A GOLDEN BALLS UP
He's the ‘King’ of England, a model husband and father who represents all that’s and true. But what about those tabloid stories? Has David Beckham really thrown it all away for a ****?
Despite what the tabloids would have us believe, David Beckham – if indeed he has actually strayed – would not be the first person in the world to commit adultery. A recent survey suggests 15 per cent of attached British men will have an affair this year. But the truth is no other infidelity, alleged or otherwise, has had quite the same impact as Textgate. Clearly, most footballers are as over-sexed as they are overpaid but once upon a time we all though David was different. He was our inspirational symbol of new fatherhood who, despite having limitless wealth and fame, appeared to share the same values as us. Unlike most celebrities, for Becks ‘having it all’ didn’t mean two Porsches and a mistress, but a meaningful relationship and a happy, loving family unit. Which is why, if they are true, the recent revelations are so depressing. Could it be that this über-dad image was little more than PR spin devised to make Beckham and those surrounding him impossibly rich.
As a nation, have we been worshipping a false idol?
The Becks fairy tale began in 1997 when he and Posh first met at a charity football match. David had seen her before on a Spice Girls video and fancied her. She ended up having to make the first move because he was crippled by shyness. Back then, their love was undoubtedly genuine. “I knew as soon as I met him that one of the most attractive things about David was that he shared the same sort of family values as me,” recalled Victoria. “I really liked that.”
Brooklyn was born in 1999 but it was not until the pictures of their ludicrously decadent marriage, complete with thrones, were published in OK! that the handsome couple were ultimately crowned the people’s royal family.
In November 2000, caretaker manager Peter Taylor handed Beckham the England captaincy completing his transformation from the villain of the France ’98 World Cup to the nation’s foremost sporting hero. His public adulation
rose to a new level, though, when he was reported to have stayed away from training so he could babysit a sick Brooklyn. Whereas Fergie fumed, British society applauded and the Manchester United midfielder became venerated
as a trailblazer for modern masculinity. At last, here was a man who prioritised his wife and children… and wasn’t afraid to wear a sarong.
Since those innocent days, Brand Beckham has gone global. Now under 19 Management, the company belonging to former Spice Girls pop supremo Simon Fuller, he is estimated to be worth a cool $370 million thanks to a string of
global endorsements such as Pepsi, Vodafone, Marks & Spencer, Siemens and Adidas. “The Beckham brand is about aspiration and family values, the couple who came from nothing to achieve their dreams,” Mr Fuller told The Times
last summer. Fuller even claimed to have plans for the Beckhams’ two children who, when they were older, might too take part in commercial projects that projected the image of a solid, clean-cut and highly desirable family. That was,
of course, before the good ship Beckham struck its iceberg.
For those familiar with the gossip columns, the Rebecca Loos headlines weren’t a complete surprise. Rumours of |
Article from FQ MAGAZINE July 2004
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cracks in the marriage had begun following the £25 million move from United to Real Madrid.
Despite the fact that Victoria was said to have begged her husband to leave Old Trafford, when Beckham moved to the Spanish capital she refused to join him. Posh preferred spending time with her family in Hertfordshire or pursuing her career with record producer Damon Dash in New York. Alone and in a strange city, David meanwhile kept company with Rebecca Loos, the attractive young personal assistant assigned to help him settle into Madrid by his agents SFX.
When Victoria got wind of rumours of an affair, she made David buy himself out of his SFX contact and join her at 19 Management. Loos subsequently lost her job which, combined with her discovery that Beckham was allegedly texting other women too, is said to be her reason for going public about the supposed affair. Beckham’s spokesperson immediately issued a statement saying: “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.” The absence of any denial of the facts, though, spoke volumes to the public.
The Beckham publicity machine, mighty though it is, struggled to seize control of the story. A photocall was hastily convened at a luxury ski resort in the Alps with the intention of portraying a ‘business as usual’ message to the world but the results were less than satisfactory and the couple’s forced smiles were evident for everyone but the most blindly faithful of fans to see. Attempts were made to discredit Miss Loos, now a ‘sleazy señorita’ in the words of the tabloids, but in the end these insights into her private life only served to add credence to her story. After all, if she was such a voracious man/woman eater then how could Becks possibly resist?
