David Beckham ended his career nearly a decade ago, but he can still be called one of the most recognizable soccer players in the world. The secret of Beckham’s brand longevity is meticulous work on image. David was, and still is, perfect in everything from his calibrated free-kick arcs to his immaculate beard and hair.
From the sound business strategy he used to develop the Inter Miami club he created to his unbreakable marriage to Victoria Adams. But wait: has David and Victoria’s relationship always been perfect, as it looks now – when the spouses are about to turn 50 years old?
The answer to that question must be sought in the early 2000s, when Beckham, who had had enough of British soccer moved to the superstar Real Madrid – in the company of Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Raul and other legends. In Madrid, David was assigned an assistant: she was to help the player with the adaptation and pump his Spanish skills.
Assistant named Rebecca Luz was barely 26, and she looked like a real top model. Given that Victoria did not immediately move to Madrid after her husband, David naturally could not stand it: a few months of lingering waiting resulted in an invitation to dinner. At the restaurant, the footballer showered her with a slew of compliments, and then took her to the Hotel Santa Mauro. What happened next? The answer is quite obvious.
Rebecca remembered Bex as a wonderful lover: attentive, hardy and caring – in the morning the Real Madrid star midfielder invariably offered his assistant breakfast and fruit. As you can understand, one stormy night at the hotel was not enough: David lost his head for a while and began to increasingly send Rebecca hot SMS.
Victoria quickly figured it all out, got Rebecca’s number, and whispered into the phone: “It’s not the assistant’s job to have dinners with my husband.” But Luz confidently withstood the defense: the initiator of their dates was always David. Yes, the girl didn’t reject Bex’s advances – but who in her place would resist?
After a while, Beckham’s cheating became a top secret. All the European media learned about the famous British playboy going left-handed. Still pretend that nothing happens, there was no point, and David confessed to Victoria: “Yes, I slept with Rebecca.
Spouse threw a tantrum, but then cooled down and forgave her husband, on one condition: Bex had to deny his relationship with his assistant, and do it as hard as possible.
Wanting to curry favor with his wife, David frankly overdid it: went to the press and said that “never slept with that cheap prostitute. Rebecca has rightly resented and decided to take revenge, the more that around her already swirled English journalists, prowling around Madrid in search of intimate details.
Sky TV made the most generous offer to the assistant. For 350 thousand pounds (more than half a million dollars at the rate of 2004!) Rebecca gave a series of frank interviews, which described in detail his affair with Beckham. The girl pointed out the soccer player care (“He even fed me strawberries”), rejected the accusations of wanting to become a divorcee, and showed text messages from David, which indicated that the initiator of the meetings, and indeed it has always been him.
Rebecca’s confession affected Bex’s psychological state. Staying in the upset, he failed Euro 2004. Everyone still remembers the horrific penalty kick David in the match against Portugal, which became the last for the British at the tournament.
Rebecca, meanwhile, everything was going great: she greedily pumped suddenly acquired status celebrity and starred in candid photo sets for top publications like Playboy.
Eighteen years later, all that has changed: Beckham’s ex-mistress has married, given birth to two sons and is living a modest life in quiet and peaceful Norway. “My kids know I did nude pictures for Playboy,” Rebecca says. – Of course, they are aware that I did indecent things. I regret a lot of things I did, but not everything.
I was in my early twenties, and it was a beautiful period [of my relationship with Beckham]. But it’s important to remember that one never stands still. It’s been a long time since then, and I’ve changed a lot.”
