Victoria Beckham has admitted moving to Spain was “not ideal” following her husband David’s surprise move to Real Madrid.
The 48-year-old footballer was stunned to learn he had been signed to play in La Liga in 2003 after more than a decade with his boyhood club Manchester United, meaning his entire family had to relocate to other countries overnight.
And in his Netflix documentary series BECKHAM, released on Wednesday, David admitted Victoria was “not too happy” about the news they were leaving the UK.
The designer said she was always perceived as a “villain” by Spanish football fans for not moving there with David straight away, insisting she was just putting it off until she found suitable schools for her sons Brooklyn and Romeo have.
Describing the moment David shared the news of their move in the documentary’s third episode, Victoria replied: “What do you mean we’re going to Spain?”
Revealed: Victoria Beckham has admitted moving to Spain was ‘not ideal’ following her husband David’s surprise move to Real Madrid
New move: The 48-year-old footballer was stunned to learn he had been signed for La Liga in 2003 after more than a decade with his boyhood club Manchester United
‘[David] said, “We’re going to Spain,” when? “In about 12 hours!”
Victoria added: “I thought, ‘What do you mean? We have no place to live, we have no schools for the children. What do you think?” But the reality is that we moved to Spain.”
When asked what she thought of the move, Victoria replied: “Not ideal.”
David had a difficult few months ahead of him as he settled in at Real Madrid. The athlete admitted he felt “lonely” as he struggled to get into shape with the club, especially after Carlos Queiroz was appointed coach.
He said: “It was difficult not having my family.”
‘[Victoria] She just didn’t want to sit at home, she didn’t want to be a footballer’s wife, and that’s what I loved about her from day one.
“I remember being upset on the phone with Victoria because I felt lonely.”
Victoria admitted that Spanish fans found it difficult to connect with her, especially after it was reported that she doesn’t like Spain because it “smells like garlic”, something she denied ever saying.
Opinion: The designer said she was always perceived as “the bad guy” by Spanish soccer fans because she didn’t move there with David straight away
Really? David admitted Victoria (pictured in 2004) was “not too happy” about the news they were leaving the UK, and the designer added: “We had a family to think about.”
“For the most part, I was always the bad guy,” she said.
“It was never about Spain, we had a family to think about.” I had two children, Brooklyn and Romeo, and no one seemed to take that into account when I was criticized from the start for not being in Spain .
“A child has to go to school, I knew I couldn’t move until I had a school for Brooklyn.” I was in London Monday through Friday and then hopped on a plane to Spain.
“But everything was made up and taken out of context. “It was never about Spain.”
As shown in the documentary, David scored on his home debut against Mallorca and won the Spanish Super Cup, marking the start of a four-year spell at the club.
Later in the documentary, Victoria admitted that she had angered her husband after he turned her life into a “circus.”
Speaking about the experience, Victoria confessed: ‘Did I get it over David?’ If I’m being completely honest, yes, I did.’
It then cut to footage of the famous couple driving through Spain with their distraught son Brooklyn, who cried as overzealous fans banged on the window of their car.
David tried to comfort Brooklyn by announcing, “It’s okay, Buster, they can’t get in the car,” while Victoria reassured him by saying, “It’s okay, Mommy’s got you.”
Looking forward to today, Victoria candidly admitted: “If I’m being honest, it’s probably the unhappiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
“It wasn’t that I went unheard, I chose to internalize a lot of it because I was always aware of the focus he needed.”
In the four-part documentary, the Beckhams spoke emotionally about David’s life, from his childhood to his final role as co-owner of US club Inter Miami.
In the final episode of the series, Victoria broke her 20-year silence and described the pain she suffered following allegations about her husband David’s alleged affair with Rebecca Loos.
The designer revealed that the months that followed were the “hardest” of her life and that she no longer felt like the couple “had each other.”
Meanwhile, Beckham admitted he still doesn’t know how they got through the 2003 crisis, but he and his former Spice Girls wife knew they had to “fight for their family” and said they felt as if they were “drowning” as their high-profile marriage was in the headlines for months.
The former England captain also revealed that he “felt physically ill every day” as he and Victoria battled to save their marriage.
In a very candid interview in the fourth and final episode, Victoria appeared to be fighting back tears when asked if it was the most difficult time in her marriage. “100 percent,” she admitted. “It was the most difficult time for us. Because it felt like the world was against us.
“If I’m being completely honest, we were against each other.” Until Madrid, it sometimes felt like we were against everyone else, but we were together, we were connected, we had each other.
Tough: In the final episode, Victoria also broke her 20-year silence and described the pain she suffered following allegations about her husband David’s alleged affair with Rebecca Loos
“But when we were in Spain I didn’t really feel like we had each other either. And that’s sad. I can’t tell you how hard it was. And how it affected me.’
Beckham stunned the world when his alleged relationship with Ms Loos was revealed in the now-defunct News Of The World newspaper.
At the time, Victoria had decided to stay in the UK so that her young sons Brooklyn and Romeo could stay in their schools. The decision left Beckham lonely and he admits he struggled.
He said: “When I first moved to Spain it was difficult because I had been part of a club and a family throughout my career, from the age of 15 until I was 27. I’m sold overnight, the next minute I’m sold.” I’m in a city and I don’t speak the language. More importantly, I had no family.
“Every time we woke up we felt like there was something else… we both felt at that point that we weren’t losing each other, but drowning.”
When asked how their marriage survived, David shared that he was afraid to play football while his wife struggled to find a way out of her crisis.
Shaking his head, he said, “Honestly, I don’t know how we got through it.” Victoria means everything to me. It was incredibly difficult to see her hurt, but we are fighters and back then we had to fight for each other, we had to fight for our family.
“And what we had was worth fighting for.” There were days when I woke up and thought, “How am I going to go to work?” How do I get to the training ground? How am I supposed to look like everything’s okay?’ I felt physically sick every day when I opened my eyes. “How am I supposed to do that?”
The crisis prompted Victoria to move to Madrid, where they bought a £3million house, which she says she decorated herself. She later gave birth to the couple’s third son, Cruz, now 18, in the Spanish capital.