Toward the end of his tenure with Real Madrid, David Beckham opened up about his mental health. During a television interview with British broadcaster, ITV, Beckham revealed his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), detailing his need to rearrange his hotel rooms, relentless housecleaning, and other behavior.
“I’ve got this obsessive-compulsive disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs. I’ll put my Pepsi cans in the fridge and if there’s one too many then I’ll put it in another cupboard somewhere,” Beckham said in 2006 (via The Independent). According to Beckham, he was powerless to control it. “I would like to,” he said when asked if he wanted to stop his OCD-fueled behavior. “I’ve tried and can’t stop.”
Years later, in the 2023 Netflix documentary, “Beckham,” he was seen meticulously organizing all the clothing he would be wearing for the week to come and divulged that he still hadn’t completely conquered his OCD. “The fact that when everyone’s in bed I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy,” he said (via The Guardian). “I clip the candle wax, I clean the glass … I know, it’s weird.”
