David Beckham is taking legal action against Mark Wahlberg after a fitness deal left him more than £8,000,000 out of pocket.
The footballing legend’s company, DB Ventures Ltd, claims the actor ‘duped’ Beckham into collaborating with F45.
F45 Training is an Australian franchiser and operator of fitness centres based in Austin, Texas, in which fitness guru Wahlberg bought a minority stake in 2019.
Beckham, 48, agreed to be the firm’s global ambassador when he moved to Los Angeles in 2007, relocating his family when he signed a deal to join LA Galaxy.
He and Wahlberg, 52, soon became friends then, in November 2020, Beckham signed on to work with F45.
However, their partnership allegedly turned sour after the Manchester United star promoted his own range of personalised workouts.
He posed for photographs at one of the fitness centres and promoted F45 to his millions of Instagram followers as part of the deal.
The posts have since been taken down.
What followed was a row over shares he claimed to have been promised.
As reported by The Sun, DBVL alleges shares in the company were promised to be shared in early 2022.
But, they were not divulged until months later. By this time, the share price had dropped from around $12 (£9.70) a share to $3 (£2.43) per share.
Lawyers for Beckham claim he lost out on £8.5million in potential profit because of the delay.
Beckham is also suing the actor’s firm, Mark Wahlberg Investment Group (MWIG), and gym group F45’s founders Adam Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch.
Wahlberg and his co-defendants have branded the claims baseless, imploring a judge to dismiss the allegations of ‘fraudulent conduct’.
The defendants’ motion to dismiss goes on to say DBVL are blaming everyone but themselves.
‘The 209-page, 610-paragraph SAC [complaint] tries to make up with length what it lacks in merit.’
Beckham originally filed the lawsuit several years ago and the case has been rumbling on ever since.
It began when the footie star and golfing legend Greg Norman both launched suits against F45 in Californian courts in October 2022.
A judge then reportedly ruled they had to file separate lawsuits.
Meanwhile, F45’s share price was once at $16 (£12.94) a share, but they are now worth just 15 cents.
