Speaker 1: Before we get into the episode, we wanted to issue
Speaker 1: a trigger warning as we discuss themes about eating disorders.
Speaker 1: The Beckhams had become English royalty. The public were obsessed
Speaker 1: with the couple and their every move made headlines. I
Speaker 1: con them golden balls.
Speaker 2: You know now.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be true and kind of those kings. I
Speaker 3: shouldn't have said.
Speaker 1: No one knew though, that the Beckham Juggernau was about
Speaker 1: to go international. A shop moved to Madrid, put Posh
Speaker 1: and Becks's marriage under the spotlight.
Speaker 2: Of course, I love my family, I have a wonderful life,
Speaker 2: but football is everything to me and joining Real Madrid
Speaker 2: is a dream come true.
Speaker 1: Then came the onslaught of cheating allegations that rocked the marriage.
Speaker 4: I felt like a whole. I felt really cheap, and
Speaker 4: I felt used, and I said, I'm not not even
Speaker 4: why why am I doing this?
Speaker 1: We are journalist Sophie Kate and Amy Torbert, and this
Speaker 1: is our new series Unspoken, where we bring you the
Speaker 1: unspoken stories behind the big pop culture headlines to rock
Speaker 1: the nineties and early naughties. When we left you last,
Speaker 1: David and Victoria had officially become the Beckhams. They had
Speaker 1: an absolutely extravagant wedding. They also had just given birth
Speaker 1: to their first child, Brooklyn, and were dealing with absolutely
Speaker 1: terrifying kidnapping attempts. Now in the midst of all of this,
Speaker 1: Victoria was also being hounded by the press, and they
Speaker 1: had an absolute obsession with her weight. So over the years,
Speaker 1: she's been called everything from porky posh to skeleton posh
Speaker 1: and the media. Speculation about her weight went into overdrive
Speaker 1: following the birth of her first child, Brooklyn, in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine. Now, not long after she gave birth, a
Speaker 1: picture of Victoria appeared on the front page of the newspaper,
Speaker 1: where a journalists pointed out every part of her body
Speaker 1: where she needed to focus on losing weight. She did
Speaker 1: end up losing a large amount of weight very quickly,
Speaker 1: which sparked speculation of an eating disorder. Victoria denied the
Speaker 1: claims that she she was anorexic, insisting that her shape
Speaker 1: had changed naturally after giving birth. She said her issue
Speaker 1: was made worse by food allergies. Just two months after
Speaker 1: giving birth to Brooklyn, Victoria appeared on TF five Friday,
Speaker 1: which was hosted by Chris Evans, and unbelievably, during the
Speaker 1: live interview, she was forced to weigh herself in front
Speaker 1: of the audience and cameras. Let's throw to how it
Speaker 1: went down.
Speaker 4: Is you wait back to normal?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Can I check?
Speaker 3: Oh no, Jerry, didn't you on?
Speaker 1: But Jerry?
Speaker 3: Was that really smart?
Speaker 2: Two?
Speaker 1: Number two is great?
Speaker 4: You can afford Number two is?
Speaker 1: Can't you.
Speaker 2: All?
Speaker 1: The last time I saw people being weighed on television
Speaker 1: and then cheered for when they lost weight was when
Speaker 1: The Biggest Loser was on and we all know what
Speaker 1: a mess that television show turned into. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: if this was filmed today, the uproar making a female
Speaker 1: celebrit pretty stand on scale. It just wouldn't happen. And
Speaker 1: the worst part is Victoria said, oh, you did this
Speaker 1: to Jerry as well, talking about Jerry Hallewell it's even
Speaker 1: worse because she has just had a baby as well,
Speaker 1: and it's that expectation that well, you better hurry up
Speaker 1: and get rid of this way. Posh did reflect on
Speaker 1: the interview, saying he made me stand on the scales
Speaker 1: to be weighed. Can you imagine doing that nowadays? Now?
Speaker 1: In two thousand, the Spy Skills announced they were going
Speaker 1: on an indefinite hiatus, but they insisted to fans that
Speaker 1: it wasn't the end of the spy skills, so they
Speaker 1: never actually officially broke up. It sounds like that denial
Speaker 1: where one d broke up. They're just going on a break.
Speaker 1: Victoria did embark on a short lived solo career. She
Speaker 1: released her first solo album called Victoria Beckham in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one. Now that didn't go too well. It
Speaker 1: failed to reach the top of the charts, and I
Speaker 1: feel like this has always been a bit of a
Speaker 1: saw point for Victoria. Well. She was also mocked by
Speaker 1: the general public and the media because she was never
Speaker 1: known for her voice, as we've touched on in the
Speaker 1: past episodes. Now, to promote the album, Victoria appeared on Parkinson,
Speaker 1: but instead of focusing on the music, David Parkinson flatter
Speaker 1: asked her if she was anarexic. Let's throw to what
Speaker 1: he said.
Speaker 5: Three questions I got to ask you right right? Is
Speaker 5: it true that David wears your knickers? First question, say,
Speaker 5: is it true that you wear the trousers in your house?
Speaker 5: And the third are you anarexic?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 5: Those are the three questions everybody in the audience out
Speaker 5: there and the media all eager to hear your views
Speaker 5: on David wearing your.
Speaker 4: Knickers to star with.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm the only person that actually wears my knickers.
Speaker 1: You are, but if you'd like to borrow them, I can.
Speaker 3: Play the headlines now Parky borrows Poshi's knickers.
Speaker 1: I liked how she tried to divert the question, but
Speaker 1: Michael again asked her, are you anarexic? Let's throw to
Speaker 1: what she responded.
Speaker 5: Now, are you anarexic?
Speaker 3: No, I'm not.
Speaker 1: How do you know that?
Speaker 5: I know?
Speaker 3: Because I eat anorexic?
Speaker 5: You eat regularly?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, I mean I have a perfectly healthy dar.
Speaker 1: Why, it's clear to me listening to this interview that
Speaker 1: back in the early two thousands, people didn't understand what
Speaker 1: anorexia was. It seems preposterous to ask someone how they
Speaker 1: know that they're not anorexic. Well, it's also clear that
Speaker 1: no one realized it was completely inappropriate to pose that
Speaker 1: question to someone, let alone do it in a public
Speaker 1: space during a live interview that's been televised, Particularly when
Speaker 1: Victoria went on to explain that she actually had visited
Speaker 1: a doctor to investigate why she was unexpectedly losing weight
Speaker 1: since giving birth, and she said she was eating normally,
Speaker 1: so she was quite worried about it. And she said
Speaker 1: the doctor told her it was an hereditary condition as
Speaker 1: the same thing had happened to her mum following childbirth.
