Nobody imagined that last autumn’s Netflix series Beckham was a warts-and-all confessional. “There were some horrible stories that were difficult to deal with,” said David, alluding coyly to reports in 2004 that he’d done the dirty with Rebecca Loos, not named in the film. “It was the first time that me and Victoria had been put under that kind of pressure in our marriage. Ultimately, it’s our private life.”
This new book from renowned investigative journalist Tom Bower exists simply to say: “No, it isn’t.” Forget the summer-hazed scenes of amateur beekeeping and opening up about OCD: Bower’s top line is that we should see David as a tax-avoiding serial shagger who was never even that good at football – and as for Victoria, she’s a talentless nonentity who’d probably be divorced if she didn’t need to monetise their marriage and feed her addiction to the limelight.
