The 8 biggest David Beckham revelations from’s Netflix docuseries “Beckham”

Beckham revealed how he was first introduced to Victoria not through a mutual friend or celebrity acquaintance, but rather the television. It was while watching the film “Spice World” with his teammate Gary Neville that Beckham set his mind on putting a ring on Posh Spice’s finger.    

Beckham recalled the moment, saying he told Neville, “‘See that one there? I’m going to marry that one.’ And we were laughing and joking, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to marry that one — the posh one, in the black dress.'” 

The couple’s romance soon became a reality in 1997, when Victoria and fellow Spice Girl Mel C, aka. Sporty Spice, attended a Manchester United game. Beckham learned of Victoria’s attendance while in the locker room:

“In the changing room before the game, one of the players came in and was like, ‘There are two Spice Girls here,'” Beckham said. “I was like, ‘Which one?’ And he said, ‘The sporty one, and the posh one.’ And I was like, ‘Great.'” In an attempt to impress Victoria, Beckham played his absolute best that day.

As for Victoria’s take on the relationship, she said she was smitten by Beckham’s looks, even though she’s “not into football at all.” 

“I wasn’t into football then, I’m not into football now,” Victoria added. “But I’d seen pictures of him in magazines, and he was obviously a very good-looking boy . . . the fact I went to the games was, some would say ‘stalk’ him — I would say see him.”

“I just fancied him. It was as simple as that.”

Beckham and Victoria initially kept their relationship a secret, often meeting in car parks and sharing their first kiss in a BMW. Once word got out about their escapades, the couple famously became known as “Posh and Becks” — a title they still cherish today.

While talking about her relationship with Beckham, Victoria mentioned that it was their families’ shared “working class” backgrounds that initially drew her to him. Beckham, however, sternly interrupted her interview and told her to “Be honest!”

“I am being honest,” Victoria replied before Beckham asked her to share what car her dad drove her to school in. A hesitant Victoria first said, “It’s not a simple answer” and “It depends.” After enduring some more pestering questions from Beckham, she admitted, “OK, in the ’80s my dad had a Rolls Royce.”

Beckham’s controversial red card during the 1998 World Cup took place amid the round of 16, when England played Argentina. The highly anticipated game was also a bitter one for both teams, who had a decades-long rivalry with one another. In 1966, the two teams butted heads in the World Cup quarter-finals, which ended with England winning 1-0. Their victory, however, has since been dubbed “the theft of the century” (el robo del siglo) in Argentina due to claims that England’s sole goal was allegedly offside. The two teams met again in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, which was held four years after the Falklands War. Argentina ultimately won 2–1 and later went on to win the overall World Cup. 

Twelve years later, England was hellbent on overtaking their Argentine competitors, but that didn’t happen. When the score was tied 2-2, Beckham received a red card for kicking Argentina’s Diego Simeone. England went on to lose the game after a penalty shoot-out.

Beckham, then just 23 years of age, was subsequently blamed for England’s devastating loss. He faced immense backlash, hate comments and death threats, including a disturbing image of his effigy hanging from a building. Although Beckham redeemed himself during the 2002 World Cup, he still struggled to erase the painful memories of 1998.

“Now, at 48 years old, I beat myself up about it,” Beckham said in the documentary. “I made a stupid mistake. It changed my life. I felt very vulnerable and alone.”

Beckham said rival fans would abuse and spit at him in the street. Paparazzi would stop him and ask, “How do you feel about letting your country down? You are a disgrace.” The torment got so bad at one point that Beckham’s friends had to escort him to the bathroom and protect him in public.

“I don’t think I have ever talked about it just because I can’t,” Beckham admitted. “I find it hard to talk through what I went through because it was so extreme. The whole country hated me. Hated me.”

Victoria also spoke on the bullying her husband endured, saying, “He was broken. He was absolutely broken. He was in pieces. He was depressed, absolutely clinically depressed. It pained me so much. I still want to kill those people.”

