David and Victoria Beckham: their warm, inspiring and unyielding love story

Two young superstars, with only a foot through the door towards what would be in store for them during their lives, David and Victoria met in 1997 and have overcome severe pressure, separation and disappointment to still be strong together now.

Fans have written on social media that the retelling of their story has ‘made them believe in love again’, so we know this is a pretty good story. This is the story of the Beckhams - how they met, their struggles to be together and the rollercoaster whirlwind of a relationship in the public eye.

We start with David, a young footballer with huge aspirations. His father had a dream: that his son would one day play for Manchester United. That dream came true and little David was taken under Alex Ferguson’s wing and trained up to be one of the most exciting young talents in football… ever.

Victoria Adams auditioned for a new girl band back in 1994. This group would become ‘The Spice Girls’, an international phenomenon that changed pop culture and gave power to young girls. They both were taking on the world in their respective industries.

David had heard of Victoria, Victoria had heard of David; but it wasn’t until a charity football match in 1997 when they clocked eyes on each other. They said hi and then - would you know it - she turned up at the next game. It was meant to be.

In fact, before they had even met, David said to his teammate and friend, Gary Neville and said (after seeing Victoria on TV), “See that one there, I’m gonna marry that one”, he blurted out. But joking aside, he continued, “No, I’m gonna marry that one. The posh one in the black dress.”

The two would spend hours on the phone together, as Gary Neville remembers in the Netflix series ‘Beckham’. The clips in the TV series relive some beautiful moments where David is in the changing rooms, in the car, in a hotel walking around with the phone in his hand chatting away to his future wife for hours on end.

David himself admitted that he was ‘addicted’ to spending time with her. He would get in the car and drive to London from Manchester just to see her for even the shortest time. He recounted that he even got on a plane for four hours just to see her for a short while.

David said in the series, "If it was me driving down to London to see her for seven minutes, I did it!” According to Victoria’s account in the documentary, he even chartered a 2 seater plane once to go and see her.

Love has no limits it seems. When he got a break from football, he immediately went to Victoria’s side, even if she was on tour with the Spice Girls. He fit in nicely with the group and, as Victoria remembers, they could ‘protect’ him as he was no longer under the heavy scrutiny he received in his career.

In 1998, just a year after they met, they announced their engagement during a press conference. David gave Victoria a diamond ring - which, incidentally, would be the first of 15 rings he has given his wife during their marriage together, according to Elle.

They were dubbed ‘Posh’ and ‘Becks’ and everybody - we mean everybody - knew who they were. Did you know that one newspaper even travelled the globe asking as many people as they could if they knew who ‘Posh’ and ‘Becks’ were? A shepherd made it on to the front page as being ‘the only person in the world’ who didn’t know of the couple.

They both had fame, fortune and luck in love and the pair tried to see each other as often as possible, but many believed this had a downfall, especially for David. As the Netflix documentary tells us, Alex Ferguson, as well as David’s own parents were worried about the football player’s focus being torn away from the football.

Their tireless phone calls were worrying David’s family. He was at a crux in his career but spending sleepless nights being on the phone to Victoria. "Victoria would be away and we'd be staying at David's house and three o'clock in the morning the phone would ring," Sandra, David’s mother said.

Sandra herself answered the phone and told Victoria that David was asleep but the couple still wanted to talk as often as they could. Sandra confessed she was "worried he'd lose all he worked for because football came first and all of a sudden it wasn’t".

David’s relationship with his parents is a very tight, respectful one. In fact, it was one of the things that attracted Victoria to him in the first place. She said in the documentary: “I saw him in the footballers’ lounge, all the other footballers were at the bar, and he was standing and talking to his parents, and I’m very close to my family, and I loved that side to him.”

Photo shows David Beckham's parents, Sandra and Ted

But, David took it in his stride - with Victoria by his side and his football career blossoming, he really was a man who was on the top of his game, playing for Manchester United and, of course, the England national team. Until one moment changed everything...

Much of the documentary is centred around ‘that kick’ when David Beckham clips Diego Simeone in the 1998 game against Argentina and got a red card. Well, many people likely did not know that the night before, Victoria had told David that she was pregnant.

Of course David was over the moon and entered into the game confidently but the backlash from the British public after being sent off from the game would change the pair forever. Victoria was asked if telling David about the baby the night before a big game was the right things to do, she responded: “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it, I just wanted to tell him.”

A lot changed from then on - David Beckham was ‘public enemy no 1’ in England as many blamed him for then losing the game and the chance to win the World Cup. The pair suffered press hounding and heckles in the stadiums during the footballer’s games and put a strain on Victoria.

“He was absolutely broken. He was in pieces. He was really depressed, absolutely clinically depressed. It pained me so much, I still want to kill these people,” Victoria said in the TV documentary ‘Beckham’.

