Will Ted Beckham's heart attack end his bitter rift with son David?

[sharon_b]

Keeping vigil at the bedside of an ill parent is a particular kind of torture.
And David Beckham, who has flown from Los Angeles to be with his father Ted following his heart attack this week, finds himself in a situation which is as sad as it is emotionally fraught.

For until this crisis Ted, who moulded his son's love of football and was responsible for his early passion for Manchester United, has been very much cast out of David's life.

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Indeed, there was a time, four years ago, when they were scarcely on speaking terms, and David communicated with him through lawyers.

Since then, things have improved - in recent months there have been a series of transatlantic phone calls - but Ted, a phlegmatic kitchen-fitter and gas expert, has not even seen David and his family since they moved to LA in early July.

For various reasons - Ted's divorce from David's mother Sandra, his attitude to Victoria, his support for Sir Alex Ferguson and the book he wrote about his famous son - it is a long time since he was part of the Beckhams' circle of trust.

While Victoria's parents Jackie and Tony are on the couple's payroll and constantly in their lives, and even Victoria's make-up artist and hairdresser are virtually in permanent residence with them in LA, Ted has had to accept that there is no place for him in California.

"I have lost him,"he said, simply, when David moved from Old Trafford to Real Madrid.

Nothing much changed when the family crossed the Atlantic.

They are worlds apart. In recent weeks, while David and Victoria have commanded front pages with new haircuts and designer outfits, Ted was to be found dressed in a paint-spattered tracksuit having a pint at his local pub in Chingford, Essex, and shaking his head at the level of fame which surrounds them.

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On the town: David and Victoria


A family friend told the Mail yesterday: "As far as I know, Ted's not been to see them since they moved to America.

"The relationship is not so bad that they are not speaking - there has been contact.

"But they haven't been close for a while. David sees his sister Joanne, and his mum Sandra. His dad does not figure, and that's that.

"For now, everyone is rallying round Ted after his heart attack, and it is very concerning.'

Ted Beckham was last night "doing well" in intensive care after surgery, believed to be a heart bypass.


But at one point it seemed he would not survive. He "died" on the way to Whipps Cross Hospital in North-East London on Wednesday night when he "flatlined" as his heart stopped beating, and had to be revived by paramedics.

He then spent three hours in an emergency resuscitation room as doctors battled to save him, before emerging covered in a blanket and wired up to several machines.

He was then transferred to a central London hospital.

The family friend said: "It was terrifying when he was rushed to hospital.

"He had an operation at about 11am on Thursday and has come round. He is talking and joking - he seems to have his sense of humour back."

The source indicated Ted has a history of angina, and previously had a "mini heart attack."

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Pointless?: Victoria has been lambasted by US media


Victoria is flying in from the Far East, where she was promoting her own make-up range, to support David during the crisis.

This medical drama, then, is likely to have the effect of forging an immediate reconciliation between father and son, as such crises are wont to do. But what are the chances of a lasting truce?

And what, one wonders, does this fresh worry mean for David and Victoria, who are leading highly stressed and largely separate lives as it is?


Certainly their dream of freewheeling good times in the California sunshine has not been fulfilled. Indeed, things are so bad that even before his father fell ill, the couple were thinking of ways to return to the UK for an extended Christmas break.

Might this horrible jolt be the final straw for their American adventure?

For now, the answer has to be no. David is determined to fulfil his commitments to his new club LA Galaxy and, before his father fell ill, had just managed to settle in and make some friends among his team-mates.

On Tuesday night he was at LA's notorious Hyde nightclub with a gaggle of footballers, his white shirt gaping open, holding court on an ostrich skin banquette until 1am.


He has a knee injury which may rule him out for the rest of the season, but seems to have finally settled in LA, and wants to stay to prove the doubters wrong.


"A corner has been turned for David and he is more resolute that he will stay than ever," says a family friend.


"He feels very conscious that his injury is letting the club down, so he has been making lots of effort when it comes to flying around with the team for games and socialising with them afterwards.


"Victoria has been complaining that he's travelling all the time, and then that he's been spending too much "guy time" hanging out with the other boys.

"But the point is that being here was miserable for him at first, and the injury made it worse.

"He has been winning people over with his love of the game, and his dedication and disciplined behaviour."

These, of course, are qualities which were taught to him by his father.

Ted Beckham was a patient and tough mentor to his son, and moulded his extraordinary career.


Ted taught his son to follow Manchester United, and their mutual passion for the club was a strong bond. He bought his lad a replica kit every Christmas, and took him to see the club's London fixtures, which was a considerable financial sacrifice.

More significantly, he taught him how to play football. Ted, who had trials for Leyton Orient, took young David to the park after work nightly to hone his skills.

"All the strengths in my game are the ones Dad taught me in the park 20 years ago," David once said.

"We'd work on touch and striking the ball properly until it was too dark to see."

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Strained: But David is desperate to make LA work


Ted is said to have cried with pride when David signed for the United youth team, and he was a great one for drive and discipline, lecturing David about clean living and hard work.

So what went wrong? The first inkling of trouble in the relationship came when his son started dating Victoria Adams, at the height of her fame as a Spice Girl.
Ted was concerned. David was not a drinker, nor did he stay out late. Might his son's showbiz girlfriend lead him astray?

Also, as he forthrightly said: "I like normal people. I don't like stuck-up people."

His misgivings about Victoria were so serious that he was not thrilled when his son told him Victoria was pregnant with Brooklyn.


He didn't manage to hide his feelings, asking David if they weren't rather rushing into parenthood - they were not married and had been dating for less than a year.

It was, doubtless, not the reaction his son had hoped for. And although David was forgiving, inviting Ted to be at the private Portland Hospital in London for the birth of his grandson, and involving him intimately in their wedding in 1999, the relationship between father and son took on a downward trajectory from then.