Speaker 1: This interview just got worse because Michael Parkinson then asked
Speaker 1: her what it's like going out for meals at restaurants
Speaker 1: and do people assume that she goes to the toilet
Speaker 1: to chuck up? And the audience proceeded to laugh. It
Speaker 1: felt like a pylon because on the show they also
Speaker 1: had two Fat Ladies. Star Clarissa d Wright interviewed and
Speaker 1: she was sitting alongside Victoria and she chimed in asking
Speaker 1: Victoria what she ate, and when Victoria tried to explain
Speaker 1: that she eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks, Clarissa
Speaker 1: then made a snide comment saying, and how many let
Speaker 1: us leaves a day? Was that? Do you think they
Speaker 1: purposely got Clarissa on the panel. It was an interesting
Speaker 1: mix because you've got Victoria Beckham there who is being
Speaker 1: accused of not eating, and then you've got Clarissa Dixon,
Speaker 1: who was on a show called two fat ladies, who
Speaker 1: was known for cooking very indulgent food, So I maybe
Speaker 1: think that there was some strategy behind it. I think
Speaker 1: it was definitely a strategic move by producers. They would
Speaker 1: be working weeks in advance to make sure that the
Speaker 1: three guest celebrities all complimented each other in the sense
Speaker 1: that they were three very different people with three different views. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was so uncomfortable to watch, particularly when
Speaker 1: you think about the way Parkinson worded the question. I
Speaker 1: understand that in the early two thousands we weren't as
Speaker 1: educated on the topic of eating disorders, but there would
Speaker 1: have been a much better way that he could have
Speaker 1: worded the question and shown some compassion, rather than presenting
Speaker 1: it as a third dot point in a quick filistic questions.
Speaker 1: He also seemed to accuse her of it, as if
Speaker 1: it was something that she was purposely doing to cause upset,
Speaker 1: when we know that anorexia is a mental health condition. Well,
Speaker 1: can you imagine if she said, oh, yes, I am,
Speaker 1: I mean, how is that a really sensitive way to
Speaker 1: tell people about something that you've been struggling with. It
Speaker 1: also feels like a bit of a got you moment
Speaker 1: as well, because if she closes up and says no,
Speaker 1: I'm not. Then later down the track, if she does
Speaker 1: feel comfortable to talk about it, then she lied to
Speaker 1: the public.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well. After years of denying the eating disorder rumors, in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, Victoria admitted in her autobiography that
Speaker 1: she did in fact suffer from an eating disorder. So
Speaker 1: she said her obsession with her body image began in
Speaker 1: the early days of the Spice Girls, when management told
Speaker 1: all five girls they needed to lose weight. Victoria went
Speaker 1: on to blame Jerry Halliwell in her book for fueling
Speaker 1: her obsession with losing weight. So at the time, all
Speaker 1: five girls were living together in a house in Berkshire,
Speaker 1: and Jerry encouraged Victoria and Melsey to get up early
Speaker 1: and go running, as well as introduced Victoria to meal
Speaker 1: replacement shakes. She then said, the trouble is that when
Speaker 1: you start thinking like this, it's hard to stop a
Speaker 1: change from someone who was dieting to lose a bit
Speaker 1: of weight to being obsessive. I was shrinking and the
Speaker 1: excitement at getting thinner quite took away the hunger. Now
Speaker 1: the pressure got too much for Victoria, who then began
Speaker 1: binging and purging. It's been reported that Jerry and Melsey
Speaker 1: also battled eating disorders. Victoria said she would eat ten
Speaker 1: bowls of Frosty's in one sitting, and tins of fruit
Speaker 1: and when she was in the gym. Instead of checking
Speaker 1: her posture or position, she said she'd checked the size
Speaker 1: of her bum or to see if her double chin
Speaker 1: was getting any smaller. Wrote I began living on vegetables
Speaker 1: and nothing else, but it never occurred to me that
Speaker 1: I had an eating disorder. She wrote, I used to
Speaker 1: chop up bowls of spinach and carrots and steam them,
Speaker 1: or I just eat peas I had become skeletal. Spice.
Speaker 1: Despite saying that she suffered from an eating disorder in
Speaker 1: the early days of the Spy Skirls, Victoria vehemently denies
Speaker 1: that that condition continued. So She said, I think there's
Speaker 1: a big difference between someone having an eating disorder and
Speaker 1: someone who is controlled about what they eat. There's a
Speaker 1: big difference. And every now and then, of course I
Speaker 1: go and eat what I like, but I do try
Speaker 1: to be quite disciplined in the way I eat. She
Speaker 1: also said that becoming a mum helped her to become
Speaker 1: more accepting of her body. She said, when you have children,
Speaker 1: it also puts a lot into perspective. You realize they
Speaker 1: notice everything. I would never sit down with my kids
Speaker 1: and skip a meal. They need to see that their
Speaker 1: mum eats healthy. You need to show little people how
Speaker 1: to be healthy and happy with who they are. I
Speaker 1: just think this continuous speculation about Victoria's body for the
Speaker 1: last thirty years is just disgusting. And it's so ridiculous
Speaker 1: to think that we expect female celebrities to act as
Speaker 1: role models when they we are prone to even greater
Speaker 1: pressure to be thin than ordinary women. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at three out of the five Spy Scales have come
Speaker 1: out and said that they have suffered from eating disorders.
Speaker 1: They were clearly under a lot of pressure in the
Speaker 1: nineties to be thin, to be heroin chic. It's pretty
Speaker 1: clear to see that nothing is ever good enough for
Speaker 1: the press. They're either too fat or too thin. They're
Speaker 1: never just quite right. Yeah, and I think it's actually
Speaker 1: really good that Victoria came out and admitted that she
Speaker 1: was struggling with an eating disorder, because it really opened
Speaker 1: up the conversation. We did see it back in the
Speaker 1: mid nineties when Princess Diana came out and said that
Speaker 1: she had bulimia. The thing that I don't like, though,
Speaker 1: is that there's no room for Victoria to be allowed
Speaker 1: to recover from that eating disorder. She has to continually
Speaker 1: be scrutinized and questioned, and even now there is still
Speaker 1: so much speculation around what Victoria eats. Recently, in February
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, David Beckham made headlines when he spoke
Speaker 1: about Victoria's restrictive diet. So he was asked on the
Speaker 1: River CAFEO podcast about what his family eats, and this
Speaker 1: is what he said.
Speaker 2: When I'm eating something great, I want everyone to try it,
Speaker 2: you know. And that's unfortunately I'm married to someone that
Speaker 2: has eaten the same thing for the last twenty five
Speaker 2: years since I've met her. Victoria, she only eats you know,
Speaker 2: grilled fish, steam, vegetables. She'll very rarely deviate away from there.
Speaker 1: Now, this interview led to a lot of people speculating
Speaker 1: again that Victoria was suffering from an eating disorder, and
Speaker 1: it also sparked a lot of unhelpful conversations that really
Speaker 1: trivialize the way that Victoria ate. So people were talking
Speaker 1: about how oh, she's just very disciplined, or it's a
Speaker 1: time saving tactic, and it sparked a lot of unnecessary conversations.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: In July twenty twenty two, Victoria actually addressed the comments
Speaker 1: that David made in the podcast interview. She said, talk
Speaker 1: about making me sound boring. She went on to clarify
Speaker 1: that she eats healthy, including fish, avocado, nuts, that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. She added that she regularly drinks alcohol. She
Speaker 1: also noted, I'm quite extreme in anything I do, whether
Speaker 1: it's eating or working out, or drinking or not drinking.
