This article was one of Herald Entertainment’s best-read stories of 2023

The Beckhams have broken their silence 20 years after affair rumours plagued their relationship.

In Netflix’s new documentary series Beckham, Victoria Beckham has admitted the “hardest” period of her marriage was when Rebecca Loos claimed to have had an affair with her husband David Beckham, because she and her spouse no longer felt “connected”.

The couple have been married since 1999 but the former Spice Girls singer admitted their union hit the rocks after the 48-year-old soccer legend moved to Real Madrid and they were hit by a wave of scrutiny as a result of his PA’s allegations, which David has repeatedly denied.

Throughout the series, footage is shown of newspaper headlines featuring Loos’ claims, and director Fisher Stevens asked the retired sportsman how he dealt with the “multiple tabloid stories”.

He replied: “There were some horrible stories that were difficult to deal with. It was the first time that me and Victoria had been put under that kind of pressure in our marriage.”

The filmmaker then asked 49-year-old Victoria if it was the hardest time in her marriage and she admitted: “100 percent. It was the hardest period for us. Because it felt like the world was against us. And here’s the thing; we were against each other, if I’m being completely honest.

“You know, up until Madrid sometimes it felt like us against everybody else. But we were together. We were connected. We had each other.

“But when we were in Spain, it didn’t really feel that we had each other either. And that’s sad. I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was and how it affected me.”

David reflected on how lonely he was being in Spain while Victoria and their four children remained in the UK.

He said: “When I first moved to Spain it was difficult because I’ve been part of a club and a family for my whole career from the age of 15 to I was 27 years old. I get sold overnight. The next minute I am in a city. I don’t speak the language. More importantly, I didn’t have my family.

“Every time that we woke up we felt you know, there was something else and you know, I think we both felt at the time that we were, not losing each other, but drowning. There were some days that I would wake up and think how am I gonna go to work? How am I gonna walk onto that training pitch? How am I going to look as if nothing’s wrong. I felt physically sick every day. When I opened my eyes. ‘How am I going to do this?’

And the couple are still unsure how they got through such a turbulent time in their marriage.

David added: “I don’t know how we got through it in all honesty. Victoria is everything to me. To see her hurt was incredibly difficult. But we are fighters. And at that time we needed to fight for each other, we needed to fight for our family. And what we had was worth fighting for. But ultimately it’s our private life.”

Beckham is available to watch on Netflix now.

This article was originally published on October 10, 2023