Scandals That Have Soured David Beckham's Reputation Beyond Repair

Who is David Beckham after all? If you watch the viral video in which he calls out his wife, Victoria Beckham, for pretending not to be privileged, you might think he's a down-to-earth, wealthy person with a sense of humor. However, if you take a closer look at the scandals surrounding the former soccer player and believe what people say about him — his son included — you might have a different idea altogether.

The scandals involving the Beckham family often resurface in the media, and in 2025, it was hard not to talk about them after a series of events that made everyone scratch their heads. One of the most significant moments was when the Beckham family attended the Netflix premiere of the documentary "Beckham" in 2023, and it was pretty clear that David and Victoria barely acknowledged the presence of their son, Brooklyn Beckham, and his wife, actor Nicola Peltz.

So, what is going on with this family? Why does David Beckham always seem to be at the center of all scandals? It's time to take a closer look at the events surrounding the former soccer player, his relationship with his family, and how some scandals soured his reputation beyond repair.

One of the earliest scandals that David Beckham was involved in was not particularly his fault. Or, more appropriately, it was not only his fault. He was a soccer player in one of the most important sporting events of the world — the 1998 World Cup — and after receiving a foul from an Argentine adversary, Diego Simeone, Beckham decided he would get his revenge right then and there by kicking the other player. He got an infamous red card and, for years, fans attributed England's elimination from the World Cup to him.

Years later, Simeone revealed in an interview during the Champions League in 1999 (per The Independent) that he exaggerated the pain he felt so that Beckham would get kicked out. Beckham himself revealed on the Prime Video documentary series "Simeone: Living Match By Match" that he still beats himself up for the scandal and called it the most difficult time of his career.

There is one particular scandal involving David Beckham that is almost a classic when it comes to high-profile relationships. After he was already married to Victoria Beckham for several years, rumors started rolling around that Beckham was cheating on his superstar wife with his personal assistant, Rebecca Loos. The situation became worse when Loos went public to confirm that the affair was real.

To this very day, the scandal is still a shadow that hovers over the Beckham family, because Loos hasn't retracted any statements she gave at the time. In fact, she only reiterated every piece of information that came out of her mouth. During an interview on 60 Minutes Australia in 2025, the former PA stated (per People), "I have stuck to the truth. I've never exaggerated. I never lied about a single thing." She aadded, "Why? Because I'm going up against the strongest, most powerful couple in the media who have all the money in the world for the best PR, the best lawyers. And all I had on my side was the truth."

If you have paid attention to the Beckham family over the years, you know that this is hardly the first time that David was involved in affair scandals, but the one with Loos was certainly the biggest.

Nobody expects their email content to get leaked, but when you are a world-famous soccer player, you have to be extra careful about what you write. In 2017, David Beckham's email content was hacked, and some of the messages he sent made the star sound like a whiny and entitled person. In one of the leaked emails, Beckham complains that he was snubbed in 2014 for the coveted knighthood title and refers to people who didn't cater to his whims with disdain and profanity. Not a good look for someone who presents themselves as a person with a sense of humor.

Worse than that, Beckham allegedly directed his frustration at Katherine Jenkins — an opera singer who received an OBE — an award that he himself received some years before. Beckham allegedly wrote in the email (per The Independent): "Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops plus taking coke. F***ing joke." Needless to say, the commentary diminishes the merit of Jenkins, who had nothing to do with Beckham getting his knighthood or not.

At the time, Beckham's representatives issued a statement admitting that Beckham's email had indeed been hacked, but the messages that were leaked were taken out of context and doctored in order to form a bad image of the superstar. 

Some of the scandals surrounding David Beckham pale in comparison to the latest one. We know that family relationships are hard and that parents and kids don't often see eye to eye — but David and his son, Brooklyn Beckham, might have taken their issues to a whole other level.

Rumors of the strained relationship between Brooklyn and his parents have circulated for years. But you know how rumors go — until there's hard evidence, speculation is all that can be done. That's why it's been a bad couple of years for the Beckhams: when the family attended the premiere of the Netflix miniseries "Beckham" in 2023, David and Victoria Beckham barely acknowledged the presence of Brooklyn and his wife, the actor Nicola Peltz. In 2025, social media users discovered that the son blocked his mother and father on Instagram. What event could have been so terrible that it prompted the drastic decision?

Brooklyn himself offered his side of the story by doing a scathing David and Victoria takedown on social media. In early 2026, he wrote a lengthy series of posts on Instagram revealing to users that, ever since he was a child, his parents put the Beckham brand first and everything else took a backseat to it, including his and his siblings' needs. Brooklyn also stated that his parents have constantly tried to sabotage his relationship with Peltz, and that Victoria's dance at her son's wedding — a cringe moment that no one seems to have understood — was one of their last straws that prompted Brooklyn to turn his back on his family altogether.

Can you consider something a scandal if you are the one fueling rumors? One of the scandals around David Beckham has to do with the nature of scandals themselves. When Brooklyn Beckham made his extensive social media exposé, he hinted at his parents' tendency to weaponize their own narratives by leaking stories to the press. And the family heir isn't the only one to reveal that. In his book "The House of Beckham: Money, Sex and Power," Tom Bower wrote about the period in which David and Victoria Beckham were having frequent and serious fights that pointed to a possible divorce. According to the author, both Victoria and David used their publicists to leak stories to the press in order to tarnish each other's reputation.

The book goes on to reveal that, in 2016, the couple went for each other's throats when their marriage was at its worst. So the question is: if Beckham is capable of doing this kind of thing to his wife and allegedly his kids, what might he do to others who aren't part of his social circle?