Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz's Halloween celebrations were supposed to be a fun night out, but one group photo drew far more attention than their costumes.
The picture showed Nicola posing closely with her friend Damian Hurley, while Brooklyn stood slightly behind them, with his hands tucked into his pockets.
The contrast quickly became a talking point online, with some people joking that Brooklyn looked like a “third wheel in his own marriage.”
Highlights
- A now-deleted Halloween photo showed Nicola Peltz posing closely with Damian Hurley while Brooklyn Beckham appeared to be left out.
- Body language expert Judi James pointed out several details that she believes reveal an uneven dynamic between the couple.
- Brooklyn's public declaration of being “obsessed” with Nicola did little to stop netizens from questioning their relationship.
Amid the online chatter, body language expert Judi James weighed in on the viral photograph, suggesting that the couple's poses revealed a potentially uneven dynamic.
Brooklyn Beckham appeared to be the odd one out in a now-deleted Halloween photo with Nicola Peltz and Damian Hurley
The controversy began with a Halloween photograph featuring Brooklyn, his wife Nicola, and their close friend Damian Hurley, the son of actress Elizabeth Hurley.
While Nicola and Damian opted for matching black leather looks, Brooklyn went in a completely different direction, dressing as Superman in a blue-and-red costume with padded muscles and Clark Kent glasses.
However, it wasn't just their outfits that caught people's attention.
Damian had his arm wrapped around Nicola as the two posed closely together, while Brooklyn stood slightly behind them.
The difference in their positioning quickly prompted jokes that Nicola and Damian looked more like a couple than she and her husband did.
One person pointed out, “That girl is leaning more towards the other guy than to her own husband,” while another wrote, “She and Damian look more like a couple.”
The online chatter appeared to follow Brooklyn after he quietly deleted the photograph from his Instagram carousel, leaving the other pictures of himself and Nicola.
The move prompted even more speculation, with some people suggesting that the comments had got to him and that he was attempting “damage control.”
After deleting the picture, Brooklyn declared he was “obsessed” with his wife, but his response only fueled more scrutiny
He later shared an Instagram Story featuring Nicola and wrote, “Yeah, I am obsessed with my wife. Bring on the comments, I don't care. She's perfect xx.”
Now, speaking to the Daily Mail on Tuesday, November 3, body language expert Judi James analyzed the couple's poses.
She added, “The pose seems to be in Brooklyn's DNA although it often seems as though he's adopted the kind of adoring poses that his mum used to do while Nicola is the one posing straight into camera.”
The expert went on to suggest that Brooklyn appeared to be seeking more attention from his wife in their photographs.
“Brooklyn appears to find himself relegated to the role of a ‘visual spare part,’ which could be why he seems to be doing everything he can to court and pander to Nicola and try to retrieve some signals of attention from her in other photos,” James explained.
“There's a hint of poor etiquette when someone links up with one person for the photos while leaving their partner lurking, unlinked and visually excluded behind them.”
James also explained that the pair could have avoided the awkward impression by posing separately from Brooklyn.
Body language expert Judi James said Brooklyn appeared to be doing everything he could to “court and pander” to Nicola
“As Nicola and Damian appear determined to cash in on their ‘hotter than hot’ status here, they might have tactfully moved away from Brooklyn to do so,” she suggested.
The expert also examined Brooklyn's facial expression and posture, describing his smile as “weak” and “puppy-ish.”
Meanwhile, she described Nicola and Damian's pose as a “very performative display of mirroring and bonding,” adding that Brooklyn had been relegated to the back row.
James also questioned the couple's costume choices.
She said, “Even their choice of outfits suggests an empathy glitch. Most celeb couples tend to statement dress at parties and coordinate their cosplay to show off their couple status, but not Nicola and Brooklyn.”
She noted that Nicola and Damian had coordinated their leather looks, while Brooklyn's padded Superman costume made him stand out from the pair.
The expert's comments added to an already heated online discussion, with some social media users questioning the couple's marital dynamic.
One commenter wrote, “He's just her glorified handbag holder. I do worry for him when this all comes crashing down.”
Another user said, “She really doesn’t look interested in him at all. I think she’s got all she can out of him and she’s bored.”
Netizens questioned whether Nicola was as interested in her husband as he appeared to be in her
Another commenter expressed, “Very entitled self-important young lady. Her husband is decent enough has dumped his own family but will, in the years to come, be dumped. It’s a shame to watch all this unravel.”
One comment read, “You don’t put your arm around another man and let him put his arm around you when your husband’s standing next to you! Disrespectful and is a bit of a red flag.”
As previously reported by Bored Panda, the couple faced similar scrutiny last month after an interaction between Nicola and Brooklyn at Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2027 show during Paris Fashion Week attracted considerable attention online.
The footage showed Nicola reaching toward Brooklyn and lifting his chin, seemingly adjusting his sunglasses so she could check her reflection in the lenses.
She was quickly branded a “narcissist” by some social media users.
Some commenters at the time even compared Nicola to Meghan Markle, while describing Brooklyn as “not as strong as Harry.”
“Social experiment appears to have run its course. She’s using Brooklyn, and he’s too loved up to see it,” one netizen wrote
