David Beckham was ‘addicted’ to wife Victoria when they first started dating, with his worried mother Sandra forced to try and intervene.
Reflecting on the couple’s love story in the new Netflix documentary, BECKHAM, the footballer’s friends and loved ones recalled their shock at the extreme lengths the Manchester United player would go to in order to spend time with her.
The pair’s intense and conflicting schedule – with David at football training in Manchester and Victoria touring the world with The Spice Girls – meant that they rarely had any free time together.
Yet David didn’t let it stop him from doing all he could to meet up during their early courtship in 1997, with the sportsman, 48, confessing: ‘I didn’t care when I saw her, how much I saw her.
‘If it was me driving down to London to see her for seven minutes, I did it!’
All over each other: David Beckham was ‘like an addict’ when he started dating Victoria with worried mother Sandra intervening so he wouldn’t ‘lose everything’
Struggle: The pair’s schedule – with David at football training in Manchester and Victoria touring the world with The Spice Girls – meant that they rarely had any free time together
He added: ‘Everything about Victoria, I loved. I didn’t know she was the strong woman that she was and I like that. I don’t whether it was because I wanted her to look after me…
‘She’s a strong, strong woman. She can be a pain in the a**e though!’
Victoria, 49, was left smitten by his grand gestures, recalling: ‘I was on tour but not knowing when I was going to see him was the difficult thing.
‘He would do anything to just try and spend time with me, he would sometimes charter a tiny plane, like a two seater plane, he would come over literally for a few hours then go back.’
Yet while the pair only had eyes for each other, those on the outside were concerned about the impact it was having on the footballer and his career.
Fellow Manchester United player Gary Neville, 48, explained: ‘The lengths he was going to see Victoria, it was lot. He was like an addict! He would drive four hours to spend 20 minutes with her.
‘He was on the phone to Victoria every second, and he would stay on the phone until 1 o’clock in the morning.’
David’s mother Sandra, 74, was also concerned, revealing she intercepted calls between the pair in a bid to stop David becoming distracted.
She recalled: ‘Victoria would be away and we’d be staying at David’s house and 3 o’clock in the morning the phone would ring.
‘He had a game so I’d answer the phone and say “he’s in bed, asleep” and they’d want to talk. But me being a protective mum thought “you shouldn’t really be ringing this time in the morning”.
‘But how can you tell them? They’re adults. I was worried he’d lose all he worked for because football come first and all of a sudden it wasn’t.’
Making an entrance: Their first meeting took place when Victoria and her bandmate Mel C attended a Manchester United game and were invited onto the pitch
Shocked: David’s teammate Gary Neville said David was ‘like an addict’ around Victoria while his mother Sandra, 74, was also concerned, revealing she intercepted calls between the pair
Sandra was right to be concerned, with David’s teammate Paul Scholes confirming: ‘David was p***ing the manager off going down to London when he shouldn’t have been.’
David revealed the first time he ever laid eyes on Victoria was when he watched the Spice Girls’ Wannabe music video, recalling: ‘I turned round to Gary and said “I’m going to marry that one, the posh one, the one in the black dress.’
The pair’s intense and conflicting schedule – with David at football training in Manchester and Victoria touring the world with The Spice Girls – meant that they rarely had any free time together.
Their first meeting took place when Victoria and her bandmate Mel C attended a Manchester United game and were invited onto the pitch.
Victoria confessed: ‘I am not into football at all. I wasn’t into football then, I’m not into football now. But I’d seen pictured of him in magazines and obviously he was a really good looking boy.
‘I went to the games to – some would say stalk him – I would say see him!
‘When I saw him at the footballer’s lounge, all the other footballers were at the bar but he was standing talking to his parents. I’m very close to my family and I loved that side to him.’
With both David and Victoria revealing they instantly fancied each other on their first meeting, David confessed: ‘There was something there straight away. I thought “ok this is it and it’s gonna move fast.”‘
David and Victoria went on to become a brand, gaining lucrative contracts with clothing designers, health and fitness specialists, fashion magazines, and perfume and cosmetics manufacturers.
The couple, who have four children Brooklyn, 24, Romeo, 21, Cruz, 18, and Harper, 12, have accumulated an estimated net worth of £380million.
But at the start of their relationship, Victoria was told by her manager at the time to ‘keep it under wraps’.
She confessed: ‘We would meet in car parks and that’s not as seedy as it sounds’, as David admitted: ‘The first kiss that I ever had with Victoria was in my BMW in a car park – classy!
‘For about three months we kept it quiet. Then I bought her a Cartier watch and she wore it then all of a sudden people were piecing it together. So you know, Posh and Becks.’
The couple became an instant pop culture phenomenon, with Gary describing the hype around the pair as ‘the new Charles and Diana.’
Family: David and Victoria share four children Brooklyn, 24, Romeo, 21, Cruz, 18, and Harper, 12, and have accumulated an estimated net worth of £380 million
David and Victoria even landed the cover of Vogue magazine, with editor Anna Wintour explaining: ‘I put them on the cover because my daughter was so obsessed with them so I thought the world must be!
‘When you have two equally charismatic people it doubles the volume and puts the heat factor way up.’
Describing the fanfare around their relationship, Victoria went on: David didn’t have a lot of friends at school and neither did I.
‘You go from being that kid at school who’s desperate just for a friend to all of a sudden being chased down the street. It was a novelty.’
BECKHAM is available to stream on Netflix on October 4 from 8AM.
