Strange Things About The Beckhams' Marriage
David and Victoria Beckham have served us couple goals for over two decades, and we are here for decades more. The British duo first met in 1997, as Victoria later revealed in British Vogue, penning a letter to her younger self. "On boyfriends and lasting love: learn more about football, especially the offside rule," she began. "And yes, love at first sight does exist. It will happen to you in the Manchester United players' lounge — although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy. While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family."
If there's one thing that comes up again and again, it's that family is everything for the Beckhams. The meet-cute was the start of something great, and these two married in 1999 in a castle. (Yes, a castle. We'll get into more on that later.) The former Spice Girl and the soccer star went on to welcome four children (Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper), start successful businesses, and enjoy ongoing fame that's left the world dazzled and wanting more. And if mindless celebrity gossip starts to speculate about a breakup, both David and Victoria are quick to set things right. But what we like so much about the duo are the charming quirks that have keep things interesting throughout their long-lasting relationship.
Here's a look at some of the stranger things about the Beckhams' marriage.
The Beckhams' mothers had the same career
Victoria and David Beckham had the unusual coincidence of their mothers having the same profession, but the former Spice Girls singer's childhood was slightly more glamorous — or posh, if you will. Her mother, Jaqueline Cannon, was a hairdresser before she met Tony Adams. When they met, Andrew Morton noted in his biography "Posh & Beck," she was working as an insurance agent. Shortly after the birth of their three daughters, they started a wholesale electrical business called Gladerealm that became extremely successful. "My dad worked really hard and it was always his ambition to own a Rolls-Royce," Victoria said at the 92nd Street Y (via Glamour). "So when he got his Rolls-Royce, he used to drive us to school in it every day and I was just mortified."
When it came to David's childhood, things weren't as glamorous as his future wife's. His family hailed from the East End of London. His father, Ted Beckham, worked as a gas fitter, per Morton, while his mother, Sandra Georgina West, was also a hairdresser. Amid his humbler beginnings, David showed athletic promise early on. He won the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools National Skills when he was only 11 — and it was all uphill from there. The Manchester United team encouraged David to toss his hat in the ring for the youth division, and at 16, he was in their training division.
Even though Victoria started out financially farther ahead than David, it wasn't long until both of them became global superstars and multi-millionaires in their own right.
Both were trailblazers when it came to style
David Beckham was a great soccer player from an early age. He signed his first professional contract at the age of 14 — but his soccer skills were only part of what catapulted him to fame. His good looks, as well as that lustrous hair, helped make him a legendary figure in the world of sports.
GQ magazine even did an oral history of his hair, crediting it — and him — with making soccer (football, in United Kingdom parlance) more popular in his homeland. "Nowhere is Beckham's legacy more apparent than on the heads of the players who have since followed in his footsteps," the 2015 article said. The Beckhams have even been named the UK celebrity couple with the best hair.
For her part, Victoria Beckham has admitted she was once a "laughingstock" when it came to style, the Business of Fashion site reports. After the Spice Girls were kaput, she was "shunned," the article noted, by fashion brands who asked her not to wear their clothes because they "did not want to be associated with the perky breasts, pouty poses, and over-dyed blonde bob." But Victoria put her head down when it came to developing her fashion lines. She said, "While everybody was busy laughing, what was I doing? I was laying the foundation to what I have in place now." Look who's laughing now!
It wasn't David Beckham's looks that first attracted her
All those things that David Beckham is so famous for now — his athletic talent, his hair, his chiseled face, his bodacious bod (you get the idea) — were actually not what first attracted Victoria Beckham to him. When she first eyed David at the Manchester United players' lounge, it was the fact that David was close to his family. In a letter she wrote to her 18-year-old self for British Vogue, Victoria reminisced about this touching first impression, noting, "He's not even in the first team at this stage — you are the famous one." She added, "And he has such a cute smile. You, too, are close to your family, and you will think how similar he feels to you."
This was a recurring theme in their relationship. In 2015, when she spoke at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Victoria stressed again how much she liked the fact that David was sitting with his family instead of drinking with the other players. "I'm really close to my family, he's very close to his and I just thought that was really nice," she said, according to Glamour. Family has been everything for the Beckhams. At the 92nd Street Y, Victoria said that her own parents, who adorably hold hands every night while watching TV, have set an example for her of how to keep love alive in a long marriage.
