Just weeks after announcing her split from Romeo Beckham, Kim Turnbull has spoken out about the emotional toll of the public scrutiny of their relationship. A childhood friend of Romeo’s brother Brooklyn, model and DJ Kim, 24, was first seen out with Romeo, 22, in the autumn, with the pair hard launching their relationship on Instagram in November. They were pictured together multiple times in the months that followed. Kim even attended David’s 50th birthday celebrations in March – and posed alongside David and Victoria in a picture shared on the Beckham matriarch’s Instagram.

However, mere weeks later, the pair were said to have gone their separate ways. Insiders told The Daily Mail that the former couple were still on good terms but were too busy with travelling and their respective careers, and simply knew that things didn’t last forever. However, their break-up came amid the ongoing reported feud within the Beckham family, which reports at the time had claimed Kim was at the centre of. According to tabloids, the fall-out that led to Brooklyn not attending his dad’s 50th birthday centred around Brooklyn’s wife Nicola Peltz-Beckham disliking Kim after she and Brooklyn allegedly dated as teenagers. Since the break up, however, Kim has denied that they ever dated.

In a new interview with The Sunday Times Style which took place just hours after her split from Romeo was reported, Kim opened up about dealing with the public scrutiny that came with the relationship. “It comes with some territory. There are situations that you find yourself in that present you with new aspects, but at the same time I think it has always been something that I’ve been around and seen, so I just take it day by day and try to focus on the positives,” she said.

However, Kim – who has previously dated Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s son Rocco Ritchie – admitted that she had struggled with some aspects of having a relationship with someone so firmly in the public eye. “Sometimes it’s difficult to block things out because a lot of the time there are things said that are not necessarily true or necessarily positive, and your instinctive reaction is to want to be like, ‘No, that’s not true! But I think what I’ve learnt, at this point in life, is to try and take it with a pinch of salt.”

While youngest Beckham son Cruz had previously claimed that Brooklyn and Kim “never dated” (in a since-deleted Instagram comment), it was only this month, weeks after the split from Romeo, that Kim finally spoke out in her own defence. “I will not continue to receive harassment or be embarrassed on the basis of lies fit to a certain narrative,” she wrote. “I have never been romantically involved in ANY capacity at ANY point with the person in question. Nothing between us has occurred further than a school friendship at age 16. I would like to remove myself from the ongoing conversation and set the record straight for the sake of everyone involved.”

In the interview, Kim admitted that it was “definitely tough” having people say things about her that weren’t true and “don’t align with your character and your values”. “You want to turn around and reply to every comment and have your say in it, but at the end of the day you just can’t,” she said, adding that she tried “to stay off [the comment sections] as much as I can”. “My family know me, and they know who I am and what the real situation is. They’re more concerned, like, ‘Are you OK?’ And I am.”

Reports had previously claimed that Kim was at the centre of the fall-out between Brooklyn, 26, and his family, after it was said that his wife Nicola, 30, felt “uncomfortable” around her. However, later reports said that Kim had been “scapegoated” in the alleged feud, when Brooklyn and Nicola failed to show up to any of the five events for footballer David’s milestone birthday that the family held across the globe.

While Brooklyn has not acknowledged the rumoured tensions, he has stuck with his wife and sung her praises reportedly on social media. Last week, as he celebrated the five-year anniversary of their engagement, Brooklyn wrote that asking Nicola to marry him was the “best decision ever”.

Asked in a recent joint interview with Glamour how they dealt with their own public relationship, Nicola said: “It’s not always easy. On TikTok there are always random stories popping up about us. When I see fake news, my instinct is to shut it down. But it’s not worth it. I just scroll past and move on.” Brooklyn added: “Ignore the noise. Keep your head down, work hard, be kind. People are always going to talk. What matters is that we’re happy together.”