Well, at least Victoria had. In fact, the situation was so bad that when rumors started doing the rounds that her husband was cheating on her, she had suicidal thoughts.
In her 2001 biography ‘Learning to Fly’, she had revealed that the news of his infidelity broke out when she was still pregnant with their first baby, Brooklyn. At the time, it affected her so much that she “suffered suicidal thoughts”.
The fashion designer admitted that she punched him following those rumors. When the footballer called her to say that he had been accused of kissing someone else while the Spice Girls were away on tour, Victoria couldn’t contain herself. And when they met after the tour, she “went straight up to him and just swung at him, punched him”.
“I hadn’t planned it. I hadn’t punched anybody before. Just instinct,” she wrote in her 2001 autobiography ‘Learning To Fly’. “I just felt angry and hurt,” she added.
The couple had been dating for two years by then after meeting at a charity football match. They announced their engagement in 1998. It goes without saying that the rumors about David’s infidelity were harming their relationship. And so, in order to work things out, they fled to Lake Como, Italy. Victoria eventually believed David’s relentless pleas of his innocence and the couple tied the knot four months after she delivered Brooklyn on July 4, 1999.
Today, the couple has four children: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz David and Harper Seven. This, however, is not the first time that David was accused of infidelity. In 2004, reports started doing the rounds that he was having an extramarital affair with his former personal assistant Rebecca Loos that lasted four months.
He soon released a statement addressing these “ludicrous” rumors. “During the past few months I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous stories about my private life,” he had said, adding that they had a happy marriage. “The simple truth is that I am very happily married. I have a wonderful wife and two very special kids.”
Loos didn’t want a lot from that revelation. “I think it’s bad enough for me to do what I have done without me expecting any words of sympathy,” she said. “I really hope that they get through it. I think the problems were in their marriage long before I came into the picture. I in no way intended to break up their marriage especially when there are young children involved. I hope they stay together.”
No more than a week later, Malaysian-born Australian model Sarah Marbeck claimed that she had slept with David on two occasions. David refuted the claims calling them “absurd and unsubstantiated”, adding, “We have been through a lot worse than this, and we’re definitely going to get through this.”
Around the same time, with these rumors doing the rounds, Victoria packed her bags and flew to Switzerland with her sons. David was supposed to join them from Madrid soon afterward.
Exhausted and infuriated by these speculations, the couple eventually filed a suit against News of the World for carrying a story titled ‘Posh and Becks on the Rocks’, hinting at their troubled marriage. “We are sick and tired of people trying to make money at the expense of our family,” the Beckhams said in a statement. “It’s even more distressing when we are expecting our third son. These allegations are completely untrue and it is in the hands of our lawyers.”
From here, lawsuits kept on coming one after the other – against NOTW to their nanny Abbie Gibson. The nanny allegedly told the tabloid that their marriage was on the rocks.
Today, Victoria is grateful for the “hands-on” father that David is. “He’s so great, and we have so much respect for each other. When I’m traveling, he’s at home. And when he’s traveling, I’m at home, so the children will always be our priorities. We work really well together and we’re very present in the children’s lives and I think that’s very important to have a close relationship with all the kids,” she had said.