LONDON - England soccer player David Beckham and his wife Victoria received an apology from a former nanny in London's high court over her disclosures of confidential information about the celebrity couple.

The case resulted from allegations made by Abbie Gibson about the private lives of the LA Galaxy player and his wife after she had resigned from her job.

Her claims were printed in a newspaper article in April 2005, captioned "Beckhams behind closed doors".

Yesterday the couple's lawyer, Gerrard Tyrrell, told the high court Gibson had now agreed to "permanent undertakings of confidentiality", the Press Association reported.

She had "unconditionally apologised to David and Victoria Beckham and their family for breaching her duties of confidence" and had also withdrawn a claim for constructive dismissal, he said.

"Between May 2003 and March 2005 Gibson was employed as the nanny to David and Victoria Beckham's children," Tyrrell told the court. "After she resigned she gave an interview to the News of the World. In this interview she disclosed private and confidential information about the Beckhams and their family."

The judge was also told that in July 2005 The People newspaper published an article headlined "Beckham's hate calls to nanny", which falsely stated that David had made insulting and threatening telephone calls to Gibson. The paper later publicly apologised and paid libel damages to him.

"Gibson is happy to confirm that David Beckham did not at any stage make any such phone calls to her," Tyrrell said. "She apologises if anything she said to The People gave them a false impression that such calls had been made."

Niri Shanmuganathan, Gibson's lawyer, said his client was "happy to give the undertakings of confidentiality". - Reuters