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Dave Gardner sought solace in his best friend David Beckham on Wednesday night, hours after his split from actress Liv Tyler was revealed.
The football agent, 45, secretly split from the actress, 44, in March this year after seven years of dating, it was reported on Wednesday.
Dave was pictured for the first time since the shock split was announced at the Brooklyn Nets vs Atlanta Hawks basketball game in New York on Wednesday night.
Best friends: Dave Gardner sought solace in close friend David Beckham on Wednesday night, hours after his split from actress Liv Tyler was revealed
The best friends, who have known each other since they were in Manchester United’s youth squad together, had VIP courtside seats for the game.
Dave looked subdued as he focused on the game, while Beckham cheerfully greeted friends and players and later posed for a photo with a group of young fans.
While Dave and Liv are reported to have split in March, Instagram pictures dating as far back as October 2020 show Liv not wearing her engagement ring after spending eight weeks living apart from Dave.
Their relationship was said to have hit a rocky patch last summer after the Lord Of The Rings star flew to Los Angeles for two months with their two children in tow, leaving her football agent fiancé behind at their Cotswolds weekend home.
Subdued: Dave was pictured for the first time since the shock split was announced at the Brooklyn Nets vs Atlanta Hawks basketball game in New York on Wednesday night
Ringless: Is this the moment Liv Tyler called time on her seven-year romance with Dave Gardner? Actress shared telling snaps without engagement ring in October 2020 after two months living separately
All over: Speculation has mounted Liv Tyler and Dave Gardner’s relationship fell apart after the couple spent two months apart (pictured in 2017)
While she returned home to her fiancé in October, Liv was noticeably missing her huge platinum diamond engagement ring in the montage of photos.
The Lord Of The Rings beauty showed off her ring free hand while modelling a Givenchy suit.
Despite swirling rumours of unease at the time, a source close to the couple insisted that it was just Covid restrictions which kept them apart.
The insider said at the time: ‘Liv wanted to go to LA to see her sister’s baby. But as they are not married, Dave was not able to enter the country because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
Drawing attention: Liv was noticeably missing her huge platinum diamond engagement ring in the montage of photos in October last year
Swanky: The couple snapped up a lavish £11.25million London home in West London in November 2018
Epic: The swanky home boasts all the hallmarks of an elegant celeb-worthy pad
‘Liv and the children came back to the UK last week and they are back in their Cotswolds home.’
But their transatlantic separation sent tongues wagging – especially when Liv posted a video message for Dave’s 44th birthday without wearing her engagement ring.
Dave instead celebrated the day with a surprise dinner party thrown by pals including Beckham and comedian Jack Whitehall.
Amazing: Their home features a number of swanky rooms
Wow: The idyllic home is just one of the assets the couple will be dividing up
‘We love you!’ Their transatlantic separation sent tongues wagging, especially when Liv posted a video message for Dave’s 44th birthday without her ring in September
And while Liv was across the pond, Dave holidayed with Kate Moss, 47, her daughter Lila Grace, 19, and Kate’s photographer boyfriend Nikolai von Bismarck.
It was Kate who introduced Dave and Liv to each other in 2014, a year before they announced their engagement.
Liv previously spoke about how she found football ‘alien’ and ‘unfamiliar’ to her despite it being a huge part of Dave’s life, with the agent even taking the actress Champions League game on Valentine’s Day in 2017.
Support: Liv previously spoke about how she found football ‘alien’ and ‘unfamiliar’ to her despite it being a huge part of Dave’s life (pictured with best pal David Beckham in 2017)
She told The Sun in 2019: ‘I do talk to David Beckham about football. My partner knows David well so football is on in our house all the time.
‘It’s interesting how tribal it is with all the chants, but I don’t really understand what is going on, except that they run around a lot, they’re constantly running. They must be out of breath.
‘I want to care more about football but it’s alien to me, so unfamiliar, the sound of the chanting and this roar, the crowd. My partner lives for football and his family and all his friends love it, for me it’s so different to watching American football, I just don’t get it.’
Split? The couple share two children, Sailor Gene, six, and Lula Rose, five (pictured: the last time Liv and Dave were photographed together in April 2021)
The couple share two children, Sailor Gene, six, and Lula Rose, five. Liv is also mother to son Milo, 16, from her marriage to ex-husband Royston Langdon, while Dave shares a son Grey, 14, with his ex-wife Davinia Taylor.
As reports of their split emerged on Tuesday, a source told The Sun: ‘Dave and Liv spent all of the first lockdown together and are a great team as parents but unfortunately, they’ve grown apart and increasingly they’ve been living separate lives.
