Rebecca Loos oscillates between annoyance and giddy annoyance as she watches David Beckham recall the aftermath of their affair on Netflix.
The former captain of the England national team speaks haltingly, as if each well-chosen word had to be carefully selected. However, it’s what he doesn’t say that dismays Rebecca.
It has been almost 20 years since his former assistant created a media frenzy like no other when she went public with details of their relationship.
Beckham didn’t cause much of a response at the time. So she didn’t believe for a second that he would bring up the topic – even subtly – after so long.
Still, Beckham’s self-titled Netflix series is racking up record-breaking viewership and “tells the inside story of a global soccer star and cultural icon” with no topic “off the table” – not even the affair.
Pictured: Rebecca Loos, who now lives in Norway and worked with David Beckham in 2003
Sometimes he secretly tried to hold her hand while they drove through Madrid. Pictured: David Beckham driving with Rebecca Loos in Madrid. Ms Loos claims to have had an affair with the football star
But as Rebecca notes, Beckham isn’t entirely up to date on this. Instead, he is simply asked how he dealt with the “multiple tabloid stories” that arose as a result.
Without directly referring to the liaison or admitting guilt – or even remotely inappropriate – Beckham, 48, says the stories were “horrible” and made him “feel sick every day.”
Rebecca, 47, shakes her head. “It’s all ‘poor person.'” “He has to take responsibility,” she says, lacing her fingers together so she won’t be tempted to hit the screen.
“He can say whatever he wants, of course, and I understand that he has an image to maintain, but he portrays himself as a victim and makes me look like a liar, like I made up these stories.”
“He’s indirectly implying that I’m the one who made Victoria suffer.”
In fact, she would have preferred if he hadn’t talked about the life-changing episode at all. In their opinion it was buried.
She has been happily married for a long time, has two children, and has lived in blissful darkness in Norway for 14 years, where she teaches yoga and works as a medical assistant.
“It’s not like England here, it’s a lot less judgmental,” she says. “People used to come up to me in Waitrose, right in my face, and take photos of me with their phones.
“The people are cool here. They do not care. Most of them [Norwegian friends] Say, “Well, I was with a married man once and I did this…” It’s like everyone has done something at some point.”
In the picture, Victoria Beckham goes shopping with her son Romeo and Rebecca Loos in Madrid in September 2003
They visited bars in the trendy Chueca district “and we ate the best croquetas in the city in a tapas restaurant.” In the picture, David Beckham was seen clubbing with Rebecca Loos at a Madrid disco
But not with married men as famous as Beckham. And few would have been insulted as much as Rebecca, the privately educated, Spanish-born diplomat’s daughter, who is dubbed a “sleazy senorita” and portrayed as sex-obsessed. She doubts that society today would judge a woman “so harshly.”
The documentary has now brought her back into the spotlight.
And although she lives in the mountains, she is not exempt from harassment, even if it reflects different times, which is now taking a new form – vicious trolling on social media.
Sitting in a quiet corner of a hotel in central Oslo, Rebecca watches Beckham marvel at how he and Victoria “got through” the scandal and how he managed to drag himself to training at Real Madrid.
He laments the intense pressure being placed on their marriage.
And so the tightly controlled film, made by his own production company, goes on, asking Beckham not tough questions but bathing him in a warm, compassionate glow.
He says it was “incredibly difficult” to watch his wife hurt. His eyes become moist. Rebecca has seen enough and turns away. This is actually her second viewing.
“Yes, the stories were terrible, but they were true,” she says. “In the documentary, he talks about how this is ultimately his personal life and wraps it up.”
“I think it’s one thing to keep your private life to yourself. It’s another thing to mislead the public. And so many people had forgotten all about it.
So many people have put it all behind them, this whole affair, the scandal and everything. And he pushed it up again, in a way that damaged my reputation…
“I think if he were to go into that time and how difficult it was, it would have been really nice if he had said, ‘It wasn’t my proudest time’.”
“The worst thing for me is that he says he didn’t like seeing his wife suffer.” That bothered me. Because he is the one who caused the suffering.
He could have just said that this was a difficult time and I didn’t want to talk about it.
“If you don’t want to take responsibility for things because of your family and your children, that’s totally fine.”
And if he had just said it was a difficult time for us and moved on, I wouldn’t be here today.
“But he specifically made it seem like it was my fault that he had nothing to do with it.”
Disappointed, she believes, by both Beckham and the management company that employed her, she sold her story – “it came out anyway, so I thought I’d try to control it” – to the now-defunct company in April News of the World 2004.
Details of their brief liaison splintered the superstar’s carefully cultivated image.
Beckham was portrayed as the epitome not only of football but also of loyalty, a loving family man who embodied 21st century masculinity.
For a time, the story reverberated around the world and posed an existential threat to the Beckham brand, the other half of which was, of course, Posh Spice.
Just a few months earlier, the midfielder had signed for Real Madrid and Rebecca, then 26, beautiful and unattached, was appointed his Girl Friday, or customer service manager as she was officially billed.
Ms Loos says Beckham developed “a soft spot” for her which was reciprocated. In the picture Rebecca Loos attends the London Film Festival 2008
Pictured is the front page of the Daily Mirror from April 5, 2004, with claims that Rebecca Loos had an affair with David Beckham
Since the age of 15, Beckham has spent his career safely in the fold of Manchester United.
