September 2003: David Beckham is seen with a brunette at a nightclub in Madrid

The affair scandal began with Beckham’s move to Madrid to play for the football team Real Madrid in the summer of 2003. In September, a few months after the move, Beckham was spotted on a night out with a mystery brunette in Madrid, the Guardian reported. The person was later identified as Rebecca Loos, his personal assistant in the Spanish city.

April 2004: Rebecca Loos claims she and Beckham had an affair

On April 4, 2004, the UK’s News of the World newspaper published a story that alleged Beckham had an affair with Loos, who had since been fired as his assistant. Later that month, Loos gave a tell-all TV interview with Sky News, in which she said they had first slept together the night they were spotted at the nightclub in September.

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“I think the chemistry between David and I was so strong, and people were not happy because I was being very unprofessional and he’s a married man,” she said, adding: “We dropped off the other two people in the car and started kissing quite passionately all the way back to the hotel. It was like magnets, pretty amazing.”

Loos also said in the interview that she wasn’t afraid of the Beckhams taking her to court. “There is something I know about him, an intimate part of his body that I think only women who’ve been in bed with him would know,” she said. “So I think if they did want to take me to court, I could easily stand up and say, ‘Well …’”

In a statement published by the Guardian at the time, Beckham denied the allegations. “During the past few months, I have become accustomed to reading more and more ludicrous stories about my private life,” he said. “What appeared this morning is just one further example. The simple truth is that I am very happily married and have a wonderful wife and two very special kids. There is nothing any third party can do to change this.”

April 2004: More women accuse Beckham of cheating

Soon after Loos came forward, two more women said they’d also had affairs with the famous football player. On April 11, the model Sarah Marbeck told the News of the World she had an affair with Beckham in July 2001 while the football star was in Singapore with Manchester United.

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“When we made love, David told me, ‘I know what we are doing is wrong, but I can’t help it,’” Marbeck said. “The first time he took me to bed, he kissed me everywhere. I looked down and there was David Beckham kissing my breasts. David Beckham!”

Beckham denied Marbeck’s claims in a statement published by the Guardian at the time.

“This weekend a series of even more absurd and unsubstantiated claims have been published about David and Victoria Beckham,” the statement read. “The couple continue to dismiss these stories and they will not be commenting upon them further at this time. Lawyers have been instructed by David and Victoria concerning these matters.”

A week later, a third woman came forward to the British tabloid The People. Celina Laurie told the publication she and Beckham had a one-night stand in Denmark in August 2002.

May 2004: Beckham criticises the Daily Mail and News of the World in his first public interview since the reports

Beckham told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’ve made it clear that with two papers the way I and my family have been treated is an absolute disgrace because at the end of the day, I’m a nice person and loving husband and father.”

September 2004: David and Victoria Beckham sue the News of the World over affair reports

“The News of the World was given the opportunity to provide an apology, but have chosen not to respond to the couple’s request,” lawyers for the couple said in a statement, the Guardian reported. The case was eventually dropped in 2006 after the two parties came to a settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed.

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News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the News of the World, said in a statement: “The defamation proceedings by David and Victoria Beckham against the News of the World have been resolved on a confidential basis. There will be no further comment.”

The News of the World eventually closed in 2011 amid a decline in advertising and scandals involving accusations of hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians and victims of crimes.

October 2004: A fourth woman says she hooked up with Beckham

Beauty-shop owner Danielle Heath told the Sunday Mirror that she and Beckham had performed sexual acts on each other on two occasions in Madrid. In a statement, the Beckhams denied the allegations. “We are sick and tired of people trying to make money at the expense of our family. It is even more distressing when we are expecting our third child soon. The allegations are completely and totally untrue, and it is in the hands of our lawyers,” the statement said.

2007: Victoria addresses the rumours for the first time

In 2007, Victoria was asked about the affair allegations during a joint interview with her husband for a W Magazine cover story. “I’m not going to lie. It was a really tough time. It was hard for our entire families. But I realised a lot of people have a price,” she said.

“David and I got through it together. No one said marriage was going to be easy. Yes, there have been bumps along the road,” Victoria continued. “But the fact is we’ve come out of everything we’ve been through stronger and happier. It’s even better now than when we were first married. After all these years, we can just come home and have a laugh together.”

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March 2013: Loos says she regrets the way she addressed the alleged affair

Almost 10 years after the scandal, Loos appeared on the British daytime television show Daybreak and addressed her alleged affair with Beckham.

She said, “I’m a mother now and married, and knowing what I know now, I would definitely have gone about things quite differently,” the Metro reported. “I was young and foolish and very reckless. I didn’t think things through and acted on impulse a lot. I think I regret the impact on everybody. I think I could have gone about it in a kinder way.”

Loos added: “I don’t regret speaking out, but I regret the way I went about it.”

October 4, 2023: Victoria says that period was “the most unhappy I have ever been in my entire life”

Victoria described the alleged affair saga as the “hardest period” of their marriage in the new four-part Netflix docuseries about David Beckham: “It was the most unhappy I have ever been in my entire life. It felt like the world was against us.”

“We were against each other, if I’m being completely honest,” she continued. “You know, up until Madrid sometimes it felt like us against everybody else, but we were together, we were connected, we had each other.”

Asked if she resented Beckham at the time, Victoria replied, “If I’m being totally honest, yes, I did.”

In the docuseries Beckham, Beckham also addressed how the speculation affected his and Victoria’s relationship. “I don’t know how we got through it, in all honesty,” he said. “Victoria is everything to me. To see her hurt was incredibly difficult, but we’re fighters and at that time we needed to fight for each other, we needed to fight for our family, and what we had was worth fighting for.”

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October 21, 2023: Loos slams David Beckham for “making himself the victim” over their alleged affair

In a video interview published by the Daily Mail in October, Loos responded to the comments made by the Beckhams in the Netflix docuseries.

Loos, who’s now a yoga and meditation teacher living in Norway, said she was completely unaware that the couple had mentioned her in the series, or that the series even existed, until she got a call from a Norwegian journalist, saying “He’s making himself the victim and making me look like the liar. He’s making me look like I made up these horrible stories, I’m the one that made Victoria suffer.”

She added: “He’s the one who decides to lie to her, to say, ‘we don’t have to tell my wife’. He’s made all those choices. If I remain silent, I will be known as the liar.”

Representatives for Beckham and Loos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.