Speaker 1: I didn't actually realize. But she was interviewed on the
Speaker 1: same podcast a year earlier, and she sparked mixed reactions
Speaker 1: when she answered what her favorite comfort dish is. So
Speaker 1: she said, this is where I get even more boring
Speaker 1: in the food department. Okay, what do I like? I
Speaker 1: like whole grain toast with salt on it. She then
Speaker 1: laughed at her response and went on to say it
Speaker 1: was really boring and that it's that carbi thing, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's that carbohydrate that makes you feel comforted, and I
Speaker 1: love salt. What can I say? She then went on
Speaker 1: to describe herself as a very fussy eater. That is
Speaker 1: most restaurants nightmare. Victoria also explained that she likes her
Speaker 1: food to be cooked plainly, without oil, butter or sauces,
Speaker 1: and as for a diet, she hasn't eaten red meat
Speaker 1: since she was seven and does not eat dairy. She
Speaker 1: also said that she loved to eat steam vegetables with
Speaker 1: balsamic v and like to season her meals herself. I
Speaker 1: don't see how that's so much different to what David
Speaker 1: Beckham actually said a year later. I just can't get
Speaker 1: over the fact that there's not even a bit of
Speaker 1: butter on that toast, like the fact that it's just
Speaker 1: bread and salt, because toast with butter can be an
Speaker 1: elite combination. But yeah, I think she's missing out one
Speaker 1: of the vital ingredients there. Now we need to get
Speaker 1: back to June two thousand and three because this is
Speaker 1: a very important moment on the timeline. So the football
Speaker 1: world was left shocked when David Beckham was sold to
Speaker 1: Real Madrid for thirty two million pounds. No one was
Speaker 1: more shocked than David himself, who was at the peak
Speaker 1: of his career and didn't want to leave his beloved
Speaker 1: Manchester United. Now, David's exit was down to his relationship
Speaker 1: with United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, so in the early
Speaker 1: days he had been somewhat of a father figure to David,
Speaker 1: but there was tension growing between them. Ever since Beck's
Speaker 1: met Posh. The falling out erupted with a much publicized
Speaker 1: locker room incident. So after the match, David mouthed off
Speaker 1: at Ferguson about the loss and Ferguson lost it and
Speaker 1: kicked a boot at him. David claimed he had to
Speaker 1: get stitches in his eyebrow, whilst Ferguson called its stage management.
Speaker 1: In the Beckham documentary, David said, when I first moved
Speaker 1: to Spain, it was difficult because I'd been part of
Speaker 1: a club and a family for my whole career, from
Speaker 1: the age of fifteen to when I was twenty seven.
Speaker 1: I was sold overnight. The next minute, I'm in a
Speaker 1: city where I don't speak the language. More importantly, I
Speaker 1: didn't have my family now. David made the move to
Speaker 1: Spain in June two thousand and three, however Victoria and
Speaker 1: the kids didn't join him until December that year. Victoria
Speaker 1: was heavily criticized in the press for not moving with
Speaker 1: David straight away. However, the reality was she had two
Speaker 1: young children whose lives were also being uprooted. No one
Speaker 1: considered the fact that she actually had to find a
Speaker 1: school for Brooklyn, or that she had a career based
Speaker 1: in the UK. She did become public enemy number one
Speaker 1: with the Spanish people when the media reported that she
Speaker 1: said the Spanish smell of garlic. Now. She those claims,
Speaker 1: saying she would never say anything so disrespectful. She continued
Speaker 1: saying everything was fabricated and taken out of context. It
Speaker 1: was never about Spain. It didn't really seem like Posha's
Speaker 1: sense of humor resonated with the public. During an interview
Speaker 1: with GMTV in Madrid, she said, one thing they can't
Speaker 1: get right here is the grapes because they all have
Speaker 1: pips in it. I feel like that is a common
Speaker 1: thing with English people because I've been listening to a
Speaker 1: podcast recently and these English girls are saying that the
Speaker 1: Americans just don't get their sense of humor, so maybe
Speaker 1: it's the same for the Spanish well. She also said
Speaker 1: that she wasn't happy with the interior of the houses
Speaker 1: that some of the real estate agents had offered her
Speaker 1: in Madrid. In an interview, she said that one of
Speaker 1: the reasons it's taken her so long to settle into
Speaker 1: Spain is because it's been tough finding a house. She
Speaker 1: said that the houses the agents found her were very
Speaker 1: Hollywood and were filled with lifts, disco balls and cinemas,
Speaker 1: and she didn't want anything like that. I do like that.
Speaker 1: She said that she was learning Spanish and that David
Speaker 1: would get very hot under the collar when she'd whisper
Speaker 1: sweet nothings in Spanish. It's pretty funny because the reporter
Speaker 1: Darla Romano tried to teach Victoria a few words, including
Speaker 1: Spanish for golden balls, which is Victoria's pet name for David.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine her then suddenly dropping that to him. Well,
Speaker 1: he'd have no idea. Now, with Victoria and David navigating
Speaker 1: a long distance relationship, the press were already pre empting
Speaker 1: an affair. Talk show host Jonathan Ross started stoking the
Speaker 1: fire when Victoria appeared on his show to promote her
Speaker 1: solo career. Let's throw to what.
Speaker 5: He said, You're dating without that one of the most
Speaker 5: attractive men.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not dating and we've got married.
Speaker 5: Well, okay, I like having this little bit of omen's day,
Speaker 5: you know, but you're you're married to, yeah, one of
Speaker 5: the most attractive, handsome, famous men in the world, and
Speaker 5: you know it's all there for him. And he's going
Speaker 5: out with someone who's out working in New York. And
Speaker 5: you're an attractive you're a beautiful woman. You've got you know,
Speaker 5: fame as well. It must be tough just on that level.
Speaker 5: I mean, the trust that's involved there must be quite larger.
Speaker 5: Or are you why do you get concerned? Are you
Speaker 5: jealous of each other?
Speaker 2: Case?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's always healthy to have a
Speaker 3: certain amount of jealousy in a relationship. But at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, it's no harder for us than
Speaker 3: it is anyone else. You know, you're away from must
Speaker 3: you know, I think that there's pressure on every relationship.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say poor.
Speaker 5: Me, look look for me, okay, you know. I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm not bad looking for my age. But when I
Speaker 5: go my wife, my wife knows, no one's going to
Speaker 5: look twice. Really unless I went out of my way.
Speaker 5: There's David right now, he's in Spain. They're following himself
Speaker 5: at him. Yeah, you know, they must be all the
Speaker 5: time and you go out, people are right. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm sure you get more than a few offers, don't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But I think you know, we do trust each other.
Speaker 3: And when you got kids, you know, at the end
Speaker 3: of the day and you never know how long fame
Speaker 3: is going to last. And it is all very superficial.
