Victoria Beckham is on holiday, at a retreat of sorts. Uploading an Instagram story of her strolling along the outskirts of the Black Forest, gazing over beautiful vistas, as well as a selfie of her on a hike, she’s shouted out The Brenners Park medi-spa hotel, an Oetker Collection Hotel (no relation to the frozen pizza company). Why must you know this? Is this just an advert for a hotel? Why does Victoria Beckham’s holiday warrant such scrutiny?
Well, because here is a glimpse into Victoria Beckham’s soul. And her soul, as we read it, is saying that she’s returning to a very important part of her life. Not her wedding anniversary, just over 19 years ago. Not the birth or conception of her children (that we know of), not the time she launched her design career, not the time the Spice Girls won a bunch of awards and entertained delighted girls the world over. No, but the time that the WAGs came into existence. Because the hotel Victoria Beckham is staying at is in Baden-Baden, the birth of the WAG as we know, and love and cherish them.
The World Cup 2006 was held in Germany, and England manager Sven Göran Eriksson made the brilliant decision of allowing wives and girlfriends (WAGs) to accompany the 23-man squad to their base camp, in Baden-Baden. The spa town (Bad is German for ‘bath’, FYI), thanks to the WAGs and their drama, became home to a tabloid sensation.
Victoria Beckham (David’s +1), Cheryl (Ashley Cole’s then girlfriend), Coleen McLoughlin (now Rooney) Elen Rives (then-girlfriend of Frank Lampard), Carly Zucker (now Joe Cole’s wife), Abbey Clancey (now married to Peter Crouch), Alex Curran (Steven Gerrard’s soon-to-be wife), Vanessa Perroncel (Wayne Bridge’s then-wife) and Toni Terry (John’s wife), drew headlines simply by hanging out, being fabulous, ridiculous and - shock! - spending money. Meanwhile Melanie Slade, Theo Walcott’s girlfriend, was studying for her A-Levels, so stayed in another hotel down the road.
While all the men-folk were slogging away trying to focus on ‘the game’ and ‘the win’, Vanessa allegedly dropped £4,000 in an hour in one shop, Elen was spotted drunk at Garibaldi’s bar, dancing on a table and belting out ‘I will survive’, Coleen brought a tanning consultant along and Victoria, it was rumoured, packed 30 pairs of jeans for the June trip.
For Victoria to return to not only Baden-Baden, but the very same £1000-a-night hotel she stayed at in 2006, could be read as a symbolic renewing of vows. Not to David, but to herself, as the sort of woman who will - allegedly - take 30 pairs of jeans on a July holiday. The sort of woman who wore big bug-eye glasses, Barbarella hair, titchy shorts and pirate boots with no shits given. She's not just getting away from it all, but getting to the root of herself. After all, she recently toldVogue that on another recent solo trip to the hotel, after feeling ‘really emotional’ about the distance between her and her kids, she eventually settled in to the wellness vibe of the spa, ‘just being kind and looking after me'.
Besides, just after David has gone on the record in an Australian interview to say that their marriage is ‘hard work’ and has become more complicated with time, she deserves some R&R.