Rebecca Loos

Rebecca Loos (born Rebecca Loos Bartholdi; 19 June 1977) is a Spanish-born Anglo-Dutch glamour model and media personality, who came to media attention following claims that she conducted an affair with the married footballer David Beckham while employed as the Beckham's personal assistant. These allegations made her into a media personality, and she has since appeared on several reality television series, magazine covers and in other media.

Personal life

Loos was born in Madrid, Spain, but has Dutch citizenship.^[1] Her father was Leonard Loos Bartholdi, a Dutch diplomat, and her mother, Elizabeth Loos, is originally from Surrey, England.^[2] Growing up, she was privately educated at Runnymede College in Madrid. After moving back to Madrid in 2002, Loos worked for an American investment bank. She is a second cousin of Piers Morgan.^[3]

When the former England football captain David Beckham moved to Real Madrid, Loos became his personal assistant during the transition period, alongside SFX agent and the former Australian international footballer Andy Bernal, who spoke Spanish fluently.

Beckham and Loos worked closely together both professionally and socially,^[4] and Loos claimed that she became an "alternative wife." Victoria Beckham was initially not happy in Madrid and wanted to develop her UK music career, so she spent much of her time in England. Loos claimed this resulted in Beckham becoming bored, leading them to spend almost all their time together socially, and a four-month affair was reportedly the result. Victoria Beckham was quoted in W magazine saying the claims only made their marriage stronger.^[5]

In April 2004, British tabloid newspaper News of the World published a story claiming that Loos and Beckham had an affair.^[6] Beckham never mounted a legal challenge to this story. Shortly after the newspaper coverage of her relationship with Beckham, Loos came out publicly as bisexual, saying, "I am indeed bisexual and have been ever since I was a teenager."^[7]

In 2005, to protest against America's laws on gay marriage, Loos married American fashion model Jenny Shimizu for the television programme Power Lesbian UK.^[8] It was broadcast in the United States as Power Lesbians on LOGO which profiled successful lesbians in Los Angeles. The two had a relationship for a period thereafter.

Loos moved to Norway in 2009 and lives there with her husband Sven Christjar Skaiaa.,^[6][9] two sons, Magnus (b. Oslo 17 July 2009) and Leo (b. 2011), and their two dogs. She now works for the commercial production company Rollo Tomasi. In a television interview in March 2013, she said that she would never be able to forgive her husband if he had an affair, a drunken one-night stand possibly but not an affair. "It's a topic that often comes up when I'm out with my girlfriends," she said. "An accidental drunk one-night stand is maybe easier to forgive than constant lying and sneaking behind the back, I would never be able to forgive that."^[10]

Career

In 2004, Loos briefly was a hostess on the Dutch TV programme Shownieuws (along with the former Eurovision Song Contest singer Gerard Joling who represented the Netherlands in 1988.)

In October 2004, she appeared on the reality television programme The Farm, a Channel 5 version of the RTE show Celebrity Farm, in the course of which she masturbated a boar to collect its semen.^[11] The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals accused producers of pandering to a “morbid and sordid fascination with farm animals” while PETA and Mediawatch-uk demanded the show be taken off the air.

In 2005, Loos appeared on the ITV network "reality" TV show Celebrity Love Island.

In 2006, she played for the England Women's football team in a Sky TV charity event. In April of the same year, Loos ran the London Marathon, and raised more than £7,000 in sponsorship for the British Red Cross, and later in May appeared in The X Factor: Battle of the Stars along with James Hewitt – in which she famously received a negative reception from judge Sharon Osbourne and the show's audience alike.

In 2007, Loos was a contestant in the new season of the Spanish version of Survivor in which she came third. In November of that year, she appeared in Sky TV's Cirque de Celebrite in which she was one of two new contestants introduced mid-way through the series.

In 2008, Loos was a guest hostess on The Podge and Rodge Show. In September, she had a part in Dutch feature film called Mijn vader is een Detective. In October she took part in the Dutch version of 71 Graden Noord filmed in Norway.

Loos has been featured on the cover of Playboy, FHM, Nuts, Zoo and other men's magazines.

Major media appearances

• 2004 – Hostess on a Dutch television with Gerard Joling
• October 2004 – Participant on The Farm.
• 2004 – Extreme Celebrity Detox for Channel 4.
• February–April 2005 (on screen) – Dream Team, a Sky football-based TV series. Recurring role of Naomi Wyatt, a Sports-Psychologist.
• Summer, 2005 – Participant on the ITV reality show Celebrity Love Island
• Autumn, 2005 – Hostess of the TV documentary Power Lesbian UK for the Logo (TV channel)
• January 2006 – Celebrity model in the Dutch edition of Playboy magazine.
• April 2006 – Participant in the Belgian/Dutch version of the reality show Temptation Island.
• April 2006 – England team member in Sky1's Celebrity World Cup Soccer Tournament (losing 2–1 vs. Brazil in the final).
• May 2006 – Contestant in The X Factor: Battle of the Stars celebrity show, singing along with James Hewitt.
• February 2007 – Appeared on New Zealand's reality TV show Treasure Island: Pirates Of The Pacific.
• May 2007 – Contestant on the Spanish version of Survivor. She came third.
• November 2007 – Contestant on Sky TV's Cirque de Celebrite. Voted out by the public after just a week.
• 8–9 December 2008 – Guest host of television's The Podge and Rodge Show.

References

External links

• Official website
• Rebecca Loos at the Internet Movie Database