If there's any snub more serious in today's social media-dominated world than unfollowing someone on an app such as Instagram, it's blocking them.

And over the weekend, the increasingly bitter Beckham family feud offered us both variants.

First came the allegation that David and Victoria had stopped following their oldest son Brooklyn on Instagram, the social networking platform that boasts more than three billion active users.

This provoked a furious reaction from Posh and Becks' youngest son Cruz, 20. He wrote on Instagram: 'My mum and dad would never unfollow their son [as reports had suggested]. They woke up blocked. As did I.'

Why on earth would Brooklyn, a sensitive and emotional lad, do such a thing? And at Christmas of all times? Nothing could be more calculated to gravely upset his parents.

To understand the answers, we need to put the latest spat into context.

As the whole world knows, there has been trouble in the Beckhams' paradise ever since Brooklyn, 26, met Nicola Peltz, 30, an American aspiring actress and daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz.

And when Nicola accepted Brooklyn's proposal of marriage, things went nuclear. I broke the news of the initial fall-out as far back as June 2022.

Nicola was mortally offended when Victoria promised to design her wedding dress but then failed to come up with the goods.

But worse was to follow. On the wedding day itself, in April 2022, pop star Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez's ex, who is a friend of the Beckhams, described Victoria (not the bride) as the most beautiful woman in the room.

This faux pas apparently left the bride and groom in tears and friends of theirs have subsequently claimed the Beckhams 'ruined' Brooklyn's wedding day.

In the months that followed, both sides attempted to build bridges. Nicola attended Victoria Beckham fashion shows and her 50th birthday but by April this year simmering tensions broke out into something approaching outright war.

By the time the young couple travelled to the UK for David's 50th birthday celebrations, things had got so difficult that they didn't feel able to attend any of his parties.

From that point on, the feud has been excruciatingly public.

Over the summer, the briefing and counter-briefing by the two sides reached fever pitch. The Beckham side apparently claimed Peltz, who now goes by the name of Nicola Peltz Beckham, 'controls' Brooklyn to the point that some people have started referring to him as 'the hostage'.

The breakdown in relations between Nicola and her mother-in-law in particular is now so toxic that I'm told Victoria, 51, has a highly unflattering nickname for Nicola.

 When the young couple renewed their wedding vows in August – with all the Peltz family in attendance but David and Victoria pointedly snubbed – Brooklyn's parents let it be known that this was a final straw and a 'kick in the teeth'.

Although Brooklyn did not congratulate his father when he was knighted by the King last month, there appeared to be signs of a desire to move on.

But the latest row over the Instagram stand-off would appear to have put an end to any hopes of a rapprochement. Indeed, a friend of the Peltz Beckhams reveals that David and Victoria have been asked to stop contacting Brooklyn and his wife. 

It seems that the young couple find Instagram posts by the Beckhams upsetting and anxiety-inducing. They wake up worrying what might have been posted about them overnight.

'It would be really in the holiday spirit if the Beckhams could just back off and leave them alone for now,' says the friend. 'The Beckhams started these 'blocking' game stories earlier this year and they keep going.

'Whether someone follows someone else on Insta or any other platform shouldn't be and isn't a story. It's a sad situation, but nothing has changed here.

'Nicola and Brooklyn haven't been commenting. They just want peace. It would be best for everyone for them [the Beckhams] to stop contacting, commenting and briefing because it's not accomplishing anything.' 

In fact, even the intervention by Cruz is considered another negative briefing by Brooklyn and Nicola. As the friend says: 'They have requested that the Beckhams back off. They just want to be left alone. The Instagram stuff is just a media play – it feels like more manipulation, more gaslighting. It just drives Brooklyn and Nicola further away.

'They get upset by the speculation. They are trying to take the high road which is not to react at all and to just live their lives.'

At the heart of the issue now are the briefings over the summer which Nicola and Brooklyn believe were ordered by the Beckhams. They call them 'a deliberate campaign of misinformation about the most personal things in their life'.

One source says: 'There was a long briefing war where it was open season on Nicola. They targeted Nicola and thought that they could do so without consequences.

'You can't inflict that much pain and damage on two people and then expect to pick up the relationship via a public social media post. The person who caused the pain does not get to decide when they declare it is over.

'If they want to make up then they need to apologise and acknowledge the pain caused and make changes to show that it is not going to happen again.' There appears to be very little chance of that happening. The Beckhams have reportedly 'given up' trying to reconcile with Nicola but still hope to make up with their son.

Sources 'close to David and Victoria' told The Sun that the distance was 'taking its toll'.

'His absence has really taken a toll on the special days – the knighthood – and now Christmas,' says the insider.

'It's like the ghost of Brooklyn is hanging over their Christmas and New Year's. Last year they were all together.

'The message they're sending is that the door is always open and he's always welcome.

'They'd love nothing more than to see Brooklyn over Christmas, put the past behind them and start 2026 afresh.

'And Nicola? Well they've stopped trying to win her back over. It might never happen, she might never warm to them again. So for now, they're concentrating on Brooklyn.'

A source close to Brooklyn and Nicola describes that as 'quadrupling down' on the argument and 'going full speed in the wrong direction', adding: 'He and Nicola are totally unified and as strong as ever.'

In the end, this sad catalogue of disputed petty slights, party no-shows and very public breaches of social media etiquette is an all too familiar tale of what happens when a family does not get on with an in-law.