‘Both wanted to focus on their careers — her acting and producing, and Dave running his business and working on David’s Inter Miami football project.’
‘They officially parted ways back in March but they’ve kept it quiet so as to minimise the fuss, and ensure their kids were OK.’
‘Connection’: On Wednesday, Liv ignored mounting speculation surrounding her marriage as she shared a picture of her eldest son Milo feeding a horse
The source added that they have now come out the other side of their troubles and are good friends, even holidaying together this summer.
On Wednesday, Liv ignored mounting speculation surrounding her marriage as she shared a picture of her eldest son Milo feeding a horse.
She cryptically captioned the image: ‘Connection’.
The newspaper went on to report that Dave has confided in best pal David – who has been ‘ a rock’ during the difficult time, and that the the whole family has been supportive through the process.
It is also claimed that Dave has returned to Los Angeles while Liv remains in London.
Representatives for Dave and Liv have been contacted by MailOnline for a comment.
In 2019 Liv – who had been engaged for four years at the time – admitted she was in no hurry to get married as it was ‘something she didn’t really desire.’
Liv explained her stance: ‘I love being engaged, but I don’t really have a desire to get married.
‘I always felt like marriage should be more of a reward…For surviving your relationship…I feel everyone’s got it backwards.’
Fun: It comes after last July Dave shared a fun video of a swimsuit-clad Liv on a water slide as he wished her a happy 43rd birthday
Tribute: Captioning the post, Dave wrote: ‘Happy Happy Happy Birthday to our beautiful Momma’
Last July Dave shared a fun video of a swimsuit-clad Liv on a water slide as he wished her a happy 43rd birthday.
Alongside the clip, the sports agent also shared some sweet family pictures with their kids Sailor and Lula as he sweetly wrote: ‘Happy Happy Happy Birthday to our beautiful Momma xxx.’
Liv candidly spoke about their relationship with Red magazine back in 2017, insisting it was the desire to extend their families that helped strengthen their bond.
‘We both wanted to have a family and children and a partnership and love,’ she explained.
Pals: David and Victoria Beckham are pictured with the couple in March 2020 at a football match
‘Our jobs are high stress and high energy and constantly moving, so it’s really just the family part we’re on the same page about, which is amazing because I know that’s often quite tricky for couples.’
The actress also credited Dave for his hands-on approach to parenthood and willingness to step in as Liv’s hugely successful career continued uninterrupted following her relocation to the United Kingdom.
She recalled: ‘After I moved to England, I reconnected with an agent and within about a week, she said, ‘I’ve got this job for you,’ And it was starting the following week.
‘It meant commuting to Leeds for a few days at a time, but it was so good for me and David was just like, ‘I’ve got this’. He was home every night for dinner and bedtime, and holding down the fort.
‘He drops the boys at school every single morning, while I’m standing there at the door in my pyjamas, covered in food, with both babies in my arms.’
The inevitable demands that come with parenting a family of four growing children were brought to the fore during family holidays she explained – but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘It’s so tricky going away on vacation with so many,’ she said. ‘We’re not the kind of parents that are gonna be like, ‘You stay here and go to bed, we’re going out.’ We always want to do everything together.
‘But then going out to dinner with, like, 10 people… The babies need to eat immediately and then they’re completely restless throwing food all over the place. And the minute the boys finish, they’re like, ‘We’re off now’. You’re left trying to enjoy a glass of wine and your meal with food flying everywhere.’
Exes: Liv is pictured with ex husband Royston Langdon in 2007
The pair had been engaged since September 2015, when Dave got down on one knee and popped the question.
She later admitted it hadn’t been the most glamorous of moments, telling FABLife she was pregnant at the time and had just stepped out of the shower.
‘It was very sweet I was very surprised. I had no idea and I didn’t look very attractive,’ she said.
‘I was pregnant and I was like crying and had just come out of the shower and I was like unpacking. It wasn’t a very glamorous moment.’
Former flame: Dave was wed to Davinia Taylor from 2003 to 2010 – they share son Grey, 14 (pictured 2005)
He’s dated some of the world’s most beautiful women, is best friends with David Beckham and Kate Moss, and Liv Tyler is mother two his kids… so who is Dave Gardner?
Dave Gardner has a face that you might well recognise, but probably can’t work out why.
Since 2001, the eternally youthful football agent has been a permanent fixture in the background of celebrity photos – head down as the paparazzi jostle for pictures of his famous friends.
