Football family take time off the field in Dubai

Skiing on the man-made slopes of the Mall of the Emirates, taking the children to the waterpark, swimming with dolphins and quad-biking. Most parents bringing their children on holiday to Dubai might see this list as a fairly straightforward description of the activities available to them.

For Victoria Beckham, one half of the world's most famous - and most pursued - couple, the sheer normality was blissful. "I've had a normal holiday with my family," she said, making the ordinariness of the experience seem extraordinary. "It's been really, really nice." As a woman accustomed to the irritations of fame, Mrs Beckham had nothing but praise for the relaxed, untroubled stay she had enjoyed in Dubai.

The singer-turned-fashion designer, who lives in Los Angeles, accompanied her husband, David, who was in the UAE to make his debut for AC Milan in a friendly game against Hamburg. "I can't remember the last time I had a holiday where I could just walk around without any make-up on, with a pair of flip-flops, with my kids, and just do regular stuff," she said. "Everyone's been very respectful. I will come back for that reason."

Mrs Beckham, 34, spoke warmly of her encounters with the people of Dubai, clearly having preferred their company to the more oppressive attention she receives from the paparazzi in the West. "You do get people wanting autographs and photographs, and that's cool," she said. "We've met some really lovely people and we're always more than happy to do pictures with people and sign things. "But it's nice just to be able to hang out by the pool with your kids and not be thinking, you know, is someone taking a picture here. I can't think of anywhere else in the world where that is the case, and that's what I like about Dubai; there are rules and there are regulations, and I like that."

Mrs Beckham was reluctant to breach the relative privacy of her week in Dubai by saying where she and the family had been staying. However, she was happy to talk openly about moving to Italy. Although the Beckhams have decided that their children - Brooklyn, 10, Romeo, six, and Cruz, three - should remain in America to avoid disrupting their lives, there will be plenty of opportunity for the family to spend time together.

"Milan is going to be great for us as a family," she said. "David's very excited. We're going to be travelling backwards and forwards because the children are going to be in Los Angeles. "We had to sit down as parents and say, right, this is great for David; what is good for the children? Brooklyn is 10 and it wouldn't be a sensible thing to pull him out of school; any parent would know that. The best thing for them is to be in school. They'll have a couple of days off here and there and they'll travel with a tutor, but they need stability and they're happy in LA."

She added that both she and her husband regarded their parental responsibilities as the overriding priority in their lives. "We take our roles as parents very seriously," she said. "We're very close to both our families as well, so when I am going to be in Milan with David or working on the collection, my mum and dad or David's mum will be in LA looking after the kids; we don't just palm them off to nannies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not the way we've ever done it."

The former Spice Girl admitted that she was no great follower of football unless her husband was playing. But she and the boys had approached Tuesday's match with excitement. "I love to go to his games and the children enjoy it," she said. "They love to put their little football kits on and support David. The children love football - they're very good. "They do lots of sports: gymnastics, ice hockey, basketball, baseball, football. That's the great thing about living in America. They can do all of this. They surf, they ski, they can do everything. And that's why you work hard: to be able to afford to do these things with your children. They can turn their hand to pretty much any sport out there, and that's great."

gchamp@thenational.ae