Is there a British celebrity power couple more iconic that David and Victoria Beckham? When they first met in 1997, he was a world famous Manchester United player and she was one fifth of the Spice Girls: four kids and 24 years of marriage, they have solidified their status as A-list couple goals. In Netflix's new four-part documentary, Beckham about David Beckham's life, we're granted an insight into the early days of their relationship. And it's cuter than you could ever imagine.
It's easy to forget that David and Victoria simultaneously launched the celebrity footballer and WAG eras, and for that we have a lot to thank them for. Not least their penchant for double denim and their passion for personalised number plates. Here's what we've learnt from a sneak peek at the doc...
David fell for Victoria watching the Wannabe video
When you're as famous as these two, it's hard to pinpoint exactly when they first laid eyes on each other. But David remembers noticing Victoria in the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe' music video.
He said to his team mate Gary Neville, 'See that one there, I'm gonna marry that one. The posh one, the one in the black dress.' And Gary later says, 'I suppose a lot of blokes have done that, looked at the television and said "I like her". But they don't f*cking end up with them.'
So when David found out that Posh and Sporty Spice had come to watch his charity football match in March 1997, 'I thought: great'.
And when the pair finally met in the footballer's lounge after the game, their connection was instant. 'I just fancied her', David says in the doc. Victoria confirms: 'We just fancied each other, it was as simple as that.'
They had to meet secretly in car parks
David and Victoria had to keep their romance a secret for the first three months to ward off paparazzi. Victoria said, 'We would meet in car parks – and that's not as seedy as it sounds.' David remembers, 'my first kiss that I ever had with Victoria was in my BMW in a car park. Classy.'
Slowly but surely, the paparazzi started to cotton on to their romance, and then they wouldn't leave them alone.
David remembers buying Victoria a Cartier watch and photographers then saw her wearing it and started to piece things together. One of the biggest giveaways though – as the archive footage kindly reminds us – was the couple's personalised 'DVB' number plate.
Of course, two global superstars falling in love was the perfect bait for paparazzi. Within months, their relationship created a media storm and they were on the front page of every paper. As Gary Neville puts it, 'they were the new Charles and Diana in some ways' but admits 'it pains me to say that.'
David teases Victoria about her 'working class' roots
There's a point in episode one where Victoria says, 'We both come from families who worked really hard, both of our parents worked really hard. We're very working class' and David barges in from the next room and shouts, 'be honest!'
He then said, 'What car did your dad drive you to school in?' and forces Victoria to admit that her dad 'drove a Rolls Royce in the 80s'.
David would drive hours to spend a few minutes with Victoria
And as soon as the couple hit it off, David remembers thinking 'this is it. And it's gonna move fast.' Gary Neville also remembers that time and said they were on the phone to each other every chance they could – 'he was like an addict'.
David added, 'I didn't care where I saw her, when I saw her. If it was me driving down to London to see her for seven minutes, I did it.'
He even hired a plane to see her...
Victoria remembers, 'He would do anything to see me. He would sometimes charter a tiny plane – literally a two seater – to see me for a few hours then go back.'
David credits Victoria with 'spurring him on' when he was facing backlash
'Everything about Victoria, I loved,' David told director Fisher Stevens. 'I didn't know [then] she was the strong woman that she was. And I liked that. I don't know if it was because I wanted her to look after me... She's a strong, strong woman... She can be a pain in the arse though.'
Looking back at a difficult period for David following England's loss in the 1998 World Cup, Fisher Stevens asks: 'Did Victoria give you confidence outside of football?' to which David confidently responds, 'Yeah. And I needed it at the time.' He also says he couldn't have done it without her <3
When David was sent off with a red card during said match, and England later lost on penalties, it was David's mistake that got the blame. In the year that followed, he faced abuse wherever he went – booing, effigies, death threats, cartoons in every newspaper and insults on every street.
Victoria says she tries to block that period out but admits, 'I still wanna kill those people'.
Victoria revealed she was pregnant the night before David's infamous World Cup match
The night before the infamous World Cup match against Argentina in 1998, Victoria called David to tell him she was pregnant with Brooklyn.
And when the first mini Beckham finally arrived in 1999 (luckily David was present for it), the famous footballer was told to go outside the hospital and announce the birth like he was a royal baby.
David remembers getting ready for the appearance: 'They told me to go out and announce it and say the name, the weight and that Victoria's doing fine.' But Victoria remembers David coming up to her in the hospital bed, when she was numb from the waist down, and saying, 'Can you do my hair?'