Speaker 3: And that's why, you know, as long as our relationship
Speaker 3: is all right, that's the main thing. You know, we're
Speaker 3: going to grow old and wrinkly together.
Speaker 1: Enter Rebecca Loose. So when David moved to Spain, his
Speaker 1: management firm hired a twenty six year old assistant called
Speaker 1: Rebecca Now. She was born in Madrid, but she also
Speaker 1: holds Dutch citizenship. Her father was a Dutch diplomat and
Speaker 1: her mother was originally from Surrey. Now. The idea was
Speaker 1: that Rebecca would help David settle in and teach him
Speaker 1: the ropes of living in Spain. So Rebecca first met
Speaker 1: David at a private airport and said she was initially
Speaker 1: not impressed by his pretty boy image, ripped jeans, diamond
Speaker 1: earrings and fancy watchers. She did say it was clear
Speaker 1: Victoria and David were at crisis point, with David allegedly
Speaker 1: having explosive fights on the phone with his wife. She
Speaker 1: also said that David begged Victoria to join him in
Speaker 1: Spain with their two sons, saying he couldn't live without them.
Speaker 1: In September two thousand and three, whispers of a cheating
Speaker 1: scandal began brewing when media published photos of David and
Speaker 1: Rebecca at a nightclub together. They looked pretty cozy in
Speaker 1: the photos, sitting close to one another and chatting. Now.
Speaker 1: When the photos hit the paper, David's PR team came
Speaker 1: out and said people were reading into nothing. However, Rebecca
Speaker 1: alleges that these photos actually captured the start of their
Speaker 1: four month affair. Here's what Becka said about that night.
Speaker 4: We were just locked into each other all night, conversation wise,
Speaker 4: I mean other people noticed it. Other people at the dinner,
Speaker 4: I sat opposite him and the rest, you know, sort
Speaker 4: of down the table. Then it was just him and
Speaker 4: I talking and laughing and joking and we just we
Speaker 4: just connected. The chemistry between David and I were so
Speaker 4: strong that everyone was aware, and people weren't happy, obviously,
Speaker 4: because I was being very unprofessional and he's a married man.
Speaker 4: This girl came up, sat between us and we were
Speaker 4: chatting and laughing, and he just kept looking at me.
Speaker 4: And then it dawned on me that what he'd asked me,
Speaker 4: and I did want to go back with him, So,
Speaker 4: you know, we just sort of gave each other a
Speaker 4: look and a nod of the head and paid the
Speaker 4: bill and we left.
Speaker 1: Once they left the nightclub, they got into a car
Speaker 1: with two other members of the group they were with,
Speaker 1: and according to Rebecca, as soon as those two people
Speaker 1: were dropped off and they were alone in the car,
Speaker 1: they started passionately kissing. She described them as being like magnets.
Speaker 1: I could have done without that. Now in the morning,
Speaker 1: she says, David fed her fresh strawberries. And this is
Speaker 1: a detail that seems to have obsessed the UK public,
Speaker 1: I think because it almost seems somewhat romantic.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: In the interview, Rebecca explained how she felt when she
Speaker 1: left the hotel the next day.
Speaker 4: It's very breathless, very very happy, smiling. Yeah. I got
Speaker 4: home and my mother said, oh, where have you slept?
Speaker 4: Worvey spent the nights and she could just tell her
Speaker 4: by the look of my face. She knew I didn't
Speaker 4: have to tell him.
Speaker 1: She knew. That week Rebecca went to visit him again
Speaker 1: at his hotel before a match. She said she was
Speaker 1: very excited to see him, but after their encounter she
Speaker 1: felt used. Here's what she said.
Speaker 4: I was very excited to see him, and it was
Speaker 4: literally in, you know, close off, get the action done
Speaker 4: and out within half an hour. And I left their
Speaker 4: feeling absolutely I felt like a whore. I felt really cheap,
Speaker 4: and I felt used and you and I said, I'm
Speaker 4: not not even why why am I doing this? Why
Speaker 4: am I putting myself through that? Because emotionally I've been
Speaker 4: through a lot.
Speaker 1: Despite feeling used, Rebecca fell hard for David, telling the
Speaker 1: media she adored him. She claimed they text each other
Speaker 1: thirty times a day, which, to point out, in the
Speaker 1: early two thousands would have cost you a lot of
Speaker 1: money when that wasn't a problem for becks No. She
Speaker 1: also alleges that they sexed twice a week. She recalled
Speaker 1: visiting a museum with her parents and having to rush
Speaker 1: to the bathroom to finish the sexting in there. I'm
Speaker 1: sure her parents were thrilled to hear this information in
Speaker 1: the newspaper. Despite all the sexting, Rebecca said that over
Speaker 1: their four months relationship, they only had sex six times,
Speaker 1: and I just wonder was this due to a lack
Speaker 1: of opportunity. Well, if Posh wasn't there, I feel like
Speaker 1: they would have had a lot of opportunity. I think
Speaker 1: it's more that Beckham probably had other mistresses going on. Allegedly.
Speaker 1: In April two thousand and four, Rebecca sold her story
Speaker 1: to the News of the World in what was described
Speaker 1: as one of the last great kiss and tell stories.
Speaker 1: The tabloid went to great lengths to get the scoop,
Speaker 1: so journalist Neville Thurlbeck said, securing the story was like
Speaker 1: a spy operation. He detailed the lengths he went to
Speaker 1: in his book Tabloid Secrets, The Stories Behind the Headlines Now.
Speaker 1: Neville said, his editor called him into his office and said,
Speaker 1: the biggest story of the year is about to be dropped.
