Did David Beckham have an affair? The marriage ‘difficulties’ in his Netflix doc explained

There’s basically nobody our cursed little country is more obsessed with than David and Victoria Beckham. After endless iconic ’00s outfits, 24 years of marriage, an England captaincy and Spice Girls superstardom— David and Victoria have successfully solidified themselves as UK showbiz royalty forever.

But, despite their carefully managed public image, there have been a few scandals throughout their time in the public eye, which Netflix has sought to shed light on in a new four-part documentary: Beckham. Including allegations of infidelity.

“It wasn’t pleasant, but we got into it,” director Fisher Stevens told The Sunday Times of discussing the rumoured cheating with David and Victoria while the cameras rolled for the first time ever.

“For me, I approached it as, ‘How did your marriage stay together?’ and you’ll see how he responds,” he said. “I talked with both of them about the difficulties they went through.”

Meanwhile, producer John Battsek added: “They were both signed up to telling us whatever we wanted to know. I’m sure you’ll say, ‘Of course you would say that.’ But they were. There was no, ‘You will not ask that or do that. Fisher and I thought that might be the case, but we were clear from the start that we would only do this if we could go in any direction we wanted. And we did.”

So, why did everyone think David Beckham had an affair in the ’00s?

Credit: Larry Marano/UPI/Shutterstock

David first fell in love with Victoria while watching the Spice Girls’ Wannabee video. “See that one there, I’m gonna marry that one. The posh one, the one in the black dress,” he told his fellow footballer Gary Neville.

And, after Victoria went to one of David’s Manchester United games with Mel C, he was besotted: Having secret meet-ups in car parks, driving hours just to see her for seven minutes— even hiring a small private plane to fly and see her for a few hours before rushing back to training.

But five years after they were married – in April 2004 – David’s personal assistant Rachel Loos gave an interview to the News of the World and Sky One’s Kay Burley claiming they’d had an affair, allegations David called “ludicrous” and entirely denied. Rachel was reportedly paid £150,000 by Sky and £350,000 by News of the World to share her story.

And what did Rachel Loos actually say happened between her and David Beckham?

During her Sky interview, Rachel claimed she’d been out for dinner with David in a group and there’d been “some flirting” and a “few innuendos”. According to Rachel, other people at the table noticed their chemistry and they “just locked into each other all night conversation wise.”

After the dinner, Rachel said the group went on to a club and he suggested heading back to his hotel for drinks at 2.30AM, before allegedly adding: “‘Why don’t we just lose the rest and why don’t we just go back together?'”

According to Rachel, she and David were like “magnets” and “ran up to the room laughing and smiling”. However, after their initial encounter, Rachel claimed they’d only ever speak about sex and she’d meet him at his hotel room before football games to “get the action done”. She alleged their whole meeting would take no longer than half an hour: “I felt like a whore,” she said. “I felt really cheap, I felt used.” David denied all of the allegations.

But did David Beckham actually cheat on Victoria or not?

David has always vehemently denied he ever cheated on Victoria with Rachel. At the time of the allegations, he released a statement saying: “During the past few months I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous stories about my private life. 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.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Only David Beckham himself could get full marks on this Bend It Like Beckham quiz

• Is there drama between Nicola Peltz and Victoria Beckham? 

• All of Brooklyn Beckham’s cursed cooking attempts, ranked by how disastrous they were 

Featured image credit via Netflix