But despite his low-key public persona, the 38-year-old has had a central position in two of London’s most important social circles for more than a decade; he is David Beckham’s best friend and also a key member of Kate Moss’s Primrose Hill posse.
So who is this man and how did he become one of London’s most-connected men?
Dave Gardner pictured with a David Beckham and Mazdack Rassi at the launch of Beckham’s Haig whiskey
It all started at the tender age of 14, when Dave joined the Manchester United Youth team.
Even though the signing lasted for just five years, it was to eave a permanent impact on both his professional and love lives.
It was at Manchester United that Dave became close friends with Ryan Giggs and also a young David Beckham.
Gardner and Beckham were both promising sportsmen who spent every evening on the football pitch and quickly became best friends.
But while Beckham went on to join Giggs as one of the best players of his generation, Gardner struggled to keep up and left the club in his late teens.
His time spent at the club wasn’t wasted though – soon after he left, Dave set up the Elite Sports Agency with Six Alex Ferguson’s son Jason,
Dave with James Corden at a magazine party in 2013
The pair’s contacts meant they soon became two of the biggest football agents in the Premier League.
After a few years, Dave decided to start up his own company, which is still going strong today.
Despite the pair no longer training together, Dave’s friendship with Beckham has stayed the test of time and he is one of two old friends the superstar credits with keeping his feet on the ground.
He is David’s eldest son Brooklyn’s godfather.
In 2014 he was one of the friends the star invited join him on a ‘find yourself’ lads’ holiday to Brazil.
It was his friendship with Ryan Giggs that formed much of his personal life for the last decade though.
In Dave’s early twenties, Ryan was dating his sister Emma, who he then dumped for the Hollyoaks actress Davinia Taylor.
Dave Gardner with ex-girlfriend Rita Ora and Harry Styles at a party in February 2013
At the time, Dave was in a long-relationship with model Stacey Cooke and the couple were a permanent fixture on Manchester’s social scene. But the relationship came to an abrupt end after Stacey left him for Ryan.
A heartbroken Dave and Davinia – who is also heiress to a multi-million pound loo roll empire – took solace in each other’s company and it ended up being a match well-made as the pair eventually married in 2003.
Beckham was best man at the £875,000 wedding, while Atomic Kitten singer Jenny Frost was a bridesmaid.
For the next few years, the couple were key components of the famous Notting Hill set – a group of well-known British stars including Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Meg Matthews, Sienna Miller and Rhys Ifans that centered around Kate Moss.
In 2007, Davinia gave birth to their child – a son called Gray – and Kate Moss and David Beckham were named the godparents.
For a while, it seemed that the couple had it all, Dave lavished expensive gifts on his wife and the pair regularly took groups of friends on holiday to Davinia’s father’s yacht in the Mediterranean.
Dave Gardner and Kate Moss- the supermodel introduced him to his girlfriend Liv Tyler
But gradually, Davinia’s troubles with alcohol and bipolar disorder proved too difficult and cracks started to appear in the relationship – according to reports, he was often left at home looking after the child.
The pair divorced in 2010, with Dave citing Davinia’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’ as the grounds for the split and he gained custody of their three-year-old son.
The couple sold their home Supernova Heights for £3 million to the comedian David Walliams.
For a while Dave made very few appearances on the showbiz circuit and was hesitant to return to the dating scene.
A short-lived romance with Stephanie Dorrance, who was the ex-wife of the heir to the Campbell’s soup business, reportedly ended because he felt she was too flash with her cash.
Then in early 2013, Dave hit the headlines again after it was revealed that he was enjoying a relationship with the popstar Rita Ora, who was 15 years his junior.
The pair were spotted on numerous dates and Rita was pictured doing the ‘walk of shame’ early one morning from his London home in the same outfit she had worn the night before.
But the relationship was once again just a brief spell and Rita moved on to her now ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris, while Dave allegedly enjoyed a short dalliance with Kelly Brook.
It was only in mid-July of 2014 that rumours first arose of his romance with Liv Tyler – the Hollywood actress and daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.
Liv is no stranger to the British Isles – her previous husband and father of her first child is Leeds-born Royston Langdon from the band Spacehog.
It has been reported that Kate Moss conspired to set the pair up after becoming convinced they would hit it off.
A source told The Sun newspaper at the time: ‘This is the real deal. Dave and Liv are madly in love.
‘They have a child the same age which is ideal. They’re at a similar place in their lives and ready to settle down with the right person.’
The supermodel was right – they were engaged the following year and enjoyed a seven year relationship.
Liv and Dave went on to have two children, Sailor and Lula, and settled in the Cotswolds.
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