The Beckhams Recall "Blocked Out" Early Memories Of Baby Brooklyn In New Doc

When David and Victoria Beckham found out they were expecting their first child, son Brooklyn, together, in 1999, the soccer player was really going through it. England had just lost the World Cup to Argentina, and he was being blamed for it. From the stands to the streets, fans vitriol was downright abusive. At the same time, Victoria Beckham was still most often thought of as “Posh Spice” and dealing with her own issues in the press. The couple opened up about what it was like to become first time parents amid so much criticism and pressure in the Netflix documentary Beckham, and it got so bad that they both admit they’ve “blocked out” some of Brooklyn’s early years.

The dad of four was playing for Manchester United when he and then-girlfriend Victoria were expecting their first baby together. The Spice Girls singer went several weeks overdue with the baby, and she explained in the documentary that “in the end, they told me I had to have a Cesarean section” to deliver son Brooklyn. The British tabloids attributed this turn of events to snobbery and vanity, which infuriates her still. “I wasn’t ‘too Posh to push,’ I was told that it wasn’t safe for me to go into labor,’” she said in the documentary.

David was overwhelmed with love when he met Brooklyn... and press, who were waiting in front of the hospital. (He even asked his still-anesthitized partner to help do his hair for him so he could go tell them the baby had been born... which appears to be something the two think of as more goofy than rude.)

Because of all the press, David was also gripped with fear. “I all of a sudden thought, "how am I going to protect him?” he recalled. “That night Brooklyn slept next to Victoria, she said ‘come squeeze on the bed with me’ and I said ‘absolutely not,’ I slept with my head facing the door, because I was paranoid someone was going to steal him.” He was not paranoid, sadly. Victoria opened up about getting kidnap threats almost as soon as Brooklyn was born.

Because of the horrific attention both of them had been getting in the press, he couldn’t quite relax. “It's meant to be a happy moment, and it was a happy moment of course, but I was worried. I didn't want him to come into this life at a time when I was going through what I was going through.”

“These are all things that, now, it’s coming back to me,” she said in the documentary. “I realize why. I’ve found it quite stressful doing these interviews with you because I’ve blocked so much of it out, and I think David has as well ... imagine having a baby and having death threats.”

In addition to pervasive attention from the press and paparazzi, they also had to deal with abusive fans, including stadiums full of 75,000 football “fans” singing horrible songs about Victoria at David’s games as she sat there with her baby boy.

No wonder they had to block those experiences out of their minds.