David and Victoria Beckham Deny Their Marriage Is A Sham

Britain's answer to Brangelina, couple David and Victoria Beckham settled their two-year "sham marriage" libel case yesterday, March 9 for an undisclosed amount. The action was brought against Britain's "News of the World" newspaper who ran claims their marriage was simply a business arrangement.

The Beckhams had vowed they would fight the case and both could have gone into the witness box. But the libel action would have cost more than $ 500,000 and possibly embarrassing details of their private life were likely to have been made public.

The couple even agreed to pay the legal costs of the "News of the World" to get out of the case. The Sunday newspaper's article was based on allegations made by David and Victoria's former nanny Abbie Gibson, in 2004, claiming the couple was "cynically and hypocritically" pretending their marriage was perfect to save their multi-million pound "Brand Beckham" empire.

The article described how the marriage was a "sham" and had brought David close to a nervous breakdown and made Victoria ill while she was expecting their third son, Cruz. It claimed how 31-year-old Victoria had called her husband "an Essex yob" and that the only reason they were together was because of sponsorship deals.

The report came amid allegations that the England captain had affairs with his former personal assistant, 27-year-old Rebecca Loos, 23-year-old beautician Danielle Heath, and 28-year-old model Esther Canadas. All would have been willing to give evidence in the case and this would have been very upsetting for the couple. So they pulled themselves out of the lawsuit.