War of the Beckhams
Book tells of fierce rows and separate lives and how public image kept golden couple together
DAVID and Victoria Beckham lived separate lives as their marriage hit crisis point, an explosive new book claims.
The animosity between the couple was so bad eight years ago that each of their publicists “fed negative stories” about the other, author Tom Bower says.
But the pair ultimately stayed together, just as they had after Rebecca Loos’ earlier allegations of an affair with the footballer. “Although the Beckhams could not hide their separate lives, they stuck together to support the brand,” Bower writes.
Bower’s book The House of Beckham claims serious cracks in the marriage began opening up in 2016 with the couple spending increasingly larger amounts of time apart, with David in Miami and Victoria in London.
Bower writes: “During London Fashion Week that year, she asked Beckham to return to London for a dinner in her Dover Street shop. By the end of the celebration she must have wished he had stayed in America.
“Morosely, he sat staring at her guests. Some whispered that the two had been embroiled earlier in a foulmouthed row.”
Later Beckham was seen at Heathrow taking a flight to New York.
Two years later, it’s claimed the situation hadn’t improved. One low point came when David told an Australian broadcaster their marriage was “hard work”. “Victoria watched
Beckham’s clip…on her mobile with disbelief. ‘It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off,’” the book claims.
Another flashpoint was their appearance at Glastonbury in 2017.
After partying there until 5am with best pal Dave Gardner, Victoria arrived the next day.
She was furious he had failed to reply to her calls and sent out a search party. “Eventually, David appeared. Within seconds, they were embroiled in a ferocious argument.”
The decision to stay together was, in part, Bower says, because both appreciated the importance of being a united front to their brand.
“[David’s] status and survival would have been washed away without Victoria’s determination to maintain the illusion of a happy family,” Bower writes. “In return he continued to finance her vanity business.
“Her tiny fashion house is unlikely ever to be genuinely profitable.”