David and Victoria Beckham have paid themselves £21m in dividends from their businesses over the last two years.

The accounts filed with Companies House showed that a £14.5m dividend was paid to the famous couple in 2019, up from £11.1m in 2018, with a further £7.1m in 2020.

The most recent amount went to the Beckhams after they bought the 33% stake in David Beckham Ventures Limited that had been owned by XIX Entertainment - a media group run by music mogul Simon Fuller.

Pre-tax profits at the company, which manages the former footballer's global brand rights, dropped to £11.3m in 2019, from £14.8m the year before.

The decline was due to charitable donations made to UNICEF, currency fluctuations, and increasing staff numbers.

Mrs Beckham's fashion business, meanwhile, saw pre-tax losses grow from £12.5m in 2018 to £16.6m in 2019.

Victoria Beckham Holdings Limited, which is owned by Beckham Brand Holdings, XIX Entertainment and private equity firm NEO investment Partners, launched a cost-cutting programme last September.

Also last year, the group said it had breached the financial covenants of a loan with HSBC, which led to shareholders injecting £9.2m to settle the debt.

Sales at the fashion label increased £2.5m to £38.3m in 2019, but it continued to lose money and did not pay a dividend.

The accounts said: "Directors continue to focus on taking the company to break even.

"Since the year-end, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted trading, with stores carrying the company's products subject to varying lockdown restrictions.

"This led to a substantial closure of the group's stores during 2020 (late March to end May, November, late December onwards) and a resulting impact on revenues.

"Over this period the company's e-commerce operations saw positive year-on-year growth."