Today, after 24 years of marriage and four children, David and Victoria Beckham look as happy as ever. (One example: at Victoria's Paris Fashion Week show last Friday, David supported the front row with socks and sandals, along with three of their four children.)

But it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows for this couple (or for any couple); Netflix's four-part documentary on David is, as the name suggests, Beckham, in which they pull back the curtain on their marriage and take viewers into a difficult time. The documentary focuses on David's rise to fame as an athlete, but the final episode touches on a difficult time in their relationship.

David played for Real Madrid in Spain in 2003, a period that Victoria candidly describes as "the unhappiest time of my life so far." She says that the tabloids' involvement in their marriage during this period was "the most difficult time for us."

"It felt like the world was against us," she said. To be honest, we were against each other." Until we went to Madrid, it sometimes felt like we were fighting everyone else. When we were in Spain, we didn't feel like we had each other. That's sad. How hard it was, how much it affected us. It was a nightmare. From the moment we opened the door in the morning, the press drove up and followed us everywhere we went. It's really funny when the circus comes to town.

When asked if she resented her husband during this period of her marriage, Victoria replied, "Did I resent David?"

David said of that time, "There were some terrible things that were hard to deal with. It was the first time that Victoria and I were under that kind of pressure in our marriage. Every time we woke up, we felt there was something there. I think we both felt then that we weren't losing each other; we were drowning." I honestly don't know how I got over it. Victoria is my everything. It was incredibly painful to watch her get hurt, but we are fighters and at that moment we needed to fight for each other and we needed to fight for our families.

He continued. "I woke up and said, 'How am I going to go to work? How am I going to look like nothing is wrong? Every day when I opened my eyes, I felt sick. What do I do?'

The Beckhams married in 1999, two years after meeting at a soccer match; they are the parents of Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper, and renewed their vows in 2017. Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs at the time, David said, "We know each other better than anyone. Are we together because we are a brand? Of course not. We are together because we love each other and we have four wonderful children. Of course we do. It's part of a relationship. It's part of marriage. It's part of having children. It's part of having responsibility."

"Beckham" is available on Netflix.