Not too long after David had transferred from Manchester United to Real Madrid, the now-defunct British tabloid the News of the World published allegations in April 2004 claiming that he had had a three-month affair with a former employee of his previous management company. Many salacious details of the alleged affair subsequently consumed the press cycle, with people pointing to the fact that Victoria hadn’t moved to Madrid with their children as further speculation.
Speaking in his new documentary series, David looked back on that time and said, “There was 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.”
Calling it the “hardest point” in their marriage, Victoria explained, “It felt like the world was against us. Here’s the thing — we were against each other if I’m completely honest.”
In fact, Victoria said that the reason the family hadn’t moved to Spain up until that point was because she had yet to find a school for Brooklyn. She continued, “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 like we had each other either. And that’s sad.”
Of that time without her, David said, “When I first moved to Spain, it was difficult because I’d been part of a club and a family for my whole career, from the age of 15 to when I was 27 years old. I get sold overnight. The next minute I am in a city, don’t speak the language, more importantly, I didn’t have my family.”
“I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was and how it affected me,” Victoria said of the time.
“Every time that we woke up, we felt there was something else, and we both felt at the time that we were, not losing each other, but drowning,” David then said, appearing emotional while saying that he “[didn’t] know” how they “survived” that period.
“Victoria’s everything to me. To see her hurt was incredibly difficult, but we’re 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,” he continued, noting his difficulty in going to work each day. “I felt physically sick every day when I opened my eyes.”
Of the press “circus” that ensued once Victoria was in Spain, she said, “It was probably, if I’m being honest, the most unhappy I have ever been in my entire life. It wasn’t that I felt unheard, because I chose to internalize a lot of it because I was always mindful of the focus that he needed.”
Beckham is now available to stream on Netflix.
