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David Beckham & Parental Alienation

  • Sonny's Dad
  • Jan 21
  • 4 min read

So for all the people that have visited the site since I began to tell my story with Sonny you will know that it's largely a story of parental alienation, the effects and the victims.


Parental alienation is a highly contested concept in family law and psychology. It refers to situations where one parent is alleged to have intentionally undermined or damaged a child’s relationship with the other parent, often during high-conflict separations or custody disputes.


However, whilst parental alienation is alive and thriving daily, not just in the UK but also widely within the Western society it's not just the every day Dad who is a victim of this psychological play, it's also rife within the world of celebrities.


There are well-known celebrity cases involving allegations of parental alienation and below I've listed some very high profile one's form over the years -


Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt

Following their divorce, Brad Pitt alleged that Jolie attempted to alienate their children from him. Jolie has always denied these claims and in return tried to damage Pitt's name in respect of his ability to be a Dad (very typical). The litigation involved custody evaluations, therapy requirements, and sealed court filings.


Kate Winslet & Fathers4Justice Campaign


In 2013, the UK parents’ rights group Fathers4Justice ran (or planned) an advertising campaign using Kate Winslet’s image with the slogan “Kate, every child deserves a father this Christmas”. This was in reaction to comments she made in a Vogue interview about her children’s living arrangements, where she said her kids don’t go “back and forth” and don’t have “50/50 time” with each parent — “my children live with me, that is it.”


Myleene Class & Graham Quinn


Graham Quinn, Klass’s former partner and then-husband, has publicly claimed that after their split, he was denied access to their two daughters, Ava and Hero, for many years, and that Klass cut ties with him and his family, including the children’s paternal grandparents (very similar to my story with Sonny)


It's alleged Quinn argued that Klass’s actions risked “long-term social and emotional consequences” for the children and suggested that her conduct left the children without a stable, mutually rewarding relationship with their father, which is the kind of dynamic analysts associate with parental alienation behaviour.


Campaign groups have repeatedly used Klass’s name in campaigns regarding parental alienation.


In the past, Klass reportedly threatened legal action against groups for defamation over such posts however these have just remained what they are, threats, and has refused to publicly deny allegations that she had withheld access for extended periods.


So, just like the average Dad, celebtriy Dads are too being exposed to the ferocity of parental alienation.


It doesn't matter how much money they have when parental alienation is used there is little any Dad can do.


So why David Beckham?

Well I saw recently that his eldest kid, Brooklyn Beckham, was having a highly publicised feud with his Dad David, and mum, Victoria Beckham.


Why? Well it has nothing to do with parental alienation however what came out of the media frenzy was that David himself had been the centre of a contrived attempt at parental alienation involving his sister and utilising his very expensive lawyers.


In late 2018/early 2019, Fathers4Justice campaigned around a dispute involving David Beckham’s sister, Joanne Beckham, and her ex-partner Kris Donnelly.


Kris Donnelly claimed he was denied access to his daughter Peggy and that Beckham’s sister was in breach of a contact order.


It was alleged David Beckham was supporting & funding legal action that prevented Kris from seeing his child......imagine using the type of money that Beckham has to stop a little girl seeing her Dad?


Beckham has done a lot of shitting things, including betraying his wife many many time's however this is without doubt his lowest point.


The situation contributed to the child being separated from her father, which the group labelled as a risk of parental alienation and emotional harm.


Kris Donnelly became an ambassador for Fathers4Justice and expressed that his daughter was being denied contact, which he and the group described in terms suggesting psrental alienation which by any measures, it clearly was.


The main reason this caught my attention wasn't because it was David Beckham but because it's very very unusual for a man to be caught up in allegations of parental alienation.


Why? Because men are always on the recieving end of it.


I guarantee that when Beckham was caught out with one of his many matrimonial indiscretions over the years and Victoria decided to torpedo the Beckham brand and divorce her husband - if she's have pulled the parental alienation card he'd have thought twice about trying his best to stiff Peggy and her Dad, Kris Donnelly.


There's no doubt, I'm sure, that behind some parental cases you might find some uneducated Dad's or Brothers who want to support their daughter/sister in alienating the kids from their Dad but what they don't realise is it could easily be them.


Victoria Beckham could have easily, and likely with public support, destroyed Beckham and easily enacted parental alienation over all his kids and no matter how much money he had and no matter how much money he paid his lawyers, the same lawyers he use to sabotage Peggy and Kris's relationship, the same would have happened to him.


The reason why is that the game is rigged and there's nothing he could have done about it.


In this post I've referred a number of times to the campaign group Fathers4 Justice https://www.fathers-4-justice.org/ I will do a sperate post about them in the future but for a period of time they made international notoriety, for the right reasons, in putting the virus that is parental alienation on blast.


Ultimately the system cursed them - because there is too many people making too much money in alienating kids from their Dad


And no one wants to kill the golden goose.

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