Speaker 1: By this stage, Rebecca had enlisted the help of publicist
Speaker 1: Max Clifford, who was helping her sell a story to
Speaker 1: the paper.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: In exchange for her story, Rebecca wanted one hundred thousand pounds,
Speaker 1: which by the end of the investigation ended up being
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. In exchange for the money,
Speaker 1: the newspaper wanted an interview with all the launchy texts
Speaker 1: and proof, so Neville flew to Madrid straight away and
Speaker 1: spent two weeks hiding out with Rebecca, trying to catch
Speaker 1: David out for the cheating. Can you imagine them sitting
Speaker 1: in the hotel room just sending off these rogue texts
Speaker 1: to David Beckham. You think about it when you really
Speaker 1: like someone and you're hoping to get a text back. Well,
Speaker 1: this would have been magnified because she's trying to prove
Speaker 1: that this affair actually went on.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the reason that they were trying to get Beckham
Speaker 1: to text them back was that he was always texting
Speaker 1: her from different numbers, and they needed proof that it
Speaker 1: actually was him. Isn't this just a major red flag
Speaker 1: if your partner is constantly changing their phone number. I
Speaker 1: understand that this is something that celebrities do in case
Speaker 1: someone finds out what their number is, but this seemed
Speaker 1: to be happening on a regular basis. The journalist said
Speaker 1: that he changed his phone number more times than men
Speaker 1: changed their soul. Well, I feel like you'd have a
Speaker 1: pretty good excuse for it. Eventually, Rebecca did get a
Speaker 1: response to one of her calls, but all they heard
Speaker 1: down the line was a silence, and then a person
Speaker 1: on the other line burst into boyish giggles. Now Neville
Speaker 1: was about to pull the pin on the story until
Speaker 1: Rebecca discovered a piece of paper that had Beckham's Management's
Speaker 1: company details on it, and at the bottom, in David's
Speaker 1: handwriting was his name followed by a phone number. Now
Speaker 1: that phone number match raunchy text that had been sent
Speaker 1: to Rebecca. Now the news of the affair broke with
Speaker 1: a five page spread in News of the World that
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. The story framed David as lonely and said
Speaker 1: Rebecca was there to comfort him. It also described Victoria
Speaker 1: and David's long distance marriage as troubled and said he
Speaker 1: felt abandoned by Victoria. It seems like they're just trying
Speaker 1: to paint Victoria badly in this story, even though it's
Speaker 1: about him being a well. The tone running through the
Speaker 1: article was, of course, he was going to cheat if
Speaker 1: she wasn't there keeping an eye on him, And the
Speaker 1: article really didn't spare any detail. It printed the array
Speaker 1: of graphic text messages where David allegedly explained what he
Speaker 1: wanted to do to Rebecca in bed Now, Rebecca was
Speaker 1: always portrayed as the villain in the press. Well, David
Speaker 1: was this lovable puppy dog who was lonely and needed attention.
Speaker 1: The public really felt like she was trying to make
Speaker 1: a career out of sleeping with a married man, and
Speaker 1: that she wanted to inflict pain on Victoria through the
Speaker 1: press that she was putting out there. I can see
Speaker 1: why people thought that, because it was publicized that she
Speaker 1: got three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for selling the story.
Speaker 1: If she had perhaps come out and told the story
Speaker 1: for free, people may have been more kind towards her.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, her publicers probably feared that this would be the case,
Speaker 1: so asked her not to be named as the source
Speaker 1: in the first story that came out and the news
Speaker 1: of the world instead. It was bizarrely written from the
Speaker 1: perspective of an unnamed source who was apparently a close
Speaker 1: family friend of Rebecca's that she had confided in. This
Speaker 1: is a general tactic of journalists. They'll use an unnamed
Speaker 1: source when quite often it is the person involved in
Speaker 1: the story who was giving these quotes. However, in this case,
Speaker 1: it all didn't quite add up, because why would Rebecca's
Speaker 1: friend one have copies of her hundreds of text messages,
Speaker 1: majority of which were of a sexual nature. And I
Speaker 1: can also hardly imagine a family friend giving this quote.
Speaker 1: So one of the quotes said David was a sensational lover.
Speaker 1: The sex was highly charged, explosive. They would make love
Speaker 1: for hours. Surely the general public could read between the
Speaker 1: lines and knew that this story had come direct from Rebecca.
Speaker 1: There was no way she wasn't involved in it. The
Speaker 1: journalist did out of line about how she was approached
Speaker 1: for commt and didn't give any but surely people could
Speaker 1: put two and two together. Oh definitely. It did feel
Speaker 1: like Victoria was being mocked when this story came out,
Speaker 1: because the text messages really ignited a national guessing game
Speaker 1: because some of the words had been censored out, so
Speaker 1: the public was encouraged to try and guess what words
Speaker 1: were missing. And can you imagine how that would have
Speaker 1: felt for Victoria. It would have been absolutely soul destroying
Speaker 1: that everyone is getting fun out of your misery and
Speaker 1: all playing a game to guess these sordid things that
Speaker 1: your husband had said to his personal assistant. Well, David
Speaker 1: Beckham's team was quick to release a statement, and it
Speaker 1: must be noted that David didn't flat out deny having
Speaker 1: the affair. Instead, the release said, during the past few months,
Speaker 1: I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous
Speaker 1: stories about my private life. What appeared this morning is
Speaker 1: just one further example. The simple truth is that I'm
Speaker 1: happily married to a wonderful wife and two very special kids. Now,
Speaker 1: to make things more awkward, this was actually a pre
Speaker 1: planned family skiing holiday with her parents, sister and mother
Speaker 1: in law all coming along. God, wouldn't you try and
Speaker 1: pull out of this trip? Like that would be the worst? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would be. Now, David was granted compassionate leave by
Speaker 1: Real Madrid, which saw him miss the club's Champion League
Speaker 1: game to join the family vacation. Can you imagine the
Speaker 1: heckling he would have got on the ground had he played.
Speaker 1: I think he would have rather been there than on
Speaker 1: this family trip. I mean, it was so humiliating for him,
Speaker 1: but also for poor Victoria. Imagine having to be around
Speaker 1: all your family and you're trying to deal with all
Speaker 1: of this bullshit. Now, brand Beckham was out in full
Speaker 1: force on the ski slopes the next morning. There were
Speaker 1: photos of the couple strolling hand in hand and frolicking
Speaker 1: in the snow. As you can imagine, this was a
Speaker 1: strategy from their PR team, who wanted to show a
Speaker 1: united force and to act as though there was no
Speaker 1: merit in these allegations. Victoria has opened up since sharing
Speaker 1: what it was really like to live through the scandal.
Speaker 1: She said, it was a nightmare from the minute we
Speaker 1: opened the door in the morning. The press were there
Speaker 1: in cars and everywhere we went we would get followed.
Speaker 1: It was an absolute circus. In the Beckham documentary, she
Speaker 1: confirmed that it was the most difficult moment of her marriage.
Speaker 1: She said, it was the hardest period for us because
Speaker 1: it felt like the world was against us. And here's
Speaker 1: the thing. We were against each other, if I'm completely honest.
Speaker 1: You know, up until Madrid sometimes it felt like us
Speaker 1: against everybody else. But we were together, we were connected,
Speaker 1: we had each other. But when we were in Spain,
Speaker 1: it didn't really feel like we had each other either,
Speaker 1: and that's sad. I can't even begin to tell you
Speaker 1: how hard it was and how it affected me. Now.
Speaker 1: In another PR power play, less than a week after
Speaker 1: the article came out, Victoria appeared on Anton Deck's show
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Takeaway, and Victoria was interviewed by two kids
Speaker 1: who they called Mini Anton Deck, and the kids proceeded
Speaker 1: to ask her if they were planning on having any
Speaker 1: more kids. Here's what she said, definitely.
Speaker 3: Want to have more babies, not just yet, but I
Speaker 3: definitely want to have more babies.
Speaker 4: Are definitely more movies at the moment.
Speaker 3: We're not planning on making babies at the moment, but
Speaker 3: we're what they call practicing to make them, which is
Speaker 3: really good fun.
Speaker 1: In this interview, she also left a message on David's
Speaker 1: phone saying I love you, and she just came across
Speaker 1: as really happy and smiling and was joking around. You
Speaker 1: would never have guessed that behind the scenes so much
Speaker 1: was going on. What a perfect media performance for her,
Speaker 1: because you'd watch this and think, ah, maybe it is
Speaker 1: all bullshit. Meanwhile, the pr Beckham machine was working over
Speaker 1: time trying to just credit Rebecca Loos's reputation and clawback David's.
