Another week; another celebrity family member revealing the “truth” behind the public façade. Are the Beckhams any different?
Let’s break this down.
One of the prices of fame is that your life is open to the media and the public.
For families, it’s important to consider “primary fame” and “secondary fame”.
If you are famous, what are the limits of public interest?
Is it just what you are famous for (public role, influence, sports or entertainment talent, being famous)? Does it extend to your relationships (who have “secondary fame”)?
Your partner and your children may not have signed up for this, but media may consider them ‘fair game’.
How you consider their interests and protect them is a challenge.
If that wasn’t hard enough, now think about family fame: the Kardashians, the Beckhams, the Windsors, the Obamas.
David (sport) and Victoria (entertainment) Beckham each had primary fame before they connected. This extended to them as a couple, and as a family once they had children.
A bit like the Three Circle Model of family business, they live in the intersection of family and the ‘business’ of fame.
What are the implications for family relationships?
In wealthy families, money is a proxy and an amplifier.
Why do the hard work of debating relationship issues when you can use higher stakes like money to play out revenge and rivalry scripts?
If the family is also famous, the modern proxy and amplifier is … social media.
Don’t like the family public narrative that your parents are presenting? There are millions of sympathetic people only as far as your phone. Because the algorithm rewards conflict and strife, its amplifying power is so much greater.
How the Beckhams differ from historical famous families is their online lives.
Brooklyn’s choice to jump immediately to Instagram rather than have it out privately is a generational shift.
‘Always online’ families can end up performing their roles rather than living them.
It’s common for family members to take the easiest path in managing emotions about their family.
What is the hard path?
According to family systems theory, actions of one family member cause reactions from others. The efforts of parents like the Beckhams to ‘manage’ the family image can spur an assertion of independence on the part of their children.
Every family needs a time and place where the algorithm cannot intrude.
Where they can just be … a family.
Conversation Starters:
How do you manage your family’s ‘brand’?
Who is at the table to discuss that?
What rules does your family have about online presence?
The original article was published in Family & Fame - David Werdiger
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A successful family advisor, business strategist, entrepreneur, and thought leader with a proven track record of achievement in driving innovation and growth for entrepreneurial endeavours and not-for-profit organisations.
David's experience includes founding and building multiple businesses from the ground up, and expanding and leading operations into new markets. He is recognised by colleagues as a creative problem-solver and strategist with expertise in coming up with ideas and creating new ways of improving business, strategy, operations, and results.
As a business and family advisor, he provides clients with expert business advice on intergenerational business and wealth transition, advancing entrepreneurial efforts, setting up good governance, improving financial and operational results, and strategic direction. He is also a seasoned program leader with an aptitude for providing governance in corporate and philanthropic pursuits with a strong focus on culturally focused non-profits.