David Beckham’s highly anticipated documentary, Beckham, has finally arrived on Netflix, charting the footballing great’s “meteoric rise from humble beginnings to global football stardom”.
In the four-part series, David addresses all parts of his career and many aspects of his personal life, with the show also featuring contributions from his family, including wife Victoria.
Here are the five biggest revelations from the show...
Posh and Becks reflect on those affair allegations
It was one of the biggest celeb scandal stories of the decade, when David’s ex-PA Rebecca Loos claimed they had engaged in a four-month-long affair in a 2004 interview with the now-defunct News Of The World.
Rebecca’s claims were never corroborated – and were dismissed by Becks at the time as “ludicrous” – but the married couple have spoken of the effect it had on their marriage within the documentary.
“There were some horrible stories that were difficult to… deal with,” David said, speaking of the tabloid frenzy.
“It was the first time that me and Victoria had been put under that kind of pressure in our marriage.”
Becks then reinforced how much his wife meant – and continues to mean – to him, saying that “to see her hurt was incredibly difficult,” and that his own focus in training, which was taking place in Real Madrid at the time, took a blow from the media frenzy.
“There were some days I would wake up and think, ‘How am I gonna go to work, how am I gonna walk onto that training pitch, how am I gonna look as though nothing’s wrong?’” he recalled.
“I felt physically sick every day when I opened my eyes, ‘How am I gonna do this?’”
Victoria, for her part, said the attention around the story was “a hundred per cent” the “hardest time” in her marriage, which came five years after they tied the knot in 1999.
She said: “It was the hardest period for us because it felt like the world was against us. And here’s the thing, we were against each other, if I’m being completely honest.”
Becks opens up about what that 1998 World Cup red card did to him
At the 1998 World Cup in France, David’s status as England’s golden boy took a nosedive when he deliberately kicked the back of Argentina captain Diego Simeone’s leg. England’s hopes for glory crashed and burned, as did the publics opinion of the man himself.
David and Victoria revealed that the ensuing hate he received caused the footballer to become “absolutely clinically depressed”.
“What I went through was so extreme,” David added. “The whole country hated me. Hated me.
“It changed my life. I felt very vulnerable and alone. Wherever I went I got abuse every single day… It took a toll on me that I never even knew myself.”
Victoria added: “I mean, the absolute hate, the public bullying, to another level. He was depressed. I still want to kill these people.”
Relationships with former England manager Glenn Hoddle have not been repaired
At the time of the infamous red card, Glenn Hoddle was managing the England squad; but not well enough, according to David’s mum, Sandra.
After the defeat, Glenn blamed David publicly for the loss, when the latter was still just 23 years old on a world stage.
In Beckham, Sandra and David’s wife Victoria both had some stern words for Glenn, who stepped down from his position a year later.
“Glenn Hoddle didn’t come out and try and protect David. And how old was David, 23? You’re a kid at 23. And Glenn Hoddle was a man,” Posh said, before adding that she wouldn’t call Glenn “a man”, but rather “an older person”.
Sandra added: “Hoddle is on my hit-list… of people that upset me. I thought, ‘What have you done?’ He made out that it was David’s fault. And we’d been used to a manager… Alex Ferguson never spoke about his team.”
HuffPost UK has contacted a representative for Glenn Hoddle for comment.
Victoria sets the record straight on Brooklyn’s birth
In 1999, Victoria gave birth to the couple’s first child, Brooklyn. She had the child by C-Section, which at the time prompted claims in the press that the Spice Girls star was “too posh to push”.
In one line in Beckham, Victoria set the record straight.
“I wasn’t too posh to push, I was told it would not be safe for me to be put into labour,” she said.
The pair also detailed the calendar conflict that materialised for the prescheduled C-section – David was booked in to shoot a Pepsi ad, also starring Beyoncé and J-Lo.
“I was like, ’Are you.. ’Seriously, I’m about to burst, I’m on bed rest. Are you kidding me?” Victoria said.
“You’ve got a damn photoshoot with Jennifer Lopez, who is gorgeous and not about to have a baby.”
The documentary also revealed that Posh told Becks that she was pregnant the night before his infamous Argentina game.
Posh and Becks used to meet secretly in car parks at the start of their romance
Although “not as seedy as it sounds” by her own admission, Victoria and David’s relationship – a romance between burgeoning football great and already world-famous pop royalty – was kept secret for as long as possible before the news broke.
Sir Alex Ferguson “wanted me married to a local girl who wasn’t a superstar,” Becks said – and Victoria’s manager told her to “keep it under wraps”.
In the doc, the pair revealed that the early days of their courtship were far from glam, snogging in car parks and driving over “four hours to spend 20 minutes with her.”
Beckham is available to stream on Netflix.