Speaker 1: Newspapers were being fed stories about Rebecca's supposed lesbian affairs
Speaker 1: and affairs with three tennis players, whilst ex colleagues were
Speaker 1: giving derogatory quotes about her to journalists. How clear the
Speaker 1: media were trying to pay a certain picture of Rebecca.
Speaker 1: They tried to slut shame her and also make her
Speaker 1: out to be this fame hungry person. Yeah. Well, she
Speaker 1: very quickly became fed up with that and she was
Speaker 1: over being called a liar. So she hit back by
Speaker 1: appearing on SkyTV for her first televised interview, and unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: that interview drew in near record ratings, and on the show,
Speaker 1: she told the full story of how the affair unfolded,
Speaker 1: or allegedly unfolded. I should say, in the interview, she
Speaker 1: wanted to make it clear that she wasn't the cause
Speaker 1: of the problem in the marriage, saying the problems were
Speaker 1: there long before she came into the picture. Now, the
Speaker 1: genuineness of her comments was called into question when during
Speaker 1: the interview she said that she never intended to break
Speaker 1: David and Victoria up, especially when there's young kids involved,
Speaker 1: and she hoped that they stayed together. Oh, she only
Speaker 1: just wanted to sell the story to the media to
Speaker 1: make lots of money. Well, yeah, she did make a
Speaker 1: further one hundred and fifty thousand pounds the interview. I
Speaker 1: also don't understand because in that interview. She also said
Speaker 1: that she adored David and she still does. So if
Speaker 1: he had those types of feelings still for someone that
Speaker 1: you were apparently with, then why would you then wish
Speaker 1: that couple the best of luck and hope that they
Speaker 1: stayed together. It just doesn't come across as very genuine. No,
Speaker 1: it comes across as very jaded now in the press.
Speaker 1: Rebecca also made derogatory remarks about Victoria's body, so she
Speaker 1: claimed that David said he hated Victoria's thin body and
Speaker 1: loved her like a sister, but they had a sexless marriage.
Speaker 1: She also admitted to using Victoria's hair clips while she
Speaker 1: showered in David's hotel room. Rebecca then went on to
Speaker 1: describe Victoria as a very cold, severe, unsmiling woman behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, and said she was very sour and difficult
Speaker 1: to get along with and was envious of Rebecca from
Speaker 1: the first time they met. She finished by saying she
Speaker 1: didn't like standing next to a woman who looked better
Speaker 1: than her. Gosh, I can see why Posh was giving
Speaker 1: her the cold shit. If this, you know, she obviously
Speaker 1: was picking up that something wasn't right. I just love
Speaker 1: this bullshit that she's so happy that Posh and bexer
Speaker 1: together and she wants them to be happy with their kids. Yet, oh,
Speaker 1: she's not very nice and David said she was too
Speaker 1: skinny and they had a sexless man. Also, she's just
Speaker 1: playing into all the headlines about Posh, how she never
Speaker 1: smiles and that she's too thin. Well, she's just weaponizing
Speaker 1: her body. She knows that that has been an obsession
Speaker 1: of the media, so she wanted to use it against
Speaker 1: her as well.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Max Clifford, who's Rebecca's publicist, he also made cutting comments
Speaker 1: about Victoria, telling The Evening Standard newspaper that no one
Speaker 1: had been harmed by the allegations, especially not Victoria. He said,
Speaker 1: for Victoria, it's given her what she craves most, saturation coverage.
Speaker 1: The only reason she's famous is because she's Missus Beckham.
Speaker 1: Her career disappeared years ago. He added, I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: she's enjoying it, but given the choice between no publicity
Speaker 1: and this, she would choose this. It's quite hypocritical for
Speaker 1: the pr manager of Beckham's Misty, who has made a
Speaker 1: name for herself from sharing this story publicly, to say that. Well,
Speaker 1: also the fact that she has gone and seeked out
Speaker 1: a publicist to go and break the story. I mean,
Speaker 1: she did go on to appear on a number of
Speaker 1: reality shows like Love Ireland the Celebrity Edition. The thing
Speaker 1: that I disliked the most about this is the two
Speaker 1: women are being pitted against each other. You know, the
Speaker 1: common denominator in this story is David Beckham. He is
Speaker 1: the one who is married and should be doing better
Speaker 1: by posh. But now we're putting these two women against
Speaker 1: each other. But why isn't she angry at David? It
Speaker 1: just seems like she's turned all of her anger towards Victoria,
Speaker 1: and probably because David doesn't want to be with her
Speaker 1: and she blames Victoria. Now, as we mentioned earlier, these
Speaker 1: cheating allegations were touched upon in the Beckham doco recently
Speaker 1: now David addressed the controversy, saying there was some horrible
Speaker 1: stories which were difficult to deal with. It was the
Speaker 1: first time me and Victoria had been put under that
Speaker 1: kind of pressure in our marriage. Now, throughout the documentary
Speaker 1: they did not name Rebecca. However, following it, Rebecca appeared
Speaker 1: on Good Morning Britain accusing David of playing the victim
Speaker 1: and making her look like a liar. She said she
Speaker 1: never got any warning that they would be talking about
Speaker 1: the scandal, which was a little bit hypocritical considering that
Speaker 1: she gave them no warning when she went to the
Speaker 1: press with her story. She said that she had tried
Speaker 1: very hard to let it go and move on, but
Speaker 1: it really bothered her that she felt she was made
Speaker 1: to look like the bad person and said it was
Speaker 1: both of their faults. Now, she said in hindsight that
Speaker 1: she wished she'd gone about this all in a very
Speaker 1: different way now. If you're wondering what Rebecca has been
Speaker 1: up to in the last twenty years, she is working
Speaker 1: now as a yoga instructor and a small town of
Speaker 1: only two thousand, five hundred people. And before making the move,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Sophie, she was criticized for chasing fame,
Speaker 1: appearing on Celebrity Love Island and The X Factor. The
Speaker 1: Rebecca Lowes story opened up a floodgate, with other women
Speaker 1: coming forward to say they also had affairs with David.
Speaker 1: A string of European models claimed they'd slept with David,
Speaker 1: including supermodel Esther Candees, who was reportedly hurried out of
Speaker 1: David's hotel room when Victoria made a surprise visit. David
Speaker 1: was also linked to a Spanish woman called Neuri Bermudez,
Speaker 1: who was allegedly seen repeatedly visiting his hotel. Now. She
Speaker 1: was a self confessed lifelong Real Madrid fan and claimed
Speaker 1: to have slept with at least six first team players,
Speaker 1: including David Beckham. She asked for twelve thousand pounds to
Speaker 1: tell her story on a local front. Australian model Sarah
Speaker 1: Marbeck claimed that she had a two year affair with
Speaker 1: Beckham after she met him in Singapore in two thousand
Speaker 1: and one during Manchester United's Asian tour. Allegedly, just four
Speaker 1: hours after meeting in the hotel, the pair had sex.
