David Beckham has responded to the dating rumours between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, saying that the US pop star “deserves to be happy”.
Swift, 33, has sparked a new wave of media attention in recent weeks following reports that she is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Kelce, 33. Her attendance at the last two Chief’s games has stirred the furore.
Former England football captain Beckham, 48, who experienced similar attention early in his relationship with Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham, 49, addressed the “noise around Taylor”.
“Taylor is an amazing talent and she’s an amazing person and she deserves to be happy,” he said from the red carpet at the London premiere of his new Netflix docu-series, Beckham.
“And whatever she does, and whoever she’s with, as long as she’s happy that’s the most important thing,” Beckham added. “It’s the same with me and Victoria. We’ve been together now for 26 years, almost three decades.”
He continued: “We’ve got amazing kids, we’ve built businesses, but we make time for each other. We respect each other and we love our kids.
“You have to work hard at these things and yes, we’ve been together for a long time.”
The couple, who got married in 1999, share four children: Brooklyn, 24, Romeo, 21, Cruz, 18, and Harper, 12.
David and Victoria Beckham— (AP)
Beckham follows the former midfielder’s rise to football stardom through interviews with Beckham and Victoria and other famous faces.
The new Netflix documentary will also see him discuss a period of depression he went through in the late 1990s after being sent off in the 1998 World Cup.
Beckham became a target for abuse when he received a red card in the game against Argentina.
Reflecting on opening up about these difficult moments, Beckham said on the red carpet: “I wanted to do it right. I’m never going to do a live documentary again.”
He also said that making the documentary was part of his process of healing from these challenge moments.
“I never really sat down and talked about it in such detail. Obviously my family and friends knew what I went through personally and professionally,” he explained. “But sitting down and going through it in detail or looking at the archive and looking at stuff that I’d properly never seen before, that was quite difficult.
“And then realising how difficult it was at the time, on the pitch and off the pitch.
“So it was a really difficult time, but I suppose this is all part of the healing process.”
Beckham is released on Netflix on Wednesday 4 October.
Additional reporting by Press Association
