Discover the Billionaire Father Behind Nicola Peltz's Success Story

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Nicola Peltz, the daughter of a prominent figure, has recently been at the heart of a much-publicized dispute involving her husband, Brooklyn Beckham, and his famous parents.

It’s no wonder Nicola is unafraid to assert herself, having learned from her father, Nelson Peltz, one of Wall Street’s most formidable investors.

Nelson, at 83, has made a name for himself through his aggressive investment tactics, successfully engaging in proxy battles with major corporations like Procter & Gamble, Heinz, and Disney.

His journey to the top is nothing short of extraordinary, beginning as a delivery truck driver and eventually founding one of the largest food distribution companies globally.

While he may not be as widely recognized in the entertainment world as the Beckhams, Nelson’s financial portfolio, valued at $1.6 billion, far surpasses the Beckhams’ $680 million fortune.

Emphasizing their family union, Nelson generously spent $3.5 million on his daughter’s 2022 wedding, warmly embracing Brooklyn, now 26, into their family.

The billionaire ‘bully’ who raised Nicola Peltz: How Nelson became the most feared investor on Wall Street and instilled his work ethic into his 10 children

Brooklyn, 26, has gushed over his new family on social media, joined family holidays and even sought career advice from Nelson

Yet the wedding was not without drama, with Nelson filing a lawsuit against two of the couple’s wedding planners, in which he was branded a ‘bully billionaire’ in response.

The big day itself was also marred by scandals, with Nicola said to have been left in tears after her first dance with Brooklyn was ‘hijacked’ by Victoria.

Since reports that Brooklyn had fallen out with his family first began to emerge three years ago, Nicola was often blamed for causing the rift.

Nicola fired back last year, making her thoughts known when she ‘liked’ a social media comment that read: ‘The fact people are in this comment section talking bs about someone controlling a GROWN man is absurd.

‘The guy is an adult and can make his own decisions, leave them be and stop blaming women for everything.’

It’s hardly surprising that Nicola refused to back down, previously citing Nelson as her inspiration.

She told Tatler: ‘My dad always says, “I don’t care what you do in life, as long as you are fully committed and you work”.’

Nicola also shared Nelson’s mantra: ‘Someone will always be prettier, more talented – you always find competition in that area – but no one should be a harder worker than you.’

Indeed it’s a work ethic that Nelson’s children have embraced.

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Nelson has built a family dynasty as the father of ten children (pictured with Brooklyn, his wife Claudia and Nicola)

Brooklyn has been embraced by the Peltzes, joining them on family holidays and gushing over them in social media posts.

All the while, he’s not been seen with his own family in months.

Nicola previously revealed that Brooklyn also relies on his new father-in-law for business advice.

She shared: ‘Brooklyn is getting into very exciting things with his shows and also business things and it’s really sweet. I watch him call my dad and say, “What do you think about this?” I love watching him learn from my dad.’

While he may be leaning on Nelson now for advice, the pair have little in common, given Brooklyn’s nepo baby status and Nelson’s humble roots.

Nelson, the youngest of three children, was born to a middle-class Jewish family in New York City in 1942.

He attended the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out in 1963 before finishing his degree to help with the family business.

Nelson and his brother Robert took over their father’s frozen-food distribution company which they grew rapidly over the coming years.

Nelson built Triangle Industries into the largest packaging company in the world (pictured with Rupert Murdoch, right, in 2006)

They focused on expansion by buying several other food companies and renamed the company Flagstaff Corp, going public in 1972 with $150 million in sales.

He grew his wealth further in the 1980s by acquiring manufacturing firm Triangle Industries and building it into the largest packaging company in the world before selling it in 1988, a deal which reportedly netted him hundreds of millions.

In 2003, he was part of a group of investors who made a bid to purchase New York Magazine.

The group jointly contributed more than $50 million for the publication after it was put up for sale by Primedia Inc. but the deal didn’t go through. The magazine was instead bought by investment banker Bruce Wasserstein for about $55 million.

While Nelson could have easily retired with his already astronomical wealth, he instead pivoted to ‘activist investing’: buying significant stakes in underperforming companies and pushing for changes such as cost cuts, restructurings, asset sales, or management shake-ups.

It’s a common practice on Wall Street but it has earned Nelson a fair share of criticism over the years.

Starting a firm called Trian in 2005, he waged campaigns to get on the boards of companies like Heinz, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, with target companies often depicting him as short-term focused.

In 2024, Disney released a three-minute takedown video to try and stop him from joining its board of directors, calling him ‘disruptive and destructive’.

Starting a firm called Trian in 2005, he waged campaigns to get on the boards of several companies with targets often depicting him as short-term focused

Nelson and his Trian Fund launched a campaign to win two board seats.

Disney lashed out with a political-style video trashing the activist shareholder’s motivations and qualifications in an increasingly bare-knuckled proxy battle.

The company said Nelson has a long history of ‘attacking companies to the ultimate detriment’ of shareholders and said it would be ‘disruptive’ and ‘value-destructive’ to include him and crony Jay Rasulo.

Nelson argued in his own presentation that Disney was slow to adapt to industry changes, including in streaming, made errors in its acquisition strategy and bungled succession planning.

His bid ultimately failed, with shareholders voting to reelect all 12 of Disney’s incumbent directors, rejecting Nelson and Jay Rasulo.

Along with his business dealings, Nelson has also been involved with politics as a significant Republican donor.