Speaker 1: She also claims David got her a ticket to watch
Speaker 1: England play Italy in March two thousand and two in
Speaker 1: Leeds and when they met in the player's tunnel he
Speaker 1: was all hot and sweaty. Now, Sarah said David told
Speaker 1: her he felt like he'd been hit with the sledgehammer
Speaker 1: when he saw her and loved the way she tied
Speaker 1: her hairback. Currently, David told Sarah he loved her and
Speaker 1: they even had pet nicknames for each other. David's was
Speaker 1: Peter Pan, and Sarah's was tinker Bell, while Victoria was Wendy.
Speaker 1: I found that so gross that Victoria is included in
Speaker 1: these nicknames. Now, Sarah said that the only time they
Speaker 1: stopped communicating over the two year period was when Posh
Speaker 1: and Becks's second child, Romeo, was born. However, by August
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, the relationship was calling off with
Speaker 1: longer gaps between messages. So a week after Rebecca's story ran,
Speaker 1: Neville ran a star As story with the headline I'm
Speaker 1: Beck's love at number two. This time, the article was
Speaker 1: seven pages long and went into even more explicit detail. Now,
Speaker 1: you would have thought that the news of the World's
Speaker 1: story would have put a stop to David's alleged affairs,
Speaker 1: but it didn't. In October two thousand and four, a
Speaker 1: beautician called daniel Heath publicly claimed she too had an
Speaker 1: affair with David. The worst bit is daniel had become
Speaker 1: friends with viv Victoria after visiting the Beckhams home to
Speaker 1: do Posha's spray tan. Now this story is really wild
Speaker 1: because Victoria first met Danielle at a beauty parlor, and
Speaker 1: later Victoria invited her over to their house. So she
Speaker 1: could do her spray tan. And when she first introduced
Speaker 1: Danielle to David, she said, Danielle, this is David. David,
Speaker 1: you've probably shagged her already. I'm assuming that's part of
Speaker 1: her dry sense of humor because this was on the
Speaker 1: cusp of those cheating scandals coming out, so she probably
Speaker 1: jokingly assumed that everyone in Spain had already slept with
Speaker 1: her husband. It just makes me like her so much.
Speaker 1: I love that kind of humor. Now, two weeks later,
Speaker 1: daniel alleges she did shag David. So she slept with
Speaker 1: David in the Beckham family home allegedly, and she said
Speaker 1: they were intimate again. A month later, now, David had
Speaker 1: allegedly flown Danielle out to Madrid to give him a
Speaker 1: spray tan for a photo shoot. These cheating allegations did
Speaker 1: make people question whether Victoria and David were in an
Speaker 1: open relationship, considering Posh had jokingly said, oh, have you
Speaker 1: shagged him already? But I actually just think that was
Speaker 1: part of our sense of humor and the timing of
Speaker 1: it all, because this alleged affair happened only four months
Speaker 1: after Rebecca Loser story broke. I think people are questioning
Speaker 1: it more so because they think, well, why would you
Speaker 1: stay with your partner if he was constantly cheating on you?
Speaker 1: Like she must be okay.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The saddest part of this story is that Victoria announced
Speaker 1: she was three months pregnant with their third child, just
Speaker 1: a day before David allegedly slept with Dannielle. Now, David
Speaker 1: has denied these claims and put out a joint statement
Speaker 1: with Victoria, saying it is even more distressing when we
Speaker 1: are expecting our third child. The allegations are completely and
Speaker 1: totally untrue and are in the hands of our lawyers.
Speaker 1: They added, we are sick and tired of people trying
Speaker 1: to make money out of our family.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, David again shocked the football
Speaker 1: world by announcing he was coming to America. So he
Speaker 1: signed a five year deal with La Galaxy worth three
Speaker 1: point five million dollars. At the time, it was reported
Speaker 1: he was taking a seventy percent pay cut. However, the
Speaker 1: contract had unique stipulations. These stipulations allowed him to take
Speaker 1: an undisclosed percentage of all club revenue, as well as
Speaker 1: the right to purchase an MLS expansion team at a
Speaker 1: fixed rate upon retirement when they talk about club revenue,
Speaker 1: So David got a cut out of everything, including beer
Speaker 1: that was bought at the game's, uniforms, merchandise, everything, So
Speaker 1: it was a very lucrative deal. I wonder if this
Speaker 1: was to fit him under their salary cap, like I'm
Speaker 1: assuming a lot of the other players weren't receiving nearly
Speaker 1: as much money. But it is complex because they did
Speaker 1: have a two million dollar salary cap, and obviously David
Speaker 1: Beckham's salary exceeded that. But they actually invented this thing
Speaker 1: they now call the Beckham cap, where you can add
Speaker 1: one player who is worth way more than everyone else.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just obviously made because they desperately
Speaker 1: needed him to join their football league. Now, all of
Speaker 1: these little loopholes meant that his annual salary turned into
Speaker 1: more than five hundred million dollars, making it one of
Speaker 1: the most lucrative contracts in sporting history. This move was
Speaker 1: also very much welcomed by Victoria, who was keen for
Speaker 1: a fresh start and more privacy from the press. She
Speaker 1: even landed her own show called Coming to America, and
Speaker 1: in it she poked fun at the Rebecca louse scandal.
Speaker 1: So as part of the plot, Victoria is looking for
Speaker 1: a personal assistant and outlines her criteria. Here's what she said.
Speaker 3: She can't be too good looking, she can't be too thin.
Speaker 1: It's all to be about it. In the show, Victoria's
Speaker 1: prospective PA asks if she'll be assisting David, and she
Speaker 1: comes back with this.
Speaker 3: No, why do you want to No?