Victoria and David Beckham's ostentatious wedding
When the couple married in 1999, four months after the birth of their first son, Brooklyn, they had a ridiculously flashy wedding that cost a reported $800,000 in American dollars. The ceremony and reception were held at Luttrellstown Castle outside Dublin, Ireland. Victoria wore what Elle UK described as a "Champagne-colored Vera Wang gown with a 20-foot train" with a corset inside. Atop her head was not a veil but a gold crown (yes, really). The article noted, "A single white dove was released as they said their vows and a purple flag raised above the castle with the letters V.B.D. [for Victoria, Brooklyn, and David]. We're not making this up." Classy!
They sat on golden thrones at the reception. To top it all off, their wedding cake topper was a nude sculpture of the couple, and they used a sword to cut the cake. Looking back on it in early 2017, even David admitted on BBC Radio's "Desert Island Discs" show that the wedding was a little over the top. He talked about the matching purple outfits they wore at the reception. He believed Victoria looked great, but he thought he looked like the characters from "Dumb and Dumber." "I even had a top hat in purple," he said. "Unbelievable. What was I thinking?"
Since the grand ceremony, the Beckhams have renewed their vows in a much more chill way. "It was a lot more private, there were about six people there in our house," David told Vanity Fair of the latter ceremony.
They're not afraid to look ridiculous
The Beckhams are known for their fashion choices, which have also proved lucrative, like David Beckham's clothing line with H&M. But the two of them have made some risky choices, like matching black leather Versace outfits. But David told H&M magazine in 2012 (via British Vogue) he had "no regrets" about what he once wore, although he does admit he looks back and wonders: "What were we thinking?" When asked about her fashion regrets in 2009, Victoria told Time, "People always say, 'Do you cringe?' And I say, 'Not at all,'" adding that, "Everything I've done in the past has made me what I am now."
Their shared courage in experimenting with clothing, especially for Victoria, has also led to her eponymous fashion line Victoria Beckham, which has — like the designer herself — faced many evolutions over the years. Sales dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic years, for example, and Victoria was forced to rethink her brand. She's also admitted to The Guardian that her preference to wear layers of clothing wasn't necessarily reflective of consumer's preferences.
"As I've gotten into fashion, the more layers of clothes I have worn," she said. "I've been burying myself under clothes. But in Miami, if you go out at night in a midi length skirt and a pussy-bow blouse, people think you've lost your mind." Confessing that her outfit taste in London doesn't reflect the rest of the world, she added, "But Miami has opened my eyes to the fact that looking feminine and curvy is so important to so many women," she added.
What does Victoria Beckham think about in bed?
It's not all romance with David and Victoria Beckham, though there's plenty of that. The two are hard-working entrepreneurs, on top of having the CV of a former Spice Girl and soccer superstar. But they didn't sit very long on those laurels. Victoria stormed the world of fashion and took no prisoners. In 2008, she started her eponymous line, opening up a flagship store in London six years later.
What was the deep motivation behind this decision? "It's just always been something that I've wanted to do," Victoria explained to Time. "It's my passion. I love women's bodies. I love luxury. I've waited a long time to do this, and I didn't want to do it until I could do it properly." She's not kidding. In a charmingly intimate interview with The Guardian, Victoria offered the outlet an inside look at her home and family life, as well as her business world — the two spheres clearly overlap. "When I'm lying in bed I think about the next collection," she said. "That makes me sound insane, doesn't it? That I'm getting into bed with David Beckham and thinking about clothes."
Insane, maybe — but driven, for sure. But ultimately, it's her loved ones that take priority. In the sweet letter she wrote to her younger self for British Vogue, Victoria answered the question of how to be a successful working mother: "What you will realize is that by working hard, yet always putting family first, it will be possible to achieve that balance."
She gave David Beckham the nickname 'Golden Balls'
For soccer buffs, David Beckham's performance in the 1998 World Cup is hard to forget. England was playing Argentina when the latter's captain, Diego Simeone, pushed David. He fell and kicked Simeone, though Firstpost called it "the gentlest of kicks." A ref gave David a red card, so he was removed from the field and without him, Argentina won 4-3. England's loss was completely blamed on David, especially by British tabloids, and the rage was ferocious with some outlets giving out a copy of David's face for dartboards.
