The cover image, which showed Victoria with the couple's four children, presented her as a single mother - most certainly not laying those marriage rumours to rest. Photo / Vogue
The cover image, which showed Victoria with the couple's four children, presented her as a single mother - most certainly not laying those marriage rumours to rest. Photo / Vogue
The proposal — a cover of British Vogue to celebrate ten years of the Victoria Beckham brand — must have seemed irresistible.
Here was a chance to lap up the prestige of the fashion world's bible, run by new editor Edward Enninful, whom Posh sees as a friend.
What could possibly go wrong?
What indeed.
Yesterday this potentially superlative piece of PR collapsed into a widely ridiculed publicity misfire which may be the final blow to the already-reeling Brand Beckham, according to the Daily Mail.
The cover image, which showed Victoria with the couple's four children, presented her as a single mother — most certainly not laying those marriage rumours to rest.
Worse was to come inside, with Victoria, 44, opting for bizarre corporate-speak to describe her marriage to former football star David, 43.
The cover image, which showed Victoria with the couple's four children, presented her as a single mother - most certainly not laying those marriage rumours to rest. Photo / Vogue
Although the magazine has yet to hit the newsstands, on Monday Vogue released a series of quotes from its interview with Victoria to whet its readers' appetites. In one, Victoria said: "We both realise that we are stronger together than we are as individuals.
"Would either of us be in the position that we are in now had we not met and been together all those years ago?
"It's all about the family unit. We are much stronger the six of us, than we would be if we were individuals. We respect that family bond, and that is key."
She will, of course, have had lots of time to think about and formulate what she wanted to say about her marriage.
However, saying they are "stronger together" — and by implication richer ("would either of us be in the position that we are in now") —rather fails to prove that the marriage is in great shape. Wouldn't it have been simpler just to say: "Actually, we still love each other"?
And the insistence on mentioning the six of them and the "family bond", while very sweet, again fails to address the thorny question of what kind of shape the marriage is really in.
Naturally, in this age of social media whirlwinds, there has been an immediate and resoundingly negative verdict, with thousands of online readers pouring scorn on Victoria's choice of words — and on David's absence from her moment of front cover glory.
The reaction was perhaps heightened because only last week some well-timed paparazzi photos of her nuzzling up to David on Elton John's yacht were published.
Again, thousands derided them as a publicity stunt, intended to paper over the apparent cracks in their 19-year union.
David agreed to be on the subscribers' cover but the result is a black-and-white image featuring the pair alone, both looking severe and with no interaction between them at all. Photo / Vogue
That her husband has now seemingly decided not to pose with her on the cover of Vogue (with family dog Olive standing in, and all four children showing their support) makes it all the worse.
So how on earth did the Beckhams drop the Goldenball?
It's doubly curious because each Beckham has their own PR adviser — David has Simon Oliveira while Victoria has Jo Milloy.
They are said to be paid £10,000 ($19,600) a month each to preserve and burnish Brand Beckham's image. Surely they must have had a hand in this high-profile media venture?
Maybe they did, because tellingly, a further press release was issued by Vogue. In this one, all statements about the marriage — including "stronger together" — were taken out.
Sources suggested yesterday that there was "panic" and "blame" in team Beckham over how badly the Vogue interview was playing out.
A source at Vogue's publisher, Conde Nast, said that the changes to the press releases were put in place with the Beckham advisers.
She said: "Obviously we work closely with all our talent across the board, so all teams were aware of the words going out, and they were approved in advance."
Asked whether there had been a problem with the quotes, she said: "There was no struggle between Vogue and the Beckham team — everything was agreed."
So why were the only statements concerning the Beckham marriage suddenly missing?
The source said: "It is a substantial interview and there is a lot of content. We tailor the releases to reflect that."
In truth, though, the latest adventure in Vogue seems to have been ill-fated from the start.
Rumours about the end of the marriage culminated in a social media frenzy which reached a peak in June when bookies suspended betting after widespread speculation that the couple were set to divorce.
Because both halves of the Beckham brand are constantly on social media, their time spent apart is glaringly obvious. Photo / Instagram
The gossip was bluntly denied by representatives for both, and the Beckhams moved on.
Within days, Victoria had posted pictures on her Instagram, where she has over 22 million followers, of her cuddling up to her husband at a fashion event for his Kent & Curwen brand. "So proud of you @davidbeckham," she wrote.
A few weeks later, she posted a picture of the two of them together at a London restaurant for their edding anniversary dinner. "19 years, I love you so much," she wrote.
However, the already planned Vogue shoot changed. David had insisted that he didn't want to be on the cover of the shoot, saying that because the interview was to mark his wife's ten years in fashion, he should steer clear. However, he agreed to be on the subscribers' cover — a version of the magazine with a different cover which goes to those who subscribe each month.
The result is a black-and-white image featuring David and Victoria alone, both looking severe and with no interaction between them at all.
"It's like two strangers sitting near each other in a public place and someone took a photo," commented one reader.
