Embracing her new beau aboard a yacht near Portofino, the jewel of the Italian Riviera, 23-year-old Victoria Adams’ huge smile says it all: this is “The One.”
And David Beckham, still a rising star at Manchester United, seems to feel the same, gazing adoringly at the young woman who would become his wife, for 25 years and counting.
Sources close to Victoria say the intimate photo was taken on the couple’s first romantic trip away in 1997, and remains one of the Beckhams’ favourite photos.
Just a few months after David and Victoria first met, this Italian getaway lasted no more than 48 hours.
The intimate image of Victoria and David, shared on Instagram by the former Spice Girl, was taken at the chic Italian resort of Portofino on one of the couple’s first romantic getaways.
Victoria shared another image from the trip and named her debut fragrance after the resort.
But the moment is so firmly etched in their memories that they have decided to return to the Mediterranean to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary tomorrow.
Indeed, the Mail can reveal that after a small family gathering in the morning, David and Victoria will jet off to their multi-million pound yacht to begin what friends are describing as a “super special” holiday lasting several weeks to celebrate what has become a remarkable partnership.
The Beckhams, once derided as boorish and careerist, have not only stood up to their critics but have, over the years, established themselves at the heart of national life: the legendary footballer, who is now on friendly terms with King Charles himself (an ambassador for his charities), and the respected fashion designer, together said to be worth around £455m.
A friend of the couple told the Mail: ‘That short break to Portofino cannot be underestimated – it’s a very special memory for David and Victoria.
A friend of the couple told the Mail: “It seems like they’ve come full circle (from the Portofino trip)… they were just getting started, really.” Pictured on a countryside walk in 2020
‘They were alone and enjoyed every second. It was a key moment for them. Although they insist a lot that they fell in love at first sight, Portofino was the place where their relationship really took off.
‘They were so young and so excited about their love for each other. At that moment, they really knew they wanted to get married.
‘So when it came time to decide what they were going to do for their big anniversary, they decided it would be something very similar to that.
“It seems like they’ve come full circle since then. Although they were very famous compared to 1997, they were really just getting started.”
Of the two, in fact, Spice Girl Victoria, still affectionately known as ‘Posh Spice’, was the more famous.
Tomorrow they will fly to the Mediterranean and meet up with their own yacht, which they have brought from Miami, where it is usually docked.
In fact, such is the importance of Portofino to their relationship that Victoria, 50, named her debut fragrance after the resort.
Holding her son Brooklyn, Victoria gives David a kiss after he helped her team win the Premier League title at Old Trafford, Manchester, in May 2000.
The couple in their first major television interview in 2001, where they joined Michael Parkinson for his BBC One talk show.
Just a few days ago she wrote on Instagram that: ‘Portofino in 1997 was a very, very romantic trip. I remember how excited I was to be there with David for the first time.
“The intensity of being together for 48 hours was truly incredible.”
This time, however, there will be some differences.
For a start, their yacht, unlike the one back then, belongs to them. Friends say the Beckhams are proud to own the £18m boat and see it as a sign of how far they have come in the world.
Christened ‘Seven’ (his daughter Harper’s middle name and in homage to David’s number 7 Manchester United shirt), his own boat is a massive silver Riva 130 Bellissima measuring around 130 feet (40 metres) long.
Sleeping ten guests in five suites, it was built in a shipyard in La Spezia, just south of the coast at Portofino. The Beckhams had previously owned a smaller Riva Argo 90, which cost £5m.
A friend said: ‘It’s something they bought for pure pleasure, they worked very hard for that money and it’s where they spend happy times now.
‘So why not celebrate your anniversary on board?’
Of course, it won’t just be the two of them; their four children are expected to accompany them.
David Beckham and Posh Spice with their son Brooklyn days before their wedding in 1999
The couple will be joined by their four children at the celebration of their silver wedding anniversary. Pictured, from left to right: Cruz, Harper, David and Victoria, Romeo, Brooklyn and Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz.
Friends say they like to celebrate special moments with the whole clan.
Their 12-year-old daughter Harper, who has just finished school for the summer, will join her parents on the plane to the Mediterranean tomorrow.
Older brothers Romeo, 21, and Cruz, 19, are also in the UK and are believed to be joining their parents for the holiday.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Beckham, 25, and his wife Nicola Peltz are likely to fly out of Los Angeles at some point during the trip.
There will be no grand party to mark the silver wedding anniversary, in contrast to Victoria’s 50th birthday celebrations earlier this year, when she hosted a lavish bash at the exclusive Mayfair members’ club Oswald’s.
Instead, tomorrow will begin with that small family gathering at their £25m home in Holland Park, west London.
There they will have an exchange of gifts and cards.
“The kids always go the extra mile at times like these,” said a source close to the family. “David and Victoria’s hearts melt when they see the effort the kids have made for them.”
Though the longevity of their partnership stands out in a world of short-lived celebrity marriages, some early critics doubted the Beckhams would ever reach such a milestone anniversary.
Along the way, they survived both the scandal over David’s dalliance with his former assistant, Rebecca Loos, and national vilification when, playing for England, he was sent off against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup. (Beckham’s petulant kick at an opponent was widely regarded as having cost England the game.)
Their romance began in the players’ lounge at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium in March 1997. Victoria was there with fellow Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm.
Once regarded as clumsy and opportunistic, the Beckhams have not only stood up to their critics but have, over the years, established themselves at the heart of national life.
“She came to a football game and I waved at her from across the room and that was it,” David recalls of their first meeting. “I thought I’d missed my chance and a week later she showed up at another football game.”
After chatting for about an hour, Victoria wrote her phone number on the train ticket she had bought to travel to the game, a ticket David has kept to this day.
Soon crowned ‘Posh and Becks’, the couple got engaged in January 1998. Four months later they learned that Victoria was pregnant with their first child.
A year later, when baby Brooklyn was just six months old, the Beckhams tied the knot in one of the most glitzy showbiz weddings of the time after OK! magazine editor Richard Desmond offered them £1m for exclusive rights to cover the ceremony and ensuing celebrations at Luttrellstown Castle, a 14-room fairytale castle on the outskirts of Dublin.
Gary Neville, David’s friend and teammate, was best man. Victoria had three bridesmaids: her sister Louise, Louise’s daughter Liberty, who was 13 months old at the time, and David’s niece Georgina, who was 16 months old. Brooklyn was the ring bearer.
Guests at the wedding included some of Victoria’s Spice Girls, Elton John, George Michael and the Manchester United team.
On her wedding day in 1999, Victoria wore a Vera Wang gown with a 20-foot train that took 15 months to make.
The bride wore a strapless Vera Wang gown with a sweeping 20-foot train.
The painstaking 15-month process included two initial consultations and six fittings in New York and London.
Victoria complemented the dress with a crown-shaped tiara made of 18-carat gold and diamonds valued at 30,000 pounds sterling.
The ceremony, presided over by the Bishop of Cork, took place in a chapel at the castle. Victoria and David later dressed in matching purple outfits for the reception, where they drank champagne and dined on red pepper and tomato soup, chicken with garlic and sage, asparagus and a mix of summer vegetables.
“No one had ever seen David happier,” one of the guests told me. “He kept telling everyone how lucky he was and that he and Victoria were going to be together forever.”
Something that they seem to have known since their first vacation on the Italian Riviera so many years ago.
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