But David was able to rebound from such vitriol. He continued to play hard; he was named England's captain in 2000, and in 2002, he scored a penalty goal against Argentina, solidifying England's win. He was reinstated as a superstar and hero of the country, but not without paying the price. Victoria Beckham was by his side through all of this and took note of his turnaround. In a joint 2008 interview with Michael Parkinson of the BBC, he asked her why the media was frosty toward her. She assumed it was for her stern facial expressions in photos, saying that when she feels down about it, all she has to do is think of David.
"I call him 'Golden Balls' now," she joked, referring to his apparent inability to do anything wrong in the eyes of the English people. An embarrassed David covered his face in his hands at this, leading Victoria to joke, "That's one of those things I shouldn't have said." But the name definitely stuck.
Victoria Beckham's 'lost track' of how many tattoos he has
David Beckham has a whopping 60+ tattoos. In fact, Men's Health speculates that the number might be more around 80. Clearly, our favorite soccer star is a maximalist. He has so many tattoos that a cursory Instagram search shows that he favors black ink and a pretty consistent aesthetic: flowers, classical art, and cursive script. For example, he has a flock of birds flying up to his left ear, several roses on his neck, as well as his daughter's name, Harper, on one of his collarbones.
His three sons' monikers are also inked on his body. His son, Romeo, boasts a tattoo on his upper back, while Cruz's name is in the middle, and Brooklyn's name features on his lower back. On his lower stomach, David has a tattoo of Christ with a crown of thorns, and he's also a huge fan of angels all over his body. Tributes to wife Victoria Beckham are all over his body, too. On his right hand, he has her name tattooed in script ink, as well as 99 for their wedding year, 1999. Also on his right hand, David has "My Love" and the line, "Dream Big Be Unrealistic."
David's tattoos are so popular that there was once an entire website dedicated to discussing his endless ink. For her part, Victoria isn't terribly phased by the ever-increasing number of David's tattoos. In an interview at the 92nd Street Y in New York in 2015, she was asked how many he had at that point, per Harper's Bazaar. "I've lost track!" she exclaimed.
They're both surprisingly funny
For being a very posh couple, you might not expect David and Victoria Beckham to be as funny as they actually are. When David won People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2015, he was just budding with self-deprecating humor. "I never feel that I'm an attractive, sexy person," he confided to People. When asked if Victoria agreed with his win, he said, "I would hope that she feels this way about me all the time anyway! But she said, 'Congratulations!'" And what did his kids think of the coveted victory? "We kind of laughed about it with the boys and the boys kind of laughed at me and said, 'Really?! Sexiest man alive? Really?'" David revealed.
Victoria might be a harder nut to crack, but at least her husband is all smiles. Still, Victoria is much funnier than we would have bet. When Vogue asked her their 73 questions, it was sass and fun all the way. Asked what the one rule was that her kids ignored, she said, "Don't play football in the house." And when asked what's the greatest thing she's ever learned from her kids, she quipped, "How to play football in the house." Then the perfect question came: Why don't you smile? Her answer: "I'm smiling on the inside. I feel that I have a responsibility to the fashion community."
Perhaps best of all is Victoria's Instagram presence, where she jokes about selfies and even shared a throwback video of the couple being roasted by Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G.
How the Beckhams got through those affair allegations
It's unfortunate but inevitable that a famous couple with a long-running marriage would face the odd affair allegation. In 2004, David Beckham was photographed in Madrid at a nightclub with a mystery woman. It was later discovered, E! News noted, that she was his assistant, Rebecca Loos. Nevertheless, the media had a frenzy about a potential affair, and the situation was not helped by the fact that Loos later alleged that there was infidelity in an interview with Sky One. "I think the problems were in their marriage long before I came into the picture," Loos claimed (via the Daily Mail). "I in no way intended to break up their marriage especially when there are young children involved. I hope they stay together."
