Exclusive | ‘No contact’ culture is ripping apart families as Beckham drama brings clashes to light: ‘Enough is enough’

Completely severing ties to his mother and father wasn’t easy for Jesse Stern. 

But according to the 25-year-old Utahn, it was the only option.

Jesse, along with his wife Hazel, spent years enduring a difficult relationship he describes as “death by 1,000 cuts,” from fat-shaming to prying into the couple’s sex life and more.

The couple — who, along with all other story subjects in this article, asked to use pseudonyms and keep some personal details private — has established a “no contact” rule with Jesse’s parents after years of being subjected to their alleged toxicity and manipulation.

But the trouble began long before his 2020 marriage to Hazel, also 25, whom Jesse’s now-estranged mother accused of “turning Jesse into a liar” upon their first meeting. 

Jesse exclusively told The Post that he was so finished with his family by the time he cut the cord, he even legally changed his own first name — a name shared with his father.

He did it, he said, due to a pattern of lifelong “emotional manipulation.” 

“My dad would call me his ‘namesake son,’ and say, ‘You shouldn’t behave like this, or like that. You shouldn’t be posting certain things online because it’s a reflection on me,’” said Jesse, who changed monikers in early 2022. 

“I was tired of him using my name as leverage against me,” said Jesse, citing this as just one of the reasons he and Hazel decided to go “no contact” with his parents in January 2024. 

Going no contact, or opting to become totally estranged from one’s family, is a growing trend among adults who choose to permanently disengage from what they perceive as problematic relationships rather than stick around to continue taking the hits. 

From stalemated siblings who vow to never speak again, to contentious beefs between grown children and their moms and dads, to in-laws at an impasse with no hope of resolution, it’s the era cutoff culture — a time when the once-revered adage “blood is thicker than water” no longer holds, well, water. 

Over one-third of the US population, or 38%, are currently estranged from a close relative, per a recent YouGov survey — while 16% confess to having pulled the plug on any communication with one or both parents. 

“People who are estranged from a parent are most likely to cite manipulative behavior (34%); physical, emotional, or sexual abuse (34%); and lies or betrayal (31%),” researchers wrote in the 2025 report. 

Beckham brouhaha

Manipulative behavior was the chief accusation leveled against VIP parents Victoria and David Beckham by their eldest son, Brooklyn Beckham, 26, in his explosive social media tirade. 

“I do not want to reconcile with my family,” the model and chef said on social media last month.

The fiery remarks came amid whispers of discord between the nepo baby’s famous folks and wife Nicola Peltz, whom he married in April 2022.  

“I’m not being controlled,” continued Brooklyn in his virtual rant, insisting that Peltz, 31, is not to blame for the familial rift.

He has even covered up an anchor tattoo — containing the word “DAD” — using laser treatment, according to news stories, which report a chest tattoo dedicated to his mom was also obscured.

“I’m standing up for myself for the first time in my life,” Brooklyn additionally proclaimed on social media. “For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family.”

But Lesley Koeppel, an Upper East Side psychotherapist and author, says forever disassociating with kin — even difficult mothers and fathers — shouldn’t be a knee-jerk reaction to infighting. 

“Going no contact is appropriate, at the far end of the spectrum, when a parent or mother-in-law is chronically abusive, cruel, or so emotionally unsafe that continued contact actively harms the marriage or one partner’s mental health,” Koeppel explained to The Post. “In those cases, distance can be protective and necessary.”

Brooklyn says he and Nicola are planning to move forward in peace without his parents.

The expert — writer of the new tome “How to be the ‘Perfect’ Mother-in-Law,” a manual for overbearing moms looking to change things up — said she urges quarreling parties to explore various avenues toward possible reconciliation, before lopping off a branch of the family tree. 

“I increasingly see adult children moving to no contact too quickly, before attempting clear communication, setting firm boundaries, and attempting meaningful repair,” Koeppel added. “Estrangement should be a last resort, not a first response.”

Jesse and Hazel claim they tried everything — reasoning, compromising and avoiding hot-button conversations with his parents — even after his mom shamed Hazel ahead of their big day. 

“I tried on my wedding dress for her, and she said, ‘Oh wow. That’s really something. It makes you look really fat,’” recalled Hazel, who’s 5-foot-3 and weighed 90 pounds at the time. “She said, ‘Maybe consider wearing a belt to hide your stomach.’”

Of course, there were other offenses allegedly committed by both of her in-laws after she and Jesse tied the knot and welcomed a now 3-year-old daughter, Hazel said. 

There was the time they waited until she went to the bathroom to snap family pictures with Jesse and their daughter, or the shocking moment her mother-in-law admitted to parking outside of their apartment to “catch a glimpse” of any action going on in their marital bedroom. 

