Meet the Peltzes: how Brooklyn Beckham’s billionaire in-laws made their fortune

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz just threw the A-list wedding of the year, with the likes of tennis star Serena Williams, Hollywood actress Eva Longoria and chef Gordon Ramsay all in attendance.

You can forget something blue, the only colour likely to have been on all the guests’ lips was the green of cold, hard cash. Oh, and we’re not talking about the Beckhams’ £380 million fortune, that’s small fry in comparison to the Peltz family’s estimated £1.3 billion fortune. It comes as no surprise to anyone, then, that the couple signed a lengthy prenup before their Palm Beach ceremony.

The eldest Beckham progeny, 23, proposed to his actress fiancee, 27, after nine months of dating in July 2020 and has had plenty of time to ingratiate himself with his in-laws. At the time, Nicola wrote on Instagram: ‘I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life by your side. Your love is the most precious gift.’ High praise indeed from someone who is undoubtedly no stranger to lavish gifts, as daughter of the 1,931st richest man in the world.

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. The Peltz clan are no less successful than their high-achieving parents, Nicola is an actress, having starred in the Psycho prequel Bates Motel and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Her 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, who now lives in a £22 million mansion in Beverly Hills with Brooklyn, 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 for much of the former president’s term in office, 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.

It’s on the grounds of the family’s 44,000 sq ft, Regency style estate that his youngest daughter’s Jewish ceremony took place, with aerial photographs showing three huge marquees being erected ahead of the big day.

Much has been 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 last weekend’s nuptials seem almost frugal.

Perhaps the family could have cut back on costs by foregoing hiring a professional photographer and roping in the groom, who once interned for award-winning photographer Rankin before pivoting into the world of Youtube food tutorials. Then again, we quite enjoyed seeing him in front of the camera. No doubt their daughter - Beckham’s new wife - did too.