For his part, David denied the allegations. "During the past few months I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous stories about my private life," he released in a statement after Loos' story broke, per E! News. "What appeared this morning is just one further example. The simple truth is that I am very happily married. I have a wonderful wife and two very special kids. There is nothing any third party can do to change these facts."
There were other allegations over the years, including one from a former nanny who claimed that David and Victoria Beckham's "marriage was a sham," as E! News put it, and the couple even got their lawyers involved. But clearly, they were able to ride this speculative wave and move on.
David Beckham's awkward email scandal
Poor David Beckham suffered an aired email leak in 2017 that revealed some private wishes that he'd probably have preferred to be kept under wraps. In fact, some of the dirty laundry was admittedly a bit cringe. He allegedly once requested that UNICEF compensate him with over $7,000 for flying to a charity event, USA Today noted, despite the fact that a sponsor was already getting him there. That wasn't all. The soccer star was also busted for allegedly asking the BBC to cover his flights to see his son, Brooklyn, play soccer, per the Daily Mail. People were, unsurprisingly, a bit confused considering he has the means to cover his own airfare.
Perhaps most embarrassing of all was that David was busted for supposedly wanting a knighthood. After he found out he wasn't nominated for the honor, he reportedly called the committee "unappreciative c***s." Never one to mince words, apparently! He also allegedly said, "I expected nothing less. It's a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would of [sic] got something like this 10 years ago" (via the Mirror).
Many subsequently speculated, with all of the information leaked, whether David's charity work was just a PR stunt to look like a worthy candidate. Not only that, but others wondered if his flattery toward Queen Elizabeth II on social media was another play to get royal attention. To be fair, David has already been honored once with an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, also called an OBE. So hey, that's something.
Why they named their son Brooklyn
There was once a sexy rumor going around that David and Victoria Beckham named their first-born son Brooklyn because that's where he was conceived. But Victoria set the record straight in her 2014 autobiography "Learning to Fly" when she explained that the origin of his name was a little less exciting.
"It was when we were in Marbella that we came up with the name Brooklyn," she said of her and David's decision (via People). "We already knew he was a boy and so I knew he could end up a footballer, so it had to be a name that was a bit blokey." Victoria also wrote that she was enamored with the name Brooke, so it wasn't a huge reach when they landed on Brooklyn, and further admitted that she and David had always loved that borough of New York. Plus, it had a special place in their hearts anyway. "It was only afterwards that I realized how appropriate it was because it was in New York that I found out I was pregnant and where David came after the World Cup," Victoria added.
Their son, Brooklyn, was born in 1999, and his name swept through the world like wildfire. The New York Post wrote in 2014 that Brooklyn had become one of the most popular baby names in the United States, more for girls than boys. But there was a definite spike in popularity.
The couple's impressive work ethic
David and Victoria Beckham are not just famous for being a former Spice Girl and soccer star or for being a gorgeous couple. They're also famous for their entrepreneurial spirit and endless work ethic. David unashamedly told Elle UK that he strives for perfection. "Whatever I do, I want to be the best," he said. For Victoria, the turn in her career from singing to fashion started in 2008 when she launched her luxury fashion line, which blossomed to include a cosmetics line called Victoria Beckham Beauty in 2019. No wonder the couple has a combined net worth of $450 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, as of this writing.
Interestingly, it's their work ethic that makes them feel so at home in the United States. "I am very career minded, and I think my personality is more suited to America," Victoria said to The New York Times Style Magazine in 2013. "I am a working mum." She's a working mom with ambition, too, saying of her brand, "I want to get bigger and bigger. I absolutely want an empire."
But hard work doesn't always mean success. The COVID-19 pandemic hit Victoria's brand really hard, and between 2020 and 2021, it lost well over $10 million U.S. dollars, Metro noted, and she reportedly had to give her brand an infusion of personal money to keep it afloat. But if we know anything about this famous couple, it's that they're resilient, so the Beckhams will likely figure it out.
The Beckhams welcomed Brooklyn's new wife into the family
It's perhaps no surprise that with their own example of long-lasting love and decades of marriage, David and Victoria Beckham have happily welcomed a new love into the fold. Their son, Brooklyn Beckham, married actor Nicola Peltz in April 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida at her billionaire family's home. It was an A-list event all the way, boasting Eva Longoria, Kiernan Shipka, Venus and Serena Williams, and even two other Spice Girls, Mel B and Mel C.