“I finally said, ‘Enough is enough,’” Jesse recalled. He told The Post his mother’s animosity toward Hazel stemmed from sheer jealousy — charged by a fear of being replaced by another woman in his life. 

“I gave my parents an ultimatum: either get healthy through therapy or we’re done,” he recounted. “They said, ‘No.’”

The Sterns, who are expecting their second child, say they’re peacefully building their own family without his parents.

So, Jesse bid his mother and father — along with his younger siblings — a final farewell. 

“It was hard, really hard. But I don’t regret it,” he said. “It’s okay to set boundaries, and if your family is not okay with those boundaries you set, you don’t have to be around them.”

Granny’s gone rogue 

Marie and her husband Rob, from New York, went no contact with his parents in June 2011 — almost 15 years before giving family the old heave-ho was en vogue. 

The couple, who chose not to disclose their last name to The Post for privacy reasons, slammed the gate on Rob’s mom after she removed their 5-month-old baby from their house without Marie’s permission. 

“She begged to babysit our daughter when I went back to work, and I reluctantly agreed with the [proviso] that she come to our house and watch the baby here,” said Marie, an office worker. “One day, I came home and found out she’d been taking my daughter to her house every day.

“As a first-time mom, I was livid.”

Marie immediately called her mother-in-law and left a voicemail saying she no longer needed her to babysit. 

“The next thing I know, my in-laws storm into my house, and both start coming after me and my husband,” she said. “I told them, ‘You’ll never see us again.’”

And Marie, with the full support of Rob, has remained firm on that vow for nearly two decades. 

Rob was not available to provide The Post with a comment. 

But speaking on behalf of her husband, Marie said, “Rob is 100% fine with being no contact.” 

“I told him I don’t want anything to do with them, but he can maintain a relationship,” she said, alleging that her in-laws treated Rob poorly his entire life. “But he’s, like, ‘Nope, I support you. You’re my wife. You’re my family. I’m not giving it up for them.’”

She’s a real pistol

Julia Paul’s mother-in-law had been gunning for her since the moment they met in January 2019. 

“My husband’s mom is very controlling and extremely racist,” Julia, a married mom of one, from the Midwest, told The Post. “She’d leave Facebook comments saying, ‘I hope someone knocks [Julia’s] nose off,’ and ‘I want to be in the labor and delivery room when [Julia] is giving birth just to see her in pain.’”

The viciousness — compounded by a fierce dispute over money and the family business — became too much for Julia’s husband, Jerry, to bear. He slowly, but surely, began to pull away from his mother in 2023. 

And that made mama mad. 

Julia says her mother-in-law, whom she chose not to name, began making bogus 911 calls, accusing Jerry of breaking into her house that December. The madness reached a fever pitch in January 2024, when the police arrived at her mother-in-law’s home to allegedly find her brandishing a firearm while standing on her front lawn. 

“She wouldn’t put the gun down, and the police had to draw their guns on her,” Julia claimed. 

She and Jerry went full no contact with her mother-in-law shortly after the harrowing incident. They have not spoken to her for nearly two years. 

“It’s really sad — my husband can’t have a relationship with his mom, and my son can’t have one with his grandmother,” said Julia, who regularly shares her “mother-in-law trauma” with her growing swarm of social media fans. 

“She f—ked my life up so bad for so many years. I was under so much mental stress,” she lamented to The Post. “I’m glad that we don’t talk to her. I wouldn’t want all that animosity in my child’s life.”

A motherlode of lies

Darius Pete always dreamed of having a big family with his loving wife, Selena, and his mother at his side. 

But when the 26-year-old learned that his mom was stabbing him in the back, falsely telling Selena he’d been cheating on her with an ex-girlfriend in an attempt to ruin their romance ahead of their 2023 wedding, Darius found himself in a living nightmare.  

“I confronted my mom, who can be very manipulative and would always try to pull me away from Selena to regain her control over me,” the Gen Zer, a first responder in Columbus, Ohio, told The Post. 

“I laid it all out, telling her we needed some distance — meaning no communication,” added Darius, noting that the veto came as a relief to Selena, 26, who’d fall physically ill at the mere thought of seeing her mother-in-law. 

“I would feel intense anxiety, my stomach would be in knots, and I’d break out with really bad cold sores,” groaned Selena, a mom of one and lifestyle content creator. “I had a really bad episode after we got married. Donovan went full no contact because it was just too much.”

And the sweethearts have no interest in refreshing their soured relationship with his mom. 

“Selena and I are at peace,” said Darius, who’s been happily estranged from his mother and extended family for two years. “Seeing my wife go through physical pain because of my mom hurt me — like I was subjecting her to that toxicity, hoping things would eventually work out.

“The last thing I said to my mom was, ‘I love you, but this isn’t going to work,’ said Darius. “And that’s how it ended.”