David and Victoria Beckham celebrated being married for a quarter of a century on Thursday, marking the occasion by recreating their wedding day and slipping back into their iconic purple outfits.
For 25 years the pair have been one of showbiz’s hottest couples, although their love story has not always been smooth sailing.
Yet the couple – who are parents to Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, Cruz, 19, and Harper, 12 – have continued to defy their critics and build one of Hollywood’s strongest marriages.
Victoria previously hit back at naysayers in 2022, declaring: ‘They say he isn’t funny, they say I never smile, they said it wouldn’t last… Today we celebrate 23 years being married. David you are my everything, I love you so much!’
Now, as the couple celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, we take a look back at David and Victoria’s legendary love story.
1996 – WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In 1996 — when Victoria was the more famous of the two, thanks to her role in chart-topping girl band the Spice Girls — young Manchester United footballer David, knew she was the one for him before they even met.
Then known to her legions of fans as Posh Spice, Victoria admitted that nobody even wanted to date her before she was eventually introduced to David in 1997 — at his request — after his team’s charity football match.
Speaking in 2012, the mother-of-four told Spice Girls’ Story: Viva Forever: ‘There was a stage where someone wrote once how every woman wanted to be one of us and every man wanted to date one of us. Not that anyone wanted to date me. I think everyone wanted to sort of like just brush my hair.’
For prolific sportsman David, there was no question that she was the one he wanted to be with — and he even dreamed of the day he would marry the singer as he watched her writhe around in the video for her group’s hit single Say You’ll Be There.
‘That’s the girl for me and I’m going to get her!’ David told The Sun of a conversation he had with a pal as he watched the star strut her stuff onscreen. ‘She’s my idea of perfection. I knew that if she wanted me, we would be together forever.’
Later speaking to Vogue in 2016, Victoria said: ‘Love at first sight does exist. It will happen to you in the Manchester United players’ lounge — although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy.’
1998 – POPPING QUESTIONS
Just over a year after meeting, in January 1998, the couple, now affectionately dubbed Posh and Becks, ended weeks of speculation over whether they’d taken their romance to the next level, when they announced that they were engaged to marry.
Speaking about the proposal, Victoria said at the time: ‘We’d already looked at a few rings but I didn’t know which one he had chosen. I’d told him what my dream ring would be. He remembered and had it specially made for me’.
The proposal came when they checked into a hotel after a Manchester United game, after which Victoria was presented with 30 roses before being escorted to their room which was packed with £200 worth of red and yellow lillies.
The duo slipped into bath robes, ordered dinner and champagne and David popped the question much to Victoria’s utter delight.
In the book Arise Sir David Beckham: Footballer, Celebrity, Legend, it was reported Victoria said: ‘We were sitting there in our dressing gowns when David pulled out the ring, got down on one knee and said, ‘Will you marry me, Victoria?”
David meanwhile said: ”I wasn’t at all nervous about getting engaged, we’d decided a while ago we would make it official this weekend. I got the ring and was really looking forward to it. But when the moment came there were a few butterflies.’
The couple swiftly called a press conference where Victoria flashed her bling and told the gathered media at Rookery Hall hotel in Nantwich.: ‘I am the happiest girl on the world today. I’m with the man I know I’m going to grow old and wrinkly with.’
MARCH 1999 – BABY BROOKLYN ARRIVES
Before marriage came the baby carriage, with the increasingly famous duo welcoming the birth of their first child, a son called Brooklyn, in March, 1999.
He was born at London’s Portland Hospital in London and t is often reported that he was named Brooklyn because he was conceived in NYC.
Despite the frequent reports, in Victoria’s 2001 biography, Learning To Fly, Victoria insisted she simply liked the name. She wrote: ‘We already knew he was a boy and so I knew he could end up a footballer, so it had to be a name that was a bit bloke.
‘I had always liked the name Brooke and then we suddenly thought about Brooklyn. I’d always like it as a place – it’s very multi-cultural, very grounded.
‘And it was only afterwards that I realised how appropriate it was because it was in NYC that I found out I was pregnant and where David came after the World Cup.’
JUNE 1999 – THE BIRTH OF THE MATCHING – AND DIVISIVE – FASHION
The couple established themselves as a fashion powerhouse – for the right and wrong reasons- from the late Nineties, when they wore matching outfits.
Things began at the Versace Club Gala Party in June 1999, when they hit headlines for sporting matching head-to-toe leather ensembles designed by Gucci.
Speaking about the ensembles last year, Victoria said: ‘I mean it haunts me. It does haunt me, but I love it. It was hot. We were wearing Gucci…
‘It was a Versace dinner, which was inappropriate in itself. But we really considered those outfits. We really thought about it. There was a naivety to it that was just so sweet.’
When asked in 2021 why they wore matching looks, she explained: ‘It just seemed like a really good idea at the time. t really did…
‘I think there was a naiveté then, we didn’t know about fashion. We were just having fun with it, which to be honest with you, is kind of the way it should be. I really wish I had the courage to do it more now.’
At the 2003 MTV Movie Awards in LA the couple sported matching white ensembles while they recently joked when they ‘accidentally’ wore double denim.
JULY 1999 – POSH AND BECKS MAKE IT OFFICIAL
The Beckhams famously married in a spectacular ceremony, costing a reported £800,000 in which they both donned bold ensembles. Images from the big day featured in an OK! spread and front cover story.
Their marriage came when David had just won the treble with Manchester United and Victoria was a global icon with the Spice Girls.
Their highly-anticipated wedding ceremony came on July 4 in an extravagant ceremony — complete with golden thrones and a glittering tiara for the bride.
While no expense was spared for the nuptials — conducted by Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton — the day was also filled with touching, heartfelt moments, including four-month-old Brooklyn serving as the ring bearer.
Sparing no expense, the power couple hired Bentley’s Entertainments, organisers of Elton John’s birthday as well as Princess Anne’s 40th, to mastermind the highly-publicised showbiz event.
Their picturesque Irish venue sat on 560 acres and dated back to the 18th century, with organsier Peregrine Armstrong-Jones telling OK! how ‘Victoria wanted somewhere really private and unique, somewhere leafy and green’.
She had hired Simon Lycett, who worked on the 90s rom-com Four Weddings And A Funeral, to set up the floral arrangements – complete with fresh apples which had been pierced and dotted around the castle in order to discharge the scent of fruit.
With David rocking up in a £230,000 Bentley Azure wearing a cream suit designed by Timothy Everett, Victoria sported a Vera Wang dress as she rode in style in a Bentley Arnage.
She commanded attention in a diamond-and-gold crown, which was custom-built by Slim Barrett who had previously crafted accessories for Princess Diana.
Despite the nuptials being covered as part of the lucrative magazine deal, last year Victoria was adamant the wedding wasn’t as fancy as it appeared.
Speaking to The Business of Fashion as part of the BoF VOICES 2022 event, she said of her big day: ‘I think that the media glamorised the wedding much more than it actually was … [It was] actually much more intimate than it looked.’
She added: ‘I love to have fun. I work very very hard. I take what I do very seriously. I want to be a great wife, a really great mum, but I wanna have fun as well…
‘Sometimes my tongue-in-cheek sense of humour does tend to get me in trouble, but the wedding wasn’t as huge as everybody made it out [to be].’
Sparing no expense, the power couple hired Bentley’s Entertainments, organisers of Elton John’s birthday as well as Princess Anne’s 40th, to mastermind the highly-publicised showbiz event.
