David and Victoria Beckham’s once fairy-tale love story has allegedly soured into a “distant business relationship,” a bombshell new book by former BBC journalist Tom Bower has revealed.
In The House of Beckham, set to hit shelves next week, Bower peels back the curtain on the power couple’s tumultuous marriage, revealing a reality far removed from the picture-perfect image they’ve cultivated for the public.
The cracks in their relationship allegedly began to show in the wake of rumors that the soccer heartthrob had an affair with Dutch model Rebecca Loos.
As the couple’s publicists engaged in a vicious “media war,” feeding “negative stories about the other side to their favorite tabloid journalists,” It was like “a nuclear bomb had gone off,” Bower writes.
Fast forward to 2016. The distance between the Beckhams had grown, with David working in Miami while Victoria juggled building her fashion label and parenting duties in London.
“During London Fashion Week that year, she asked Beckham to return to London for a dinner in her Dover Street shop. By the end of the celebration, she must have wished he had stayed in America,” the award-winning journalist writes.
“Morosely, he sat staring at her guests. Some whispered that the two had been embroiled earlier in a foul-mouthed row.” Later that evening, the soccer star was spotted at Heathrow taking a late flight to New York.
The tension reached a boiling point at Glastonbury in 2017 when David and his entourage, which included a “glamorous Australian bikini model,” partied until 5 AM. Victoria, arriving the next day, “headed in a golf buggy through the scruffy campers to the VIP Zone.”
She was “furious” that her husband had ignored her calls, sparking a “ferocious argument” that left onlookers stunned.
“They looked quite miserable,’ said one eyewitness, ‘but they managed to pose for the cameras.’”
Despite the cracks in their relationship, Bower claims that the Beckhams made a conscious decision to maintain the “illusion of a happy family” for the sake of their brand.
“They stuck together to support the Brand,” he writes, highlighting the stark contrast between their real dynamic and the loving relationship portrayed in their recent Netflix docuseries.
. “Without Victoria’s determination to maintain the illusion of a happy family,” Bower suggests, “David’s status and survival would have been washed away.”
“She steadfastly protected the brand,” he continues.
“In return, he continued to finance her vanity business. Her tiny fashion house is unlikely ever to be genuinely profitable, but her supporters fully approve of her steely ambition regardless of the monotonous repetition in promotional interviews.”
