Whether you’re a football fan, a fashionista or neither; the name Beckham will mean something to you. It’s synonymous with wealth, luxury and success.
But it’s more than that. For people of my generation (I’m 43), we’ve grown up with David and Victoria. We hung David’s poster up on the back of our bedroom door. We sang along with the Spice Girls into a hairbrush. We swooned at their infamously tasteless wedding photos, we coveted Victoria’s bob, and we marvelled at how their marriage withstood the Britsh tabloid press’s obsession with them.
This year they marked their 25th wedding anniversary… which in the world of celebs and footballers is nothing short of astonishing. Whilst David’s team-mates Ryan Giggs and Ashleigh Cole saw their marriages to famous women end in tatters, and his friends Gary and Phil Neville both married nice ‘normal’ girls; David, it seems, only had eyes for one woman.
But something which still divides opinion between us ordinary folk. It comes up on girls nights out. It’s dinner party chit chat. And after the Netflix documentary, ostensibly about David’s career (but we all know everyone wanted to learn about the off-the-pitch stuff just as much if not more than what happened on the pitch), everyone was asking the same question…
Are the Beckhams one of the greatest love stories of our time? Or are they still together just to protect an enormously powerful brand?
The ultimate power couple need no intro from little old me. Victoria Adams and David Beckham, both absolute megastars around the world in their own right, married in 1999 and have gone on to have four children. Whilst David’s footballing career is over, his empire of advertising deals continues to grow. Arguably though it’s ‘Posh’ who now holds the credibility; as the head of a huge fashion and beauty business.
But what was it about these two kids from fairly average backgrounds (if not a little privileged in Victoria’s case - she was famously dropped off at school in her Dads’ Jaguar), which allowed them to become so hugely influential in what we wear, how we cut our hair, even what we name our children? Their influence on popular culture is undeniable, but is the love story behind it all that it’s cracked up to be?
The truth is, we’ll never really know will we?
No marriage is without it’s struggles, and the Beckhams are not immune to all the usual bumps in the marital road. In 2004, their picture perfect life looked set to implode when it was alleged by Rebecca Loos, David’s personal assistant, that she had been having an affair with him for eight months.
Although the couple have never confirmed or denied the affair, they both spoke candidly in the Netflix documentary about how it was the most painful and sad time of their lives.
That chink in their armour is I suspect what really leads people to say they’re a brand partnership rather than a romantic partnership. All these years on, the public remember that. But really; are we saying that the thousands upon thousands of marriages which include affairs are all shams? No. Lots of couples stay together post affair for financial reasons, but just as many stay together because they love each other and want to work it out.
When I left my ex husband people were absolutely stunned. I’d done a great job of seeming happy in public and on social media, convincing others in a bid to convince myself. Everyone told me how terribly sad it was and I definitely got the sense that we were fodder for gossip at that time and for some time afterwards. It worried me for our kids; what they might hear at school, what they might feel when the word properly got round.
Now that’s just little old me who nobody except my nearest and dearest really gives a monkey about… so can you imagine the pressure on Vicky and Dave? No wonder they called in the big-shot PR firms for damage limitation.
The frustrating (first world) problem we have here is that we’ll never really know whether they’re crazy about each other and are snogging in the kitchen IRL or whether they despise each other and sleep in separate beds. We can’t judge on the insta posts (I’m living proof of that), we can’t judge on the interviews, because if they really are all about protecting Brand Beckham, they’ve had enough practice to try and make the pairing feel authentic.
For me, the answer is, it’ll be a little bit of both. As in all marriages there’ll be time she’ll think he’s a bit of a (insert your swear word of choice here) and there’ll be times he’ll think she’s an unreasonable nagging drama queen…
But what resonated for me in the Netflix documentary was firstly, the accounts of people who are around them. The fellow footballers who say David regularly flew thousands of miles around the world to be with her for one day. The friends who say they just can’t be without each other and so despite pursuing their careers, they’ve prioritised being a unit.
Whether she really thinks he’s Golden Balls or not, there’s no denying they have a golden life. And wouldn’t we all want to protect that for ourselves and our children? Even if it’s sometimes through gritted teeth.
// Sarah Lawton
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