Now alone in a strange city, 800 miles from Victoria and their two young sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, who remained in England, he relied heavily on Rebecca to help him navigate his new landscape.
“He loved learning about Spanish culture, especially food and wine,” she remembers.
“Once when he was besieged in his hotel, I smuggled him out in the trunk of my car because I wanted to show him the real Madrid.”
They visited bars in the trendy Chueca district “and we ate the best croquetas in the city in a tapas restaurant.”
In a short time, she says, Beckham developed “a soft spot” for her, which was reciprocated. Sometimes he secretly tried to hold her hand while they drove through Madrid.
And when they ate lunch with the rest of his entourage, she says, he would press his sandal toes against her own.
“He made me stand out and make me feel special,” she says. Eventually the flirtation turned sexual. On their first night together, she says he seduced her.
She recalls: “I remember turning to him and saying, ‘You’re so lucky that you can have whoever you want.’ And he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I’ve never had that before.’ made.” I thought, “Wow.” I mean, I foolishly fell for his lies.’
At the time, Rebecca was living at home with her parents, Leendert Willem Albert Loos, and his Anglo-Spanish wife Elizabeth, who once corrected Brooklyn’s grammar when he asked her for “one of these apples.”
Rebecca says, “It was when they were all visiting.” [Victoria, David and the children] and she said, “Brooklyn, that’s one of those apples.”
She adds with a laugh: “I said, ‘Mommy, you can’t say that!'” He’s my customer. She still corrects me to this day.
“When I went home with him the day after sleeping [Beckham] For the first time, Mom asked, ‘Where were you?’ Where did you sleep?’ And I just shrugged. I did not say anything. But she knew it. She just looked at me and said, “Be careful.”
Despite her mother’s warning, no amount of care could prevent her secret from being revealed.
At the time, Beckham was one of the most followed and watched men on the planet, and almost inevitably photos emerged of the footballer and his assistant smooching in a nightclub.
Rebecca’s story was published a few months later. Beckham apparently failed to deny the story outright, saying at the time: “Over the last few months I’ve become accustomed to reading more and more ridiculous stories about my private life.” What emerged this morning is just another example.
“The simple truth is that I am very happily married. I have a wonderful wife and two very special children. There is nothing third parties can do to change these facts.”
It’s worth noting that Rebecca has never made a secret of the fact that she kept many of the sexually graphic messages they exchanged 20 years ago to herself.
She says: “It took me a long time to decide whether to talk about this today… If I remain silent, I will be called the liar, the one who made up the stories.”
Victoria Beckham talks about the pressures surrounding allegations of David’s 2004 affair with Ms Loos in the Netflix documentary
She had heard that a documentary was being prepared, but assumed it would only focus on Beckham’s football career. Pictured: David and Victoria Beckham in the Netflix documentary
“And I also have a family and I also have children and they also have Google and can watch documentaries too.” And I want them to know that their mother was brave enough to stand up to them and stand up for the truth.
“When I went public all those years ago, I stuck closely to the facts and the truth because I was this 26-year-old with no backing going up against the most powerful couple in the world who had PR people and lawyers , the …” had everyone behind them. If I had made even the slightest mistake, they would have caught me.’
Under the guidance of PR guru Max Clifford, she later rode the reality television merry-go-round and made a lot of money, although nowhere near the then-suggested figure of £800,000. It all seems like a lifetime ago, she says.
When she saw Victoria in the documentary, she remembered their first meeting. “They came over for the weekend – and got off the plane all dressed up like Barbie and Ken.” They seemed really nice.
“I went shopping with Victoria and we later hung out at the hotel while David signed for Real Madrid. I remember her strong sense of humor.
“And I think she came across well in the Netflix documentary.” She was very natural, very honest, very open. At some point she made me laugh. I can’t say that about him.’
Under the guidance of PR guru Max Clifford, Ms. Loos later rode the reality TV carousel and earned a lot of money
Ms Loos added that if she had not had an affair, she would not have taken part in a reality television series, the Dutch version of 71 Degrees North, where she met her husband
She had heard that a documentary was being prepared, but assumed it would only focus on Beckham’s football career. “I remember thinking, ‘Good for him, he’s a great player.’
“I never thought they would reveal their marriage. It came out on a Wednesday. So on Thursday morning I got up, had breakfast with the kids and checked my Instagram. I noticed that I have a few hundred extra followers, which happens from time to time. That’s why I didn’t think much of it. “I dropped the kids off at school and went to work.”
Then she received calls from journalists asking for her reaction. “And then I suddenly realized that something must have been said, but I didn’t know what.
“At home I went online and saw all the articles. I was really confused. Then I sat on the sofa and just watched that one episode and was completely shocked.’
From the distance of 20 years, her view of the affair hasn’t changed much. Then, as now, she feels “enormous feelings of guilt.”
She says: “I was very sorry for what I had done and how I dealt with it – but life’s biggest mistakes are the best lessons I have learned.”
Regret is pointless, she says. It was never her intention to ruin the Beckhams’ marriage: “Never, never, never.” I want people to be happy. I want families to be happy. I don’t want to destroy things.’
In any case, she adds, without an affair, she would not have taken part in a reality television series, the Dutch version of 71 Grad Nord, where she met Norwegian Sven Christjar Skaiaa, a doctor on the series who later became her husband.
‘Things happen for a reason. And now I have a wonderful life with my incredible husband and children,” she says.