Numerous sources suggest that, though David is just as narcissistic as his wife, he doesn't like the way she constantly posts pictures of the family on social media.
A source said: "David deplores the way that the children are becoming famous . . . it makes him feel really uncomfortable."
This issue has him on a collision course with his wife, who has already launched the photography career of eldest son Brooklyn, 19, professionally hiring him to shoot her "Merch" sportswear collection.
She has also been building up Brooklyn's public profile, taking him as her date to numerous red-carpet events, rather than attending with her husband.
It's the same story with third child Cruz, who in 2016, aged only 11, released a Christmas single under the management of Justin Bieber's Svengali, Scooter Braun. Victoria made the introductions.
David was keen that it should remain "a bit of fun" and that Cruz, who is now 13, should step back out of the limelight afterwards.
However, Victoria shared a video of her son's "vocal warm-up" earlier this summer.
In fact, she constantly shares pictures of her family. "Love and kisses from us all," she wrote under a holiday snap from August 16.
"A night in with the boys", she captioned another picture. "Kisses from us all and happy summer," she wrote alongside a picture which yet again featured the children but not their father.
The Beckhams have used their supposedly perfect family to help engage in a series of commercial deals — but the public have long suspected that their credulity is being abused.
Those with long memories will recall Rebecca Loos, Beckham's former PA, telling all about a claimed affair with him while he was playing for Real Madrid in 2004.
The Loos eruption was just the first of many about the couple's alleged problems.
Subsequently, a beautician called Danielle Heath claimed to have had an affair with David, and the couple's nanny, Abbie Gibson, sold her story, revealing the couple's poisonous rows and saying Victoria had confided in her that she had considered separating.
Of course, the Beckhams denied these allegations, too.
Since then, there have been allegations over David's friendships with opera singer Katherine Jenkins and socialites Poppy Delevingne and Lady Mary Charteris.
For the record, all suggestions of impropriety have been denied.
However, even when David and his wife present a united front, such as at the Kent & Curwen fashion show in July, they arrived at the event separately and, in numerous images taken during the afternoon, they are calmly ignoring each other.
Indeed, for all her attempts to control the narrative, you can see why the gossip which insists that Victoria is hanging onto a disenchanted David continues.
In a picture posted to mark her birthday in April, she leans into him with a winsome smile, while he looks oddly stony-faced.
They say they are "stronger together" - and by implication richer ("would either of us be in the position that we are in now") - rather fails to prove that the marriage is in great shape.
At the Royal Wedding in May, while David beamed broadly to the cheering crowds outside St George's Chapel in Windsor, Victoria appeared utterly sombre. David flew off immediately afterwards to Japan, with Brooklyn.
The night before the wedding the three of them had been at private members' club Soho Farmhouse, which is just around the corner from their country house.
A friend who was also at the venue tells me he believes David and Victoria didn't speak to each other for hours, and that she had a "face like thunder".
At some point during the evening, David ended up buying shots for a stunning brunette. The woman took a selfie with Beckham and later tagged him in a post, writing: "Thanks for the shots." She has since deleted the picture.
So what does it all mean for David and Victoria? The fact is that they are diverging — in terms of friendships, career and lifestyle.
He is engaged in launching a football team in Miami, and has made multiple trips to the city for meetings, with so many to follow that it is thought he may buy a house there.
Victoria has accompanied him to Miami only once.
This year he has been twice to China on business, and also to Japan, again without his wife, but with his closest friends, sports agent Dave Gardner and his PR Simon Oliveira.
Because both halves of the Beckham brand are constantly on social media, their time spent apart is glaringly obvious.
Victoria spends much of her time at their West London mansion with the children, who are all (aside from Brooklyn) enrolled in private schools in the capital.
Her fashion business is based near their home and must take up a lot of her energies. Earlier this year, 60 staff were laid off and accounts reveal that a very real crisis is in progress.
At the Royal Wedding in May, while David beamed broadly to the cheering crowds outside St George's Chapel in Windsor, Victoria appeared utterly sombre. Photo / Getty Images
Victoria Beckham Limited lost a whopping £8.4 million ($16.4m) in 2016, according to its last set of accounts. Sadly for Victoria, this is not offset by the sound of ringing tills. Revenues were down £500,000 ($980,000), at £36.4m ($71.4) , when compared with the previous year.
For a second year running, David dipped into the wealth created by his own companies to shore up his wife's business, giving her £25m ($49m) from his company, DB Ventures, to Victoria Beckham Limited. No wonder she says they are "stronger together."
David loves to escape to enjoy the country life at Soho Farmhouse, hence the couple buying a series of converted barns nearby.
Victoria prefers their Holland Park home, which was refurbished to her specifications, including a huge dressing area, hair salon and nail bar.
Sometimes the parents are with their children separately — Victoria didn't actually attend Harper's much-criticised sixth birthday party at Buckingham Palace — organised by Sarah, Duchess of York — last year.
But is any of this enough to finish a marriage which started with such a vulgar flourish in a castle in Ireland in July 1999?
