The world of celebrity culture has long been a source of fascination for many, with fans and the media alike avidly following the lives of their favourite stars. Beckham, the docuseries following the life and career of footballer David Beckham, was finally released on Netflix earlier this month. The four-part series has garnered many positive reviews and has also provided the audience with a much-anticipated discussion about David Beckham’s alleged 2003 affair with his then-assistant Rebecca Loos.
The beginning of the final episode retells this story from the Beckham family’s perspective. This comes almost 20 years after the initial allegations regarding an affair between Beckham and Loos were published in a tabloid newspaper in April 2004.
Breaking her silence on the alleged affair for the first time since 2007, Victoria Beckham discussed how this “was the hardest period” of their marriage, adding that it was “the most unhappy [she] had ever been”. The pair address how the media reaction to the allegations impacted their marriage and personal lives, while also keeping the details quite vague and never mentioning Loos by name.
Immediately after her story was published, Loos was faced with huge media and public backlash, with many claiming she made up the story and sold it to the media for personal gain. In 2013, Loos said that although she did not “regret speaking out”, she did regret how she addressed her alleged affair. As the story resurfaces following the release of Beckham, Loos is subjected to this negative media reaction all over again, this time with the added platform of social media; reacting to negative comments left on an Instagram post from the 1st of October, Loos says she is “taking in the nasty comments with as much humour as [she] can.”
This reaction to the almost two-decade-old alleged affair raises interesting questions regarding how the media treats women labelled as “mistresses” and the implications of this type of coverage.
News regarding the affairs of high-profile celebrities more often than not is highly sensationalised. Since their creation in modern media, tabloids and gossip columns have churned out headlines that feed on the scandalous nature of celebrity affairs, with the Beckham affair remaining on the front page of many of these publications for well over a week. This sensationalised retelling of the story often serves to objectify the “other woman”, reducing her to just a “mistress” rather than a complex individual; reflected in the countless “Who is Rebecca Loos?” articles, detailing her life only through the lens of the affair, available online.
The gender bias present in public and media reaction to high-profile affairs is a long-standing issue. Men who have affairs are simply labelled as such: men who have had an affair. Women, on the other hand, are quickly labelled as the ‘mistress’; a term with no male equivalent in the English language. Women involved in these affairs are often vilified and shamed by the media. The term ‘mistress’ has quickly become a dirty word, and with no male equivalent it leaves much of the blame placed on the unmarried woman involved in an affair with a married man.
Overall, media reaction to women in the role of ‘mistress’ is often a reflection of broader societal attitudes towards gender, sexuality and fidelity within relationships. It is essential to critically examine these reactions and consider how they contribute to or challenge traditional norms and stereotypes regarding the treatment of women in such situations.