Beckhams were sent bullets through post

David Beckham has revealed how he and his wife received death threats after two bullets arrived in the post with the soccer star's name scratched on the side.

"It still makes my stomach turn over," said the footballer after he read the accompanying note which promised one for him and one for Victoria.

"I received a letter at my house in Worsley. It contained two bullets and a scrawled note saying there'd be one for each of us. I can still remember standing by my pool table and the sound of the cartridges dropping out of the envelope on to the table in front of me."

Speaking about the incident, which came in March 1998 while Victoria was at the height of her fame with the Spice Girls, Beckham admitted it was just one of a series of security scares.

Labelling his life at the heart of the media spotlight "Bubble Beckham", he spoke about his concern for his sons, Brooklyn and Romeo, having to deal with the constant publicity.

He added: "It's a serious question: how will it be for them having to grow up in the public eye whether they like it or not?

"I think it's really important that, in the whirl of our lives together, we give our children the same solid base our parents gave Victoria and me."

But the Real Madrid star, 28, admitted it would be a challenge to provide the boys with a solid foundation amid the dizzying world of stardom.

"The most difficult thing is helping them through the extraordinary stuff that comes with life in Bubble Beckham.

"That's even more difficult because Victoria and I are only finding out about that stuff as we go along ourselves."

Revealing his delight at holding newborn son Brooklyn for the first time he talked of how even his best soccer moments paled by comparison.

"I've experienced it twice now, and nothing in my life, on a football pitch or anywhere else, comes close to the intensity of that moment: the thrill and the awe, holding your son in your arms for the very first time." Beckham describes how just before his wife gave birth to Brooklyn by Caesarean she requested smoked salmon which she had craved right throughout her pregnancy, adding that the cravings probably sparked his elder son's love of fish.

Brooklyn's birth on 4 March 1999 came at the climax of a string of security scares that prompted an overwrought and emotional Victoria to plead with her husband directly after the birth: "Whatever you do please don't leave him." Beckham responded by sleeping on the floor of the hospital with only a towel for a cushion and his head pressed up against the door, so that it could not be opened.

He tells how he was keen to feed his baby son after a month of watching Victoria breast-feed, and describes "raiding the baby shelves" at a chemist, stocking up on bottles, warmers, pumps and sterilisers. He says he will never forget the first afternoon he sat feeding Brooklyn with a bottle.

In his autobiography, My Side, being serialised in The Sun, Beckham tells how Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was virtually the first person he phoned about the birth of his son.

In an unusually generous mood Sir Alex told his England captain to skip training in Manchester and instead stay with his wife and son in London.

His book also tells how the soccer star went through a deep depression after England were knocked out of last year's World Cup by Brazil, and how it drove his wife to despair.

Beckham says he did not smile or show emotion even to Victoria, and felt tired, lacklustre, and uncommunicative.

He wrote: "You can't just wish that kind of depression away", but said a heartto-heart with his wife eventually pulled him out of it.