Marbeck claimed in last Sunday's British tabloid News of the World that she had an affair with the married soccer star after meeting him at a party in Singapore in July 2001, when Manchester United were on their Far East tour.

If the allegations are proved, they could have an impact on Beckham's appeal in the conservative Muslim country, where the damage to his lucrative image as a family man may be more keenly felt than elsewhere in Asia.

In the sleepy colonial-era town of Seremban, an hour's drive from the Malaysian capital, Marbeck's aunt and cousins have been trying to come to terms with seeing their family name dragged through the newspapers across the world.

Joan Marbeck - sister of Sarah's father Terrance - said: 'Sarah was always a rebel, even at school. She did things just to get herself noticed - and she's certainly done a good job of it this time.'

At government high school in Kuala Lumpur, Marbeck, a Catholic, would go out with Muslim boys and wear traditional Malay costume rather than official school uniform 'just to be different'.

She went into modelling against her parents' wishes at the age of 17. 'Even though her family had money, she loved all the nice things in life that came with modelling - the clothes and the lifestyle,' Joan said.

Marbeck's family moved to Perth soon after her modelling career began, but she mostly stayed on in Kuala Lumpur with her father, who kept an office there and commuted between Malaysia and Australia.

'Sarah used to stay with her father and he'd say that she was always trouble to him,' another relative said. 'He suspected then that she was taking drugs and on one occasion she crashed his car, apparently when she was under the influence of something. He was worried about the sort of people she was hanging out with.'

Then, in a bizarre incident six years ago recalled by the relative, Marbeck went on a modelling assignment to Taiwan, where she claimed she was held hostage by her employers who took her passport and demanded she pose for naked pictures before they released her.

She managed to place a phone call to father Terrance in Kuala Lumpur, who told relatives he flew to Taipei and won her release after issuing legal threats, the relative said. 'She must have been frantic with worry to phone her father to come and get her,' he said.

Despite the scare, Marbeck went straight back into modelling and, by the time she met Beckham at the Singapore party in 2001, was working for model agencies and scraping a modest living.

A fashion photographer who worked with her at the time said: 'She was doing fashion shows and nothing else and the money is awful - HK$700 for a day's work.'

The photographer, who worked for the same model agencies, Diva and Elite, said Marbeck had a reputation as a party girl. 'There was nothing special about her as a model and she wasn't going anywhere, so I'm not too surprised she pulled this stunt with Beckham,' he said.

'Sarah was like hundreds of other girls here - small-town girls dreaming of making it big in Paris or Milan.'

Vanessa Loo, who manages the Elite model agency in Singapore, said: 'Sarah was with us for 11/2 months or so in 2001. Unfortunately Sarah didn't do very much work when she was with us. She wasn't in very high demand with our clients.'

After her meeting with Beckham in July 2001, she flew straight to Australia and - penniless - ended up spending two months living on a sofa in the home of her sister Melissa and brother-in-law Craig in Sydney.

Within a week of her arrival, Craig told friends, he ended up rushing her to hospital, where doctors told him she was suffering from drug withdrawal symptoms. Craig says she told him about her meeting with Beckham but he did not believe her.

Describing her as 'a compulsive liar', he said: 'She was like a love-smitten puppy ... but when it comes to Sarah, I take everything with a pinch of salt.'

Since last Sunday, more and more people who knew and worked with Marbeck have cast doubts on her story. She may have flirted with Beckham and she may have had 'text sex' with him, they say - but did she really sleep with the soccer star as she claims? Her reception back in Malaysia remains uncertain.

Former model Justin Fitzpatrick, 34, who worked with Marbeck in 1997 and still lives in Kuala Lumpur, said: 'I was surprised at the things she said in the News of the World. People are very conservative here. I don't think they'll react to this kind of thing too well.'