Amid the public vitriol against her husband, Victoria also became the subject of vulgar chants by football fans who weren’t afraid to say them in her presence. Beckham and Victoria recalled there was one song in particular that every football fan sang following the 1998 World Cup match:

“Posh Spice takes it up the a***! Excuse my language, not very lady-like. 75,000 people were singing that,” Victoria said. “It’s embarrassing, it’s hurtful. I remember sitting down and the lady sitting next to me turning to me. She said, ‘Do you want a polo?’

“She didn’t know what to say! Do I want a polo? What do you say when you’re sat next to someone and 75,000 people say you take it up the a***! We did not know what to do, it felt like we were drowning.”

As for Beckham, he said the hurtful chants directed at his wife only drove him.

“As hard as it was looking up to the stands and seeing Victoria, it was the one thing that spurred me on,” he said. “When fans felt like they could get to me by singing hurtful things about my family, I would score a goal.”

Victoria said she told her husband the night before the infamous 1998 match that she was pregnant with their eldest child, Brooklyn. She added that her husband wanted to be with her after hearing the good news, but couldn’t.  

“I told Beckham the night before the game. He was so, so happy, we both were, and there was never any doubt in my mind that I should tell him,” Victoria said. “I mean, it was what we wanted and he could not have been happier.”

“It was the hardest period because it felt like the world was against us,” Victoria said of her husband’s alleged affair, which supposedly took place while he played in Spain after transferring from Manchester United to Real Madrid. Both Rebecca Loos and Sarah Marbeck claimed they had an affair with Beckham in 2003. At the time, Loos was employed as the athlete’s personal assistant.

The couple refrained from naming names in the documentary. 

“You know, up until Madrid, sometimes it felt like us against everybody else but we were together, we were connected, we had each other,” Victoria continued. “But when we were in Spain, it didn’t really feel like we had each other either. And that’s sad. I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was and how it affected me. 

“It was a nightmare. It was an absolute circus — and everyone loves it when the circus comes to town, right? Unless you’re in it.”

Although Beckham vehemently denied cheating claims in the past, he addressed the affair in the documentary, saying, “There [were] some horrible stories which 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.”

When asked how his marriage “survived” amid the inflammatory press, Beckham said he and Victoria “felt at the time that we were not losing each other but drowning.

“But ultimately, it’s our private life,” he added. “There were some days I thought, ‘How am I going to go to work? How am I going to go on that training pitch and look as if nothing is wrong?’ I felt physically sick every day when I opened my eyes. How am I going to do this?”

In 2005, Victoria was on bed rest while doctors scheduled a c-section to deliver her and Beckham’s son, Cruz. Beckham, however, told doctors that he had to miss the birth because he had to shoot a Pepsi ad with Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé. Of course, that upset Victoria: 

“What do you mean a shoot?” Victoria said while recalling the incident. “I was like, ‘Seriously, I’m about to burst. I’m on bed rest! Are you kidding me? You’ve got a damn photo shoot with Jennifer Lopez, who is gorgeous and not about to have a baby?'”

The photoshoot eventually got rescheduled and Beckham was able to attend the birth. But still, Victoria wasn’t satisfied because images from the shoot were released immediately after she gave birth.

“So I had my C-section, and I remember lying there, 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 Beckham between Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé, and the headline was, ‘What would Posh say?'” she recalled.

Victoria continued, “Let me tell you what Posh would say. Posh was pissed off!”

The former soccer player now tends to his own colony of bees, a hobby he picked up in 2021 amid lockdown. He also bottles and sells his own honey, even though the name of his business is still a work in progress:

“There’s a bit of an argument in the house at the moment,” Beckham said. “I think it should be Golden Bees. Victoria likes DB’s Sticky Stuff.”

When asked what other hobbies he has that are like beekeeping, Beckham simply replied, “Legos.”