We did threaten to split, admit Beckhams

By MATT BORN and LUKE SALKELD, Daily Mail

Last updated at 11:34 01 May 2005


David and Victoria Beckham have admitted that they threatened to split up during a furious row.

At a hearing in the High Court - where they succeeded in temporarily gagging their former nanny - the couple's lawyers acknowledged that the two argued and 'in the heat of the moment' even raised the prospect of separating.

However that did not mean their marriage was unhappy or a sham, they said. Indeed, the couple insisted they are 'happily married and very much in love'.

The Beckhams sent their lawyers to the High Court to try to gag their ex-nanny Abbie Gibson, 27, who told a Sunday newspaper that the England captain's marriage to the former Spice Girl was on the rocks.

Gibson - nanny to the Beckhams' sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, for two years until she resigned in March this year - also claimed that Beckham had an affair with Danielle Heath, his wife's former beautician.

The couple abandoned attempts to injunct Miss Gibson after she undertook not to disclose any new 'confidential' details about the Beckhams' private life.

Miss Gibson also agreed for the £125,000 she received from the News of the World to be frozen pending further legal action or a court order.

Miss Gibson free to repeat claims

However the Beckhams, who were not in court, failed in their attempt to prevent her saying anything at all about them to the media.

Mr Justice Eady said it would be futile given the extent to which last weekend's disclosures were already in the public domain.

The ruling means Miss Gibson is free to appear on television and repeat the claims she made on Sunday about the Beckhams' marriage.

The News of the World published her story after the couple failed in a last-minute bid to win an injunction. Then, the judge ruled the story was in the public interest because it exposed the 'hypocrisy' of the couple's public image as having a perfect marriage. The Beckhams' lawyers challenged that decision.

In legal documents presented to the court, their barrister Hugh Tomlinson, QC wrote: "They admit that, in common with the vast majority of married couples, they do have occasional arguments.

"The fact that a couple have arguments (and even the fact that one of the couple during one such argument might have said in the heat of the moment that they wanted to split up) does not mean that they are not actually happily married."

'It is uniquely hurtful and distressing'

He added: "The whole purpose of this is to try and prevent the claimants' private life being aired in public in an unauthorised way by a treacherous employee." Mr Tomlinson said Miss Gibson, who is on holiday in Spain, had signed a confidentiality agreement four times.

"She is the person who signed the agreement and was their confidante and intimate for two years. It is uniquely hurtful and distressing to have the person who until the end of March was sitting around the breakfast table with them and their children discussing their daily lives repeat that information."

In a statement, the Beckhams said the legal action was "unfortunate but necessary to protect the future privacy of our family".

It is understood the couple had already won a private undertaking from the News of the World that it would not be publishing any more of Miss Gibson's claims.

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