The 48-year-old retired soccer player remembers going through a dark time when he was facing intense backlash following England's loss in the 1998 World Cup.
- Oct 2, 2023
AceShowbiz - David Beckham has never sought therapy despite suffering depression so severe he couldn't eat. The 48-year-old was depressed after his infamous expulsion from an England game against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup led to him being blamed for the loss of the match and made him a UK hate figure - which included an effigy of him being hung outside a pub in Britain.
To the Daily Telegraph, he explained that his upbringing - in which he was taught to "get on with it" - partly led to him never seeking out counselling to deal with the trauma.
David, who has four children with his former Spice Girls singer wife Victoria Beckham, 49, said about avoiding opening up about the depression sparked by the '98 incident, "It's something I would never admit, because I was brought up by a dad who, if I said, 'Dad, I'm feeling a bit low today,' he'd have said, 'Boy, get on with it.' "
"But I was (depressed). I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping. I was living day to day thinking about what was coming next. People were saying I should leave the country. It was tough."
He added about the concept of getting help from a therapist, "People have mentioned it, and I think therapy is a good idea - in this day and age you hear more about sports stars going to have therapy, and how much it helps.
"But I was brought up in the East End of London. If I'd said to my dad, 'I need therapy', he'd have said, 'What for?!' So I put my head down and worked harder."
David, now one of the owners of the Inter Miami football team, has been a mental health advocate for years. He first opened out about his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder in 2006, which leads to him sticking to habits including perfectionist straightening of objects and cleaning.
In his upcoming Netflix documentary "Beckham", which will be released on Wednesday, September 4, he says he spends hours tidying after his family go to bed.
He added, "I clean it so well, I'm not sure it's actually appreciated so much by my wife, in all honesty. The fact that when everyone's in bed I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy. I hate coming down in the morning and there's cups and plates and, you know, bowls."
