David Beckham has recalled a difficult period he and his wife faced in 2003 when the footballer was accused of having an affair.
During Netflix’s new documentary, Beckham, the former England captain said that both he and Victoria Beckham were “drowning” during a time when he was accused of having an affair with his former personal assistant Rebecca Loos.
Beckham is visibly overcome with emotion as he explains: “When I first moved to Spain, it was difficult because I had been part of a club and a family for my whole career, from the age of 15 until I was 27 years old. I get sold overnight, the next minute I’m in a city, I don’t speak the language. More importantly, I didn’t have my family.”
Victoria Beckham added: “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.”
Continuing: “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.”
Speaking about how they felt at the time, David Beckham recalled: “Every time we woke up we felt like there was something else and we felt that we were not losing each other but drowning.”
He admitted that he didn’t know “how we got through it”, concluding through tears: “Victoria is 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.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, Beckham also discusses his “tiring” obsessive-compulsive disorder that prevents him from having a good night’s sleep. He explained: “The fact that when everyone’s in bed, I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy. I hate coming down in the morning, and there are cups and plates and, you know, bowls.”
Beckham is available to stream on Netflix now.
