David Beckham so scared of kidnap threats he slept outside Brooklyn's door

01 October 2023 , 23:01

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David and Victoria Beckham have four children, but the birth of Brooklyn was eventful

Worried David Beckham slept on the floor by the hospital door on the night his son Brooklyn was born - after death threats gave him fears over his family's safety.

At the time the former England captain was hated by a section of the public for his World Cup red card against Argentina in 1998 and he was regularly abused in the street, with one crazed fan even sending a bullet in the post to Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium.

Reflecting on that time and the birth of first child Brooklyn in March 1999 at London's Portland hospital, Beckham said: "The moment he came out, I all of sudden thought 'how am I going to protect him?'. "That night Brooklyn slept next to Victoria. Victoria was like 'come on squeeze on the bed with me’ and I was like 'absolutely not, I'm sleeping with my head against the door'. “Because I was paranoid that someone was gonna steal him.

David Beckham was hated by the public after his red card in the World Cup (AP)

David slept on the hospital floor against the door (Getty Images)

"It's meant to be a happy moment. And it was a happy moment of course. But I was worried. "I didn't want him to come into this life, at a time where I was going through what I was going through." Victoria added: "We were getting kidnapping threats, right from when we had Brooklyn. "I mean, you can't even explain how that feels, because we couldn't hide."

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And Beckham said: "When there were kidnap threats, that was when it got scary." The fallout of the red card occupies a large section of the new Netflix documentary series about 48-year-old Beckham. He turned things around on the pitch with the help of his club manager Sir Alex Ferguson although he admits in the programme he still beats himself up about the red card now and never received any therapy for the backlash.

Instead he says he "blocked out" all the negativity. Looking back, Beckham added: "It had been such an emotional and draining season. I wouldn't have got through that moment if I hadn't been at a club like Manchester United. "But she was the biggest reason that I got through that time. I was married to Posh Spice, my life had become something different."

■Four-part series Beckham will launch on Netflix on Wednesday

Mark Jefferies