A rift between the couple has been noticed in some showbiz circles. Photo / Mark Robert Milan, GC Images)
A rift between the couple has been noticed in some showbiz circles. Photo / Mark Robert Milan, GC Images)
What a picture of misery the Beckhams appear to be. Whenever they are together in public - and these days that doesn't happen often - they could hardly look less happy.
Entering Victoria's London boutique to celebrate the shop's first anniversary party earlier this week, both wore expressions somewhere between irate and thunderous.
And on their way out, nearly six hours later, with Posh pale, unsteady on her feet and sporting an unsightly wet patch on her jeans, David Beckham seemed crosser still, appearing to drag his wife out by the wrist.
"He looked angry, bordering on aggressive, about something and she seemed about to topple over," said an observer.
"Given her high heels and dark glasses you would expect him to be trying to steady her, but he wasn't. His fists were clenched and he was staring ahead."
Inside the party, of course, both managed to smile. She plugged his Haig brand whisky, which was served throughout the night, with a picture on Instagram, while he posted a picture of her saying that he was 'proud' of all that this 'little lady' had achieved.
Business, it seems, is business - and whatever is going on between them in their marriage, care is always taken to keep Brand Beckham afloat.
This week's pictures, however, will serve only to increase the rumours that all is not well between them. It has certainly been noticed in some showbiz circles that Posh and Becks are leading increasingly separate lives.
One suggestion is that the couple could move the whole family back to Los Angeles in an attempt to rekindle their marriage.
An insider told me: "The Beckhams' marriage has always been gossiped about and of course a lot of what is said about them isn't true.
"Any marriage takes work and when you've been together for as long as David and Victoria have, and you're living your life under a public microscope, there are always going to be testing times.
Rumours are circling that the glamour couple are drifting apart. Photo / AP
"It's true that they don't seem to be very happy at the moment. At the party David appeared stressed and on edge, while Victoria looked to me like she was tipsy. She is also looking very thin - which is telling as her weight always plummets when she and David are going through a rocky patch."
So what is going on in this marriage of 16 years?
Within 24 hours of their uncharacteristically shambolic exit from the party, David was on his way to New York - yet another business trip undertaken with his best pal Dave Gardner, who is on the payroll of Beckham's management team. Victoria remained in London with their four children.
Whatever the state of their marriage something the couple are both hopeful about is that David will pick up his longed-for knighthood in the New Year's honours list.
For while Beckham had been recommended for the honour by the committee which oversees awards to sports stars in late 2013, following an explosive row with the main honours committee, the notion was dismissed.
The prospect, however, has not gone away and it is apparently the dearest wish of both of them that they become Sir David and Lady Victoria.
One source, intimately connected to the family, told me the marriage is not conventional and that they are apart a lot.
Jo Milloy, the Beckham's publicist, insists there is no reason to fear for the marriage.
"It's nonsense," she said. "Full stop."
What is different now, though, is that David is increasingly happy to do his own thing.
Coupled with the differences in their personalities - he is "very vain, very confident", I'm told, whereas she is "horribly insecure" - the gap between them is widening.
His embarrassingly flirtatious interview with breakfast TV host Susanna Reid this week is a case in point. Reid remarked how hot it was in the room - at which he complimented her on her 'amazing dress' - and she blushed and giggled.
What humiliation for Victoria, who detests it when women flirt with her husband. Yet David didn't seem to mind a bit.
A social acquaintance of the couple insists David has taken to flirting more openly - she spotted him doing so with an internationally famous model this summer (Posh was absent) and was surprised that he wasn't more discreet.
He certainly has a busy social life without his wife. He went to the Baftas in London without her in February and is a regular at the Arts Club in Chelsea.
It was there, in 2012, that he infamously spent a few hours chatting to opera singer Katherine Jenkins - an encounter she later made explosively public by denying they had been intimate.
And of course Victoria, 41, did not accompany him to film director Guy Ritchie's wedding to model Jacqui Ainsley this July. The reasons for this are moot. Victoria cancelled at the last minute, saying it was because four-year-old daughter Harper had fallen ill.