But football had to continue and, despite the constant hatred, David pushed harder in his profession. Victoria then advised David she was going to give birth and, as recounted by Victoria herself, David said the game was ‘too big’ for her to give birth - but he made it anyway.

Their first son was born in March 1999 - Brooklyn (left in the photo in 2019). Before revealing information about their child to the press, David had asked a tired Victoria (who had just had a C-section) to do his hair before speaking to the world’s media. At least they remember it with a fond smile.

Happiness was short lived for David who suddenly realised that he could not protect his baby from the glares of the press and maybe even the awful abuse he was receiving from the British public. David confesses he started to become paranoid about his son, Brooklyn, saying he slept with his head against the door in the hospital, afraid someone would steal him.

But, to the public eye, they looked like the perfect family and decided to tie the knot to make it official. The wedding was in a lavish Irish castle and everyone was wearing black and white. Only one magazine got to take snaps of the big day and they had to pay a million pounds for that honour.

It really was a happy occasion and, despite the purple suit and dress, were able to be themselves and celebrate like ‘normal’ people… with a tiara, a star studded guest list and even thrones to sit on.

In the photo, the tiara Victoria Beckham wore.

‘She was the biggest reason I got through that time’, David recalled in the Netflix TV series. Nothing could stop the couple, not the press nor even David’s own coach, Alex Ferguson. Tension was mounting between the football manager and Victoria as he continued to see her as a distraction.

That tension eventually came to boiling point and Beckham was pushed from the club. So David had said to Victoria they were going to Spain and he was going to play for Real Madrid. Victoria’s response? “Less than ideal”.

Victoria and David had welcomes their second son in 2002, Romeo, and the thought of uprooting to Spain worried Victoria. But, as she says in interview for ‘Beckham’, “it was never about Spain” - for her, it was about the kids and their schools, friends and lives so stayed in the UK for the first season.

David recalls he was ‘lonely’ and this, at the time, did affect his game. But finally the pair were reunited as Victoria moved to Madrid and the family was together again. They were constantly hounded by the press and David even says that ‘the morning school runs were on national TV’.

The strain on the pair got worse. A whole lot worse. Suddenly the press were printing about David having an affair with a women he was with in a bar - who would later turn out to be Rebecca Loos, his PA (left in the photo).

"I don't know how we got through it in all honesty," David said in the Netflix documentary. "Victoria is everything to me. To see her hurt was incredibly difficult … what we had was worth fighting for.”

Victoria was hurt and as she retells her side of the story, she realises that previously, the two of them had been always united and against the world together. But this was different, they were strained on the inside. "It felt like the world was against us … and we were against each other,” she recounts.

But, somehow they did get through it and they did continue that bond and love for each other. They had their third child, Cruz in 2005 whilst in Spain but, just like Victoria’s first born, Cruz’s birth comes with a story, too.

Victoria retells the moment she told David she was going to be having their third child and David was off on a photo shoot with J-Lo and Beyonce. Victoria was, to say the least, not impressed.

Mrs Beckham recalls, “So I had my C-section and I remember lying there, I don’t feel at my most gorgeous, let’s just say, and I remember someone showing me the front page of the newspaper, which was a gorgeous picture of David between Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé, and the headline was, ‘What would Posh say?’
“Let me tell you what Posh would say. Posh was p***ed off!”

But a new home would change everything for Victoria and David. David’s move to Los Angeles would provide Victoria with everything she was looking for in a home for the children. It was safe, there were good schools and they had a wonderful home for the children.

Victoria mentions that it is much easier to move around when you are as famous as they are in Los Angeles because there are so many other famous people to take snaps of. Victoria in fact called the place ‘Rehab for famous people’. They wanted America and they got America.

Harper Beckham, the couple’s youngest child, was born in 2011 and the family was now complete. Victoria was doing much better, the children were happy and David… well, professionally, he was struggling.

The superstar footballer was not impressed by the team he was playing for and found it difficult to gel in his new team and was certainly not settled. He wanted to be in the England team so LA Galaxy put him on loan to AC Milan and, that was that, David was off again, leaving Victoria and the children behind.

From what the documentary tells us, this is what David Beckham needed to do - for himself and for his career - but he never really wanted to leave LA. After this came a stint at PSG followed by his retirement from football and, when that ended, and Victoria thought they would all finally be together, David flew the next day to Miami to be their soccer manager.

The couple now live (and have done since 2014) in a mansion in Holland Park. They reportedly spent an estimated £4 million renovating this Grade II-listed house, according to Town and Country, and David soaks up the peaceful English countryside with his family.

David and Victoria Beckham have spent most of their life without looking back - so the Netflix documentary acted a a kind of ‘therapy’ for the couple, reliving key moments in their lives - the good and the bad. One thing’s for sure, the couple have dealt with a lot of controversy; and now certainly deserve some peace and quiet and valuable family time.