Ted's plain speaking caused the relationship to deteriorate yet further.

When David took the day off training to care for Brooklyn, who was ill, Ted backed Sir Alex Ferguson, and told his son that his place was on the pitch.


Ted recalled later that David shouted: "Why do you always stick up for the boss?" His father replied: "Because he's right."

David was furious, and more so when his father happily spoke to reporters about the chances of his son leaving the club as his relationship with Fergie became unworkable.



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Problems: The Beckhams' move to LA has not been easy

Feeling that he couldn't trust his father to keep his mouth shut, Beckham left Ted in the dark about the move to Madrid in 2003.

Once he was there, little effort was made to repair the schism - Ted had to pay for his own flights to Madrid if he wanted to see his son.


On one occasion when he did, he let slip that he was disappointed because he actually saw David "for about five seconds" over the whole weekend.

Ted, who is not given to histrionics, mildly tried to explain away their drifting relationship by saying it was only natural, now that David had a family of his own and was focused on them.
"I don't think our new relationship is anything deliberate either on his or my part, it's just a fact of life," he said.

This was not quite the whole truth, however: David's relationship with Victoria certainly poisoned it, because the pair of them did not get on at all.

There was resentment from David when Ted divorced Sandra in 2001 - it's still not clear why they separated: Ted has only said that the relationship simply broke down.


Sandra ended up having to go to the High Court to secure some of the photographs and memorabilia from David's early playing career.

David took her side and felt that Ted, who had amassed the collection worth £3 million, had behaved unreasonably.

The publication in 2005 of an inoffensive coffee table book about David's career, written by Ted, was regarded as a betrayal by his son.


David's lawyers even contended that Ted did not own the copyright on the family photographs he wanted to use.

The Beckhams' relationship with Victoria's parents has also kept Ted distant from his son.


Tony and Jackie Adams are at the heart of Team Beckham - Tony is responsible for security and is a director of David's business interests; Jackie is a favoured babysitter and a "rottweiler" in looking after Victoria's interests.

Both draw salaries, and are flown on family business by private jet. Both have spent extended periods in America while David and Victoria have been settling in.

Ted, by contrast, has continued to work in Chingford. The only gift he has accepted from his son is a £20,000 Jaguar (Tony and Jackie were bought a £50,000 Range Rover and £80,000 Porsche).


He and David last saw each other in April, when David unexpectedly dropped by to see him at home.
They have been in touch since then with regular phone calls.

News of Ted's health crisis could hardly have come at a worse time for his son.


It adds to a long list of woes, among which are the re-emergence of Rebecca Loos and Victoria's apparently fragile state of mind.

Loos, whose affair with Beckham caused Victoria utter humiliation and distress, showed up at the start of this month in LA, amid reports that she was going to move permanently to the city to pursue career opportunities.

That was not true. She in fact continues to live in London and work in Spain - and only crosses the Atlantic for brief professional visits.

But she was in New York for fashion week - apparently hoping to bump into Victoria and cash in on her notoriety. In time, she is sure to succeed.

Victoria herself appears under increasing strain, with her eyes looking puffy beneath her bug-eyed sunglasses.

Recently, she was spotted having three large glasses of wine, and no dinner, at the Sunset Tower Hotel.

Mocked in the media as "pointless" - a magazine called her one half of "the most overhyped couple on the planet" - she is dreading preparations for the forthcoming Spice Girls reunion tour.

The group's manager, Simon Fuller, has told her to embark on a programme of aerobic exercise to build her fitness, but sources in LA indicate that she has felt too tired to make a start.

On top of that, both of her nannies have quit, and last month an intruder was caught by security cameras in the bushes of their Mediterranean-style home.

It seems this was a turning point for the couple, making them long for the comfort of their home and families in Britain. It made them, for the first time, plan a return to their sprawling mansion in Hertfordshire for a few weeks at Christmas.

Before Ted fell ill, Victoria was looking forward to the festive family break in Sawbridgeworth after a December 23 gig with the Spice Girls.

Now, she will get a chance to spend time at home sooner than that - and surely she and David will be strongly reminded that home and family are more important than anything else.

"Victoria has missed her family and friends rather more than she bargained for," suggested one friend.

"They will be back for a proper English Christmas. They have been homesick."

Suggestions that David and the children will stay on in Hertfordshire until the U.S. soccer season resumes in March seem wide of the mark, though.


He is needed for commercial duties for LA Galaxy, and the children are due back at their private school in Bel Air in January.

Victoria fought tooth and nail to get them in, and friends say she wouldn't dream of messing up her relationship with the school.

"Victoria is so determined to make the LA move work out," says a Beckham source.

"There's no way she will give up on their dreams out here. She intends to get over these problems.

"It's still early days and she will tell you that they just love it here, and that they may stay here for ever, even after the LA Galaxy contract ends.

"She is concentrating on the sunshine and the surfing, and trying to stay positive."

It's a far cry from the tickertape optimism of their early days, though.

Now, one wonders whether the gaunt face of one particular Essex gas fitter will put the Beckhams' American Dream in perspective more forcefully than anything else.



Will Ted Beckham's heart attack end his bitter rift with Becks? | the Daily Mail

[Chimera]

The old man sounds like a control freak to me. He should have accepted Victoria, who has given David 3 handsome and healthy sons, and he should never have betrayed David with tell alls (or whatever they were). That said, now is the time for Becks to breach the divide. Best wishes to them all!

[louiswinthorpe111]

First off, David's mother looks like a dude!

Second, why should the Dad have to "accept" Victoria? Maybe she was a total bitch and treated the Dad like shit? He shohuldn't have wrote the tell all about him, but I think there's more to the story here...