three different wedding dresses, a $3 million budget, and a star-studded guest list populated by the likes of Serena Williams, Eva Longoria and Gordon Ramsay all in attendance.
For any other celebrity, a wedding of this magnitude would be a huge expense, even as an A-lister. But that’s hardly the case for Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, who decided to do it all over again this summer when they renewed their vows after just three years together.
Luckily for the Peltz-Beckhams, they have one hell of a financial backer: Nelson Peltz, billionaire investor, friend of Elon Musk, and father of Nicola. Sure, the Beckham family has a wealth of their own, with an estimated net worth of £500,000 million, but this is dwarfed by Nelson Peltz’s whopping $1.6 billion estimated net worth.
Much has been made of the two families’ wealth gap amid the rumoured Beckham family feud, with Brooklyn and Nicola notably absent from Beckham family events over the last year, and the Beckhams allegedly not invited to the couple’s glitzy vow renewal this August.
But who are the Peltzes and how exactly did they make their billions?
Nelson Peltz, 78, may be the 432nd richest person in the US, owning a vast property portfolio, a Renoir and a couple of PJ’s (private jets, duh) — oh and used to commute to work by helicopter, that is until his neighbours complained about the racket. But the Peltz patriarch, who counts Rupert Murdoch and golfer Greg Norman as friends, came from rather more humble beginnings.
He was born in New York to Jewish parents. Later, after dropping out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1963, with the intention of becoming a ski instructor, he ended up joining his family’s food delivery business. He started out as a driver and worked his way up the ranks expanding the business and eventually buying a stake in the vending-machine company Triangle Industries Inc., which he built into a Fortune 100 company.
But it was in 1997 that Peltz really hit the jackpot and founded Trian, a food and beverages company, investing in and acquiring brands including Cadbury, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Heinz and Schweppes.
Peltz married his third wife, fashion model Claudia Heffner in 1985, who is the mother of Nicola and eight of his ten children. Nicola is a model and actress, having starred in the Psycho prequel Bates Motel and Transformers: Age of Extinction. She also wrote and directed her own film, Lola, in 2024 (Elon Musk was at the premiere, of course).
Nicola’s older brother Will has also appeared in several teen flicks, such as Sierra Burgess is a Loser and Time Freak. Meanwhile, their other brother Brad deviated from the theatrical route and competed as a professional ice hockey player for Ottawa Senators, a team that it was rumoured Nelson Pletz once flirted with buying.
Nicola grew up splitting her time between her family’s Palm Beach home and a 27-bedroom mansion in Bedford, New York. Their 130-acre East Coast bolthole once belonged to DeWitt Wallace, the co-founder of Reader’s Digest and boasts an indoor ice rink, flock of albino peacocks and a collection of Old Masters.
But the family spend most of their time in the wealthy district of Palm Beach, counting Glenn Close, Bruce WIllis and Trump as neighbours. Nelson was a staunch Trump supporter during his initial run for president, reportedly hosting a fundraiser in Trump’s honour, charging £470,000 per couple for the privilege.
But their relationship soured after the infamous Capitol Hill riot, where Trump refused to denounce the violent storming of the government building by his supporters. Following the incident, Peltz spoke out publicly saying he was “sorry” he had voted for Trump in the 2020 election. However, he has since spoken positively of the POTUS, and boasted about how he played “matchmaker” between Trump and Elon Musk (a relationship that has also seen its fair share of highs and lows).
It’s on the grounds of the family’s 44,000 sq ft, Regency style estate that his youngest daughter’s Jewish wedding ceremony took place, with aerial photographs showing three huge marquees being erected ahead of the big day.
Much was speculated about the rumoured £3 million wedding budget, but Nicola’s twin brothers’ bar mitzvah reportedly cost between £800,000 and £1.5 million, which makes her nuptials seem almost frugal. Luckily for her, she got to do it all over again three years later. Phew!