For their part, David and Victoria have been nothing but publicly supportive since the get-go of this relationship and have been all over it on Instagram. "Congratulations Mr and Mrs Beckham X Welcome to the family," Victoria wrote while sharing a cute photo of the bride and groom. "My beautiful boys [and] a very proud dad," David posted alongside a sweet pic of himself and his three sons in tuxedos, adding three blue heart emojis. "... Congratulations Bust on a lifetime of happiness, we will always be by your side."
Obviously, the wedding was a huge event for the famous family. If there's any legacy for Victoria and David Beckham to pass onto their four children, it seems to be that of love. And judging from how welcome Peltz has seemingly become in the Beckham clan, it looks like this celeb couple have done a pretty good job of that.
Victoria Beckham spilled her hubby's spicy underwear secrets
David Beckham's ad campaigns for Emporio Armani and H&M intimates were so inimitable that Tommy Hilfiger called him the "underwear model of the century" in a 2014 TMZ Sports interview. David's wife agrees that he looks great in his undies. After previously boasting about the size of the Manchester United star's manhood on one of his Emporio Armani billboards, Victoria Beckham added, "If I looked like that I'd walk down the streets in my panties too," per The Guardian.
According to Victoria, when her hubs is hanging out at home, he doesn't always rock the tighty-whities and boxer briefs he's known for modeling. In a 2000 appearance on "The Big Breakfast" (via BBC News), she revealed that David likes to spice up his life by borrowing her drawers. And when he treats Victoria's underwear drawer like his own personal Victoria's Secret, the style of knickers he prefers to nick are her thongs.
And hey, to each their own! But what's strange is how Victoria continued to spill secrets about her spouse's underwear-wearing habits, such as in a 2021 interview with The Standard: during the COVID-19 pandemic, he only rocked business attire above the belt during some Zoom meetings. From the waist down, he was apparently ready to shoot another underwear ad. "The people he was on Zoom to would have been quite surprised if they had seen the full look," she said. For the record, Victoria prefers David to rock long johns, not boxer briefs or thongs. "She makes me wear them around the house," David told the Mirror.
They're an odd couple when it comes to cleanliness
When "The Overlap" host Gary Neville asked David Beckham in 2022 what habit he has that Victoria Beckham finds annoying, he replied, "I'm very clean and she's not." He quickly clarified that he was not talking about his wife's personal hygiene by adding, "As in, I'm tidy." An example of Victoria's messiness is the state of her bathroom, which David luckily doesn't have to share with her. "She always leaves her drawers open [and] leaves the toothpaste top off too," he complained to InStyle (via Digital Spy).
David has spoken about having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before, revealing that some of his compulsive behaviors involve cleaning and organizing. "I'll go into a hotel room and before I can relax, I have to move all the leaflets and all the books and put them in a drawer," he said in a 2006 ITV1 interview (via the Independent). "Everything has to be perfect."
But when Victoria stays at a hotel, clutter is of little concern to her. In a 2019 episode of her YouTube series "VB on the Road," she let viewers peep inside the luxurious room she was staying in during a trip to New York. The bed was unmade, there were pillows and bedding on the floor, and products were scattered all over the bathroom counter. "You can see why I drive my husband crazy," she said. "... This would be giving David a panic attack right now, a full-on panic attack."
He planned a viral moment in their Beckham documentary
In a viral scene from the 2023 Netflix docuseries "Beckham," David Beckham forces his wife to acknowledge her posh upbringing. "Both of our parents work very hard, we're very working class," Victoria Beckham says while seated solo in front of a camera. David can then be heard chiding her from another room before popping his head in the doorway. "Be honest!" he urges his wife. At first, Victoria insists that she's being truthful, but then her husband asks her, "What car did your dad drive you to school in?" The answer is a car that's not usually found in the garages of working-class families: a Rolls-Royce, as previously mentioned. (The luxury brand's cheapest 2024 model costs over $350,000.) Soon, Victoria was cashing in on the hilarious exchange by shilling a $150 T-shirt with the words "My Dad Had a Rolls-Royce" emblazoned on the front.