Just when Victoria thought the news couldn’t get any worse, it did. Malaysian-born model Sarah Marbeck claimed she had had an affair with Becks that had gone on for two years, and that it had taken place while the footballer was still at Manchester United and under Posh’s very own upturned nose. In the weeks that followed, a series of kiss-and-tellers, including Spanish model Esther Canadas, Frida Karlsson, a blonde Swedish model and Nuria Bermudez, dubbed the ‘Spanish Jordan’, all boasted of having spent the night with the free-kick specialist. What had at first appeared to be the
behaviour of a man who had possibly slipped off the straight and narrow, now seemed more like the work of a serial adulterer.
The consequences of all these stories, true or not, have impacted every aspect of Beckham’s life. No longer trusting him to hang out with his fellow Galacticos, Posh is reported to have demanded that her husband return home to London after just one year in Madrid.The back pages insisted that meant a move to Chelsea who were thought to be tempting him with £200,000 a week in wages and his old number seven shirt. But it seems the £30 million transfer fee wasn’t enough to convince Real to part with Beckham, even though his arrival coincided with the team’s first season without
silverware since 1999. Despite the
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disappointing debut, however, the player maintains he will stay on in Spain, at least for another season.
Beckham’s alleged bedroom antics have meant his stock has not only fallen on the pitch but in the boardroom. “How do you maintain a global brand – that has achieved nearmythological status – around an iconic footballer’s ability to remain faithful to his family following that player’s alleged infidelity?” wondered public relations guru Ian Monk in the Mail on Sunday. “As a PR challenge it sits at the top of the Premier League.” The bitter irony is that while being paid millions to endorse Vodaphone, Beckham reportedly used their very own mobile technology to destroy the home-loving image.
From now on future investors in Brand Beckham may be somewhat less forthcoming with their money. “This is potentially damaging to the Beckham brand,” said John Allert of branding experts Interbrand. “A large percentage of his earnings are derived in the Far East and North America, where such alleged indiscretions are viewed more seriously. People like him need to remember it’s the public that build their brands, and it’s the same public that can easily kill them off by voting with their feet.”
But it is the implications for Beckham’s family that are most worrying. Some claim the footballer’s relationship with Victoria is safe, solely because in terms of her career she needs him more than he needs her. But this seems unlikely: an experienced media manipulator she may be, but Posh is still devoted to her man. Once asked what she would do if he had an affair, she replied: “It’s easy to think I would throw him out, burn his clothes, but I actually think it would kill me. I’d die of a broken heart.” “With couples affected by adultery it is essential both parties want to overcome it,” says Penny Mansfield, the director of One Plus One, an independent research organisation which generates knowledge about marriage and relationships. “Then they must make sense of what happened and acknowledge the pain caused. The trick is to get a balance between talking about it enough to face the hurt and make sense of the affair, but not talking about it so much that the hurt never goes away and the relationship gets no chance to start afresh.”
For Brooklyn and Romeo, though, any fallout between their parents could hit them hard. “If one or both partners aren’t coping it spills over onto the children,” says Mansfield. “Parents may be so preoccupied with their feelings, their parenting is diminished. If parents are explicit about an affair, children may worry the family is going to break up.” On the other hand “if there haven’t been any particular difficulties between their parents this may come as a profound shock and undermine their sense of security.”
The European championships in Portugal probably couldn’t come at a better time for the Beckham publicity machine. Should England return home winners, their captain’s stock will surge higher then ever before. Most likely, though, England will fight like lions before being knocked out by one of those ridiculously talented foreign sides, Becks will still be hailed as a hero and the stains of those pre-summer slurs will be washed away by the nation’s proud tears. Families, however, are notoriously less fickle than football fans. So when the flags stop flying and the dust settles, David Beckham may face his toughest task yet: winning back the support of those closest to him.
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