David Beckham has admitted that he suffers from obsessive compulsive
disorder.
The footballer has spoken for the first time of his addiction to
rearranging hotel rooms and lining up cans of soft drinks to make "everything
perfect".
In a television interview to be screened before the World Cup this summer,
Beckham says he has tried to break his cycle of repetitive behaviour but cannot
stop.
OCD, as it is known, affects one in 60 people in Britain, ranging from mild
traits to a debilitating dependency on rituals of cleanliness, symmetry or other
issues.
"I've got this obsessive compulsive disorder where I have to have everything
in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs," Beckham said in the
interview.
"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.
"I'll go into a hotel room and before I can relax, I have to move all the
leaflets and all the books and put them in a drawer.
"Everything has to be perfect."
Asked if he wanted to stop his obsessive behaviour, he said: "I would like
to. I've tried and can't stop."
Beckham admitted he was also addicted to having tattoos, partly because he
enjoys the pain.
The England captainsaid that his wife, Victoria, calls him a "weirdo" because
of his condition.
Newspapers have delighted in stories of Beckham's eccentric behaviour, with
reports that he wears white clothes to match his furniture, buys 30 pairs of
identical Calvin Klein underpants every fortnight and insists on lining up his
shirts according to colour.
Mrs Beckham, who has revealed her husband's inner secrets before, recently
told one interviewer: "He's got that obsessive compulsive thing where everything
has to match. If you open our fridge, it's all co-ordinated down either side.