Director Fisher Stevens told The Hollywood Reporter that the moment took him by surprise because he didn't even realize that David was lurking about. "I knew it was great," Stevens said of David's playful scolding. But while it seemed like David was cleverly fact-checking his wife in real time, he later admitted that he was able to pre-plan the interruption. "I knew the stuff that she was going to say," he said during a Meta event in Mumbai, per India Today. "But then I felt that 'this is my moment,' and it was quite a funny moment."
David Beckham dislikes his wife's eating habits
Variety may be the spice of life, but according to David Beckham, his Spice Girl wife usually sticks to a bland, restrictive menu during mealtimes. "Unfortunately, I'm married to someone that has eaten the same thing for the last 25 years," he said in a 2023 appearance on the "Ruthie's Table 4" podcast. "Since I've met Victoria, she only eats grilled fish, steamed vegetables." He said that one of the rare occasions when she tried something different was when she got a pregnancy craving and took a nibble of whatever it was he was eating at the time. For David, this was a huge moment. "It was the most amazing thing. It was one of my favorite evenings," he said. And when he found himself home alone one day, he took advantage of only having his palate to please by throwing some steaks on the barbecue. "I secretly loved it," David admitted.
Victoria Beckham addressed David's comments about her eating habits in an interview with Vogue Australia, insisting that she isn't the culinary bore that he made her out to be. "What he meant is that he's never met anyone who's more disciplined with the way that they eat," she said. "I eat lots of healthy fat: fish, avocado, nuts, that sort of thing." However, she had previously described her diet as "boring" herself when she appeared on "Ruthie's Table 4," saying that her favorite indulgent snack is toasted whole-grain bread sprinkled with salt.
Their impurrfect pregnancy negotiations
In the "Beckham" docuseries, David Beckham reveals that he kept an odd memento from Victoria Beckham's first pregnancy: a framed copy of a tabloid describing her as "too posh to push" because she had to have a C-section. When she gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Harper Seven Beckham, in 2011, Victoria had her heart set on a different memento: a push present that purred. "When I was pregnant, I just wanted to get lots of animals for some reason," she told Elle. "We talked about cats, but David said absolutely not." It seems that she was able to negotiate with her hubby, however, as the couple adopted a French bulldog puppy named Scarlet two months before Harper's arrival.
Something Victoria was unwilling to negotiate with David was the date of her C-section when she was pregnant with their third son, Cruz David Beckham, in 2005. In "Beckham," Victoria shares her reaction to David saying that he had a photoshoot with Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez scheduled on the same day as her surgical delivery. "I was like, 'Seriously, I'm about to burst. I'm on bed rest! Are you kidding me?'" she says. David rescheduled the shoot, but Victoria was still steaming when she saw the result of it in the newspaper while she was recovering from Cruz's birth. "The headline was, 'What would Posh say?'" she recalls. "Let me tell you what Posh would say. Posh was pissed off!"
Victoria made David's wholesome hobby sound kind of naughty
David Beckham embraced a sweet new hobby after his family's Cotswolds move: beekeeping. Part of the fun of providing homes for scores of bees is collecting their honey, and if David ever decides to sell the results of his pet pollinators' hard work, he might want to hire his innuendo-obsessed wife to promote the product. Victoria Beckham even coined a cheeky name for her happy honey harvester's syrupy goods: DBee'z Sticky Stuff.
In 2022, she shared a TikTok video of David collecting honey from his hives and narrated it like it was a naughty nature documentary. "He's about to release his sticky stuff, his new batch of sticky stuff," she says. As she's filming David filling jars with the honey, he informs her, "We have good flowage." Once Victoria has a jar in hand, she tells her viewers, "I've got the sticky stuff. I'm just going to go ahead and sample it, let you know what David's sticky stuff tastes like." She gave Golden Balls' golden fluid a 10 out of 10.
That Christmas, Victoria gifted makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury a jar of DBee'z Sticky Stuff. "What else do you give to the woman that has everything? ... There's only one thing to give to you," Victoria tells her friend in a video on Tilbury's YouTube channel. "... You are getting a sample of David Beckham's sticky stuff." Apparently, it was exactly what Tilbury had asked Santa for. "Finally!" she replied.