Speaker 1: No, I mean eate. If him attractive, he's no, he's
Speaker 1: not ugly. This was your typical naughty's reality show. It
Speaker 1: had a lot of dramatic music and cutaway shots, and
Speaker 1: it's quite ironic because after this scene Victoria does employ
Speaker 1: the new PA. We actually don't see David much in
Speaker 1: this show at all, his own in the start, at
Speaker 1: this weird photoshoot that they're doing together, and then in
Speaker 1: the last scene when he and Victoria arrive at the
Speaker 1: airport and enter America. Now, despite having a scandal free
Speaker 1: few years, in twenty ten, another cheating scandal hit. This
Speaker 1: time it was a sex worker called Irma Nikki, who
Speaker 1: alleges David hired her to have sex within five times
Speaker 1: in hotel rooms across London and New York in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. Now David emphatically denies these allegations, calling
Speaker 1: them ridiculous. It must be noted that Irma actually didn't
Speaker 1: have any evidence. The validity of her comments were also
Speaker 1: called into question when she claimed that David answered the
Speaker 1: door with wet hair. Now, looking at this time frame,
Speaker 1: his hair has been so highly photographed. He probably has
Speaker 1: the most photographed hair in the world. So his lawyer
Speaker 1: was able to go through and pick the dates and
Speaker 1: actually say he had a Grade one haircut when you
Speaker 1: currently caught up with him, and his hair wasn't long
Speaker 1: enough for it to stay wet at all. It's terrible
Speaker 1: because I do feel like some of these people are
Speaker 1: being a bit opportunistic, especially when they don't have any proof. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: David responded by suing the publication for twenty five million dollars,
Speaker 1: saying it caused him and his family great anguish and
Speaker 1: emotional distress and adversely affected his personal and professional life. Now,
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, there was a very fleeting rumor that
Speaker 1: he had an affair with opera sing at Katherine Jenkins,
Speaker 1: And this was the time of social media, so people
Speaker 1: actually had platforms to defend themselves, and Catherine came out
Speaker 1: on Twitter to deny the allegation. She said that she'd
Speaker 1: only met him twice at the Military Awards in twenty
Speaker 1: ten and on a night out at the West End
Speaker 1: that Prince Harry also happened to attend, and she said
Speaker 1: that she never arranged to meet up with him and
Speaker 1: nothing went on between them. So this was quite a
Speaker 1: different allegation because she actually didn't make the allegation herself,
Speaker 1: and this was the first time it was someone who
Speaker 1: actually had their own profile. So the last cheating scandal
Speaker 1: is bizarre. In twenty eighteen, a rumor started circulating on
Speaker 1: Twitter that David had an affair with his then six
Speaker 1: year old daughter's school teacher. The rumor got legs and
Speaker 1: suddenly it was being reported that he got her pregnant
Speaker 1: and a divorce announcement was pending. This rumor was so
Speaker 1: strong that bookies stopped taking bets on whether David and
Speaker 1: Victoria were getting a divorce, as it was treated as
Speaker 1: a surefire thing. This whole story, if you can believe, it,
Speaker 1: was generated by one rogue tweet. It wasn't even by
Speaker 1: anyone verified. It was just a random person saying that
Speaker 1: they'd heard that David had had an affair with his
Speaker 1: daughter's teacher and they just knew, but don't ask them how,
Speaker 1: and that's where it all spiraled out of control. Now,
Speaker 1: the couple did release a statement calling it a crock
Speaker 1: of shit. This was probably the strongest statement they've ever
Speaker 1: put out. They said there is no statement due for divorce,
Speaker 1: and this is fake social media and that it's all
Speaker 1: very bizarre and an embarrassing waste of time. Imagine the
Speaker 1: poor teacher, like, how embarrassing for her being dragged into this. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out that David had never even met Harper's teacher,
Speaker 1: and the father actually came out blasting the rumors and
Speaker 1: the media, saying it was nonsense and confirmed that his
Speaker 1: daughter had never even met David Bergell. Now, a lot
Speaker 1: of good came from Possenbeck's move to America. Victoria made
Speaker 1: a seamless transition from music to the fashion world. So
Speaker 1: when she left the Spice scales, Victoria walked in runways,
Speaker 1: edited magazines, and had lucrative brand deals, but her dream
Speaker 1: was to cut it as a credible fashion designer. So
Speaker 1: fashion has always been victorious passion more so than music,
Speaker 1: and she launched her self titled fashion line in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and this has been supported by the
Speaker 1: upper echelon of the fashion industry, including Anna Wintour, who
Speaker 1: is a regular guest at her shows. It's pretty impressive
Speaker 1: because her label has been regularly shown during New York
Speaker 1: and London Fashion Weeks and also made its debut at
Speaker 1: Paris Fashion Week in twenty twenty two and again in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. And her clothes are a far cry
Speaker 1: from her nineties posh spice look. She is known for
Speaker 1: creating clothes that are very streamlined and esthetic. Now, following
Speaker 1: the success of her fashion label, Victoria launched Victoria Beckham
Speaker 1: Beauty in twenty nineteen, right before the pandemic, and her
Speaker 1: beauty line has now helped grow both of the businesses,
Speaker 1: so it's now at a stage where revenue is up
Speaker 1: by forty percent in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: And as for a musical return, Victoria has been involved
Speaker 1: in a few Spice Girls reunions over the years. The
Speaker 1: first was in two thousand and eight when their Greatest
Speaker 1: Hits album was released, and later during the twenty twelve
Speaker 1: London Olympics closing ceremony in twenty nineteen, fans were excited
Speaker 1: when the band teased that they would be holding a
Speaker 1: reunion tour. However, this was quickly squashed days later when
Speaker 1: Victoria told Vogue, I'm not going on tour now. While
Speaker 1: Victoria made it quite clear that she was not going
Speaker 1: to be involved, the rest of the girls went ahead
Speaker 1: on tour without her, and they launched their Spice World
Speaker 1: Tour in twenty nineteen as a four piece band without Victoria,
Speaker 1: and they did perform in the UK and Ireland.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: They played thirteen sold out dates and played to seven
Speaker 1: hundred thousand fans and earned themselves seventy eight point two
Speaker 1: million dollars in ticket sales. Victoria wrote on Instagram, I
Speaker 1: won't be joining my girls on stage again, but being
Speaker 1: in the Spice Skulls was a hugely important part of
Speaker 1: my life and I wish them so much love and
Speaker 1: fun as they go back on tour next year. I
Speaker 1: know they will put on an amazing show and the
Speaker 1: fantastic fans past and present are going to have a
Speaker 1: wonderful time, and that is where we are going to
Speaker 1: leave you. I can't wait to see what the next
Speaker 1: couple of years hold for Victoria and David, hopefully not
Speaker 1: too many more cheating scandals. It feels like they are
Speaker 1: on the right path. Finally, I hate to admit it,
Speaker 1: but I have found myself googling Victoria Beckham a lot
Speaker 1: recently after doing this deep dive, and I've been obsessed
Speaker 1: with trying to find clips of her singing the Spice
Speaker 1: Girls songs live, because it's been so much said about
Speaker 1: how she never got to sing as much as the
Speaker 1: other girls. Well, she hardly had any solo bits, so
Speaker 1: it is hard even watching the film clips to try
Speaker 1: and catch a bit of her voice. It's funny because
Speaker 1: after I watched the Beckham documentary, I fell in love
Speaker 1: with David Beckham, but I think I slowly fell out
Speaker 1: of love with him as this series has gone on,
Speaker 1: and fell in love instead with Victoria Beckham. She just
Speaker 1: seems like such an incredible woman and I've thoroughly enjoyed
Speaker 1: putting this series together. Thank you so much for listening
Speaker 1: to it. If you have enjoyed it, could you please
Speaker 1: make sure you leave us a rating on Spotify and
Speaker 1: also Apple podcast. And I'm very excited for next week's series.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many details we can give out yet,
Speaker 1: but it is an Australian story. A lot of you
Speaker 1: have been asking for an Australian deep dive. We will
Speaker 1: be delivering this and we cannot wait for it. This
Speaker 1: episode was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana
Speaker 1: people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders
Speaker 1: past and present.