David and Victoria Beckham have been open about the ups and downs in their marriage over the years, but according to author Tom Bower, their relationship was once so on the rocks, they lived separate lives and had minimal communcation. In his explosive new book The House Of Beckham, the author said the pair’s marriage became “a distant business relationship” around eight years ago and claims their respective PR teams were “fed negative stories” about each other.
Tom also claims that David Beckham even accused his wife and her publicist of “waging a media war” against him. Despite these apparent challenges, the pair reportedly remained united for their brand, especially after surviving the turmoil caused by Rebecca Loos’ alleged affair allegations.
The couple briefly touched upon their hard times in David’s self-titled Netflix documentary, in which Victoria told viewers: “Up until Madrid sometimes it felt like us against everybody else but we were together, we were connected, we had each other. But when we were in Spain, it didn’t really feel like we had each other either.
“And that’s sad. I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was and how it affected me. It was a nightmare.” According to Bower, serious rifts began to emerge in 2016 when the pair spent significant time apart, with David in Miami and Victoria in London.
The strain was reportedly palpable during a particular London Fashion Week event at Victoria’s Dover Street store, where she may have regretted requesting David’s presence. “Morosely, he sat staring at her guests. Some whispered that the two had been embroiled earlier in a foul-mouthed row,” reports The Mirror.
Later that night, Beckham was reportedly spotted at Heathrow jetting off to New York on a late-night flight.
According to sources, the situation didn’t improve over the next couple of years, as Bower’s book adds: “Reflecting the acrimony between the Beckhams, the two publicists began to compete rather than collaborate, each working to promote their own client,” and “both fed negative stories about the other side to their favourite tabloid journalists.”
Express.co.uk has contacted a representative for David and Victoria for comment.
The new book comes after the former England captain recently admitted that he didn’t know how he and Victoria had stayed together through the “tough times“.
The 49-year-old has said watching the documentary back made him and his wife “emotional” as it made them realise just how strong they are as a couple.
He shared: “That’s one of the things we both, me and Victoria, probably both get emotional about.
“After everything was over and we watched it finally, that’s the one thing that we looked at each other and was like, ‘I don’t know how we got through the last 27 years, but we did and we have an amazing family, amazing business and we’re happy’.
“And yeah, of course, when you’re with someone for that amount of time, of course you have your ups and downs, everybody knows that and at the end of the day we were lucky because we had each other at those moments,” he continued on the SmartLess podcast.
Reflecting on the early stages of their relationship, David added: “You know, she was a Spice Girl, I was playing for Manchester United, and even when we were going through the difficult times, we actually had each other to feed off and that was the best part.”
Two years into their relationship, the pair tied the knot at a lavish ceremony in London back in 1999.
Shortly after, they welcomed their first child into the world, a son named Brooklyn, now 25.
He added: “As soon as we had our first son Brooklyn, that also added another layer to the family and our responsibilities then were to our son.”
As well as Brooklyn, the couple are parents to; Romeo, 21, Cruz, 19, and Harper, 12, who are bound to be a part of their 25th wedding anniversary celebrations in July.