Photo / AP
It is said that she wasn't keen on the event because she doesn't like Guy Ritchie's young, hard-drinking crowd, especially actor Jason Statham and his girlfriend Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
A source said: "It's no secret among those who are close to David that Victoria isn't close to some of his friends. It's caused tension between them lately, which they've tried to keep a lid on. She's not a fan of him hanging around Jason and Rosie in the same way she apparently didn't like his friendship with Charlize Theron a few years back."
Bizarrely, David returned from Guy Ritchie's wedding at just the time that Victoria was jetting out of LA on business. Her flight arrived 14 minutes before his left.
A friend said: "Victoria's in charge of all the family's travel arrangements and she may have been making a point."
The point being, presumably, that he ought not to have gone and had such a jolly good time without her.
It is fair to say that this habit of spending time apart started early in the marriage.
David famously went to Madrid to play football in 2004 and Victoria declined to go. An alleged affair with his sexy PA, Rebecca Loos, followed. When David went to play in Milan in 2009 again Victoria opted not to relocate the family. After the couple moved to America for David's football there was a feeling they would be together more, however this coincided with Victoria launching herself as a fashion designer.
She now routinely travels around the world, particularly to the Far East, for promotional work.
This year she was in New York alone on Valentine's Day, and Beijing alone on Mother's Day. She has also taken a solo trip to Singapore.
And the distance between them has apparently grown only greater.
This summer, for instance, the entire family decamped to their LA house for the school holidays.
David was plainly on Daddy duty, taking the children out to restaurants, the beach, the cinema and the gym. He was quite often seen with chef Gordon Ramsay, his closest pal in LA, and with Gordon's family, especially his wife, Tana, but hardly at all with Victoria. The fact, acknowleged by them both, is that since he retired from football in 2013, the dynamic in the marriage has changed significantly.
Victoria felt it was "her turn" to be in the spotlight and that David ought to be content with the role of a house husband. He told chat show host James Corden during the summer that he spent all his time with the children.
Actually, David hasn't been at leisure - far from it. He has picked up a breathtaking range of commercial deals, flogging cars, drinks, bikers' leather, underpants and even insurance. Many of his biggest clients are in the Far East, and he travels there often.
He is negotiating to launch a soccer team in Miami - a massive undertaking which will involve spending long periods in the city. He has also developed a love of motorbikes - a hobby which excludes his wife, who hates them.
Meanwhile, Victoria has stepped up her work. She was already in the habit of putting in 17-hour days in her fashion business and making Skype calls at 4am.
Now I can reveal she is planning to open stores in Hong Kong and Dubai over the next 12 months, plus she will also launch a shoe line. And she has looked at premises in Miami, LA and New York with a view to opening in those cities, too.
Given that they are already both globally famous with a £240 million fortune, you might wonder why they feel compelled to work so hard.
It's a discussion which David, 40, apparently had with Tana Ramsay. Over the summer the two of them started having fitness sessions together at SoulCycle in LA, and would have a healthy juice and a heart-to-heart afterwards.
He has also, apparently, been speaking with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who has sung the praises of the amicable divorce he and Gwyneth Paltrow went through.
A source said: 'Chris was saying how great things are now he and Gwyneth have officially split up. Their marriage had been over behind closed doors for years and the pressure of living a lie was destroying them both, but all that resentment has evaporated and they're all happier than ever now.
"David was fascinated, but he's a very traditional guy."
One thing David and Victoria are agreed on is that they miss their old lives in LA. A hint was dropped recently when they were observed looking over Madonna's old house in the city, which they didn't like enough to make an offer on.
Instead they are attracted by the idea of buying a plot by the sea, perhaps in Malibu, and building a dream beach house there.
"The kids love surfing and Victoria really loves LA, she has never been happier than when she is there,' says a source. 'They love the lifestyle, and have a solid base of friends.
"David's going to have to be in America a lot more when his soccer team in Miami takes off, so if she wants to see any of him she will have to move, too.
"The thinking is that they will go at the end of this year or at the start of next. Victoria is keen to bring Harper up with the warmth and freedom that they have in LA."
Will it be the tonic to put a smile on those faces? We shall have to wait and see.