He personally gave at least $85,800 to Donald Trump-related campaign committees for his 2016 presidential election bid and gave over $200,000 to the Republican National Committee during the 2020 cycle, according to CNBC.

Nelson later said he was ‘sorry’ he voted for Trump in 2020 following the January 6 Capitol Hill Riot.

There was trouble on Nicola’s wedding day, with Nelson having an ‘utterly foul outburst’ at a guest who used a toilet inside his Florida mansion

However in March 2024, he said he would likely still vote for Trump in that year’s election, saying he preferred Trump’s immigration policies.

He was critical of immigration under President Joe Biden and also expressed concerns over his health.

Nelson went on to build a family dynasty as the father of 10 children. He had two children with his first wife Cynthia Abrams who he married in 1964 and divorced in 1981.

The businessman went on to marry former model Claudia in 1985 and had eight children with her – Matthew, 40, a businessman, Brad, 32, a former ice hockey player; Brittany, who is a children’s clothes designer; Darren (known as Diesel), 27, a tech entrepreneur; twins Zachary and Gregory, 18 – and Nicola.

While he has built a fearsome reputation in the financial world, Nelson has proven he isn’t afraid to go to war for his children either.

In December 2022, he sued Nicola’s ex-wedding planners Plan Design Events, specifically planners Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba.

He alleged they failed to deliver on their obligations and refused to refund a $159,000 deposit after he fired them during the lead-up to the lavish $3.5million wedding, held at his oceanfront estate in Florida.

In the filing, the Peltzes accused Braghin, Grijalba and their company of providing ‘no services of value’.

The women hit back with a 188-page counterclaim against Nelson, his wife and daughter, calling him a ‘bully billionaire’, dishing details of the event plans – including an alleged $100,000 hair and make-up bill – and exposing hundreds of text messages that showed Nicola firing off orders and criticizing their design suggestions.

Nelson later filed to remove his wife and daughter from the planners’ countersuit, claiming they weren’t party to the original contract.

The dispute was settled in September 2023 and dismissed with prejudice, meaning neither side can re-file the claims.

There was also trouble on the wedding day, with sources close to David and Victoria Beckham claiming Nelson had an ‘outburst’ at a guest who used a toilet inside his Florida mansion instead of one of the portable toilets set up on the grounds.

A source at the time told Daily Mail: ‘The whole Beckham family found Nelson utterly foul at the wedding. They didn’t particularly like him before but they really didn’t afterwards.

‘They were kind of in their corner having a lovely time and trying to enjoy their son’s big day but there was certainly an atmosphere. Brooklyn is obviously aware of the strained relations between his parents and Nelson.

‘He knows they don’t like him very much. It all feels like Brooklyn and Nicola are rubbing David and Victoria’s faces in all of this.’

Brooklyn Beckham’s statement in full

I have been silent for years and made every effort to keep these matters private. Unfortunately, my parents and their team have continued to go to the press, leaving me with no choice but to speak for myself and tell the truth about only some of the lies that have been printed.

I do not want to reconcile with my family. I’m not being controlled, I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life. For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into.

Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they’ll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out.

My parents have been trying endlessly to ruin my relationship since before my wedding, and it hasn’t stopped. My mum cancelled making Nicola’s dress in the eleventh hour despite how excited she was to wear her design, forcing her to urgently find a new dress.

Weeks before our big day, my parents repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name, which would have affected me, my wife, and our future children.

They were adamant on me signing before my wedding date because then the terms of the deal would be initiated. My holdout affected the payday, and they have never treated me the same since.

During the wedding planning, my mum went so far as to call me “evil” because Nicola and I chose to include my Nanny Sandra, and Nicola’s Naunni at our table, because they both didn’t have their husbands. Both of our parents had their own tables equally adjacent to ours.

The night before our wedding, members of my family told me that Nicola was “not blood” and “not family.” Since the moment I started standing up for myself with my family, I’ve received endless attacks from my parents, both privately and publicly, that were sent to the press on their orders.

Even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media, before they ultimately blocked me out of nowhere this last Summer.

My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song. In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me instead.

She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. We wanted to renew our vows so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness, not anxiety and embarrassment.

My wife has been consistently disrespected by my family, no matter how hard we’ve tried to come together as one. My mum has repeatedly invited women from my past into our lives in ways that were clearly intended to make us both uncomfortable.

Despite this, we still travelled to London for my dad’s birthday and were rejected for a week as we waited in our hotel room trying to plan quality time with him. He refused all of our attempts, unless it was at his big birthday party with a hundred guests and cameras at every corner.

When he finally agreed to see me, it was under the condition that Nicola wasn’t invited. It was a slap in the face. Later, when my family travelled to LA, they refused to see me at all.

My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first. Family “love” is decided by how much you post on social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo opp, even if it’s at the expense of our professional obligations.

We’ve gone out of our way for years to show up and support at every fashion show, every party, and every press activity to show ‘our perfect family.’ But the one time my wife asked for my mum’s support to save displaced dogs during the LA fires, my mum refused.

The narrative that my wife controls me is completely backwards. I have been controlled by my parents for most of my life. I grew up with overwhelming anxiety. For the first time in my life, since stepping away from my family, that anxiety has disappeared.

I wake up every morning grateful for the life I chose, and have found peace and relief. My wife and I do not want a life shaped by image, press, or manipulation. All we want peace, privacy and happiness for us and our future family.