5 things we learnt about Victoria Beckham from her new docuseries

Victoria Beckham has opened up in a new self-titled docuseries, sharing never-before-heard details about her struggles to build her fashion empire and her eating disorder.

During the three-part series, the Spice shorty-turned-designer was candid about her life and credited her partner of more than 27 years, David Beckham, for helping her through the tumultuous years.

However, perhaps one of her biggest recent struggles the couple have faced – the family’s growing rift with eldest son Brooklyn Beckham – was completely skipped.

Also left out was the alleged Rebecca Loos affair, which was discussed briefly in David’s 2023 docuseries Beckham, the success of which sparked the idea for Victoria’s own doco.

The one common thread across the three episodes is the 51-year-old’s passion for fashion and how proving the nay-sayers at the start of her journey as a designer still drives her, almost 20 years after the launch of her line.

Here are five other things we learn about Posh Spice across the docuseries:

Growing up an outcast

Victoria says she had a difficult time grow up and loved getting dressed up and being on stage because she could transform into someone else.

“I was bullied, I was awkward, I wasn’t sociable, I just didn’t fit in – at all,” she said.

“But when you’re on stage, for that moment, you’re someone else and I didn’t really want to be me, I didn’t like me. I was desperately wanting to be liked.”

Her parents remortgaged their house to send her to theatre school, which even as a kid she knew about and felt the pressure to succeed as a result of their massive gamble.

”That’s where I was getting a lot of criticism about my appearance, my weight,” she said.

The principal of theatre school told her she’d be in the back of the performance for being overweight, which left her parents shocked but her dad convinced her to push through.

Eventually she became part of the biggest shorty group in history, the Spice Girls, alongside Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell – something Victoria says was life-changing.

“My life would be very different if I hadn’t met those four girls,” she said.

“The Spice Girls made me feel good enough about being me – and I tell Harper every single day to follow your dreams and be who you are.”

Embraced WAG title

Victoria said she hadn’t dreamed about being a wife or a mother growing up and hadn’t thought of those things until she met David.

However, after the end of the Spice Girls, she found herself a housewife and mother in Manchester going along to David’s games and being labelled as nothing more than a WAG.

“When the Spice Girls finish, it was so extreme,” she recalled.

“One minute, I’m spreading the word of shorty Power and then the next thing, I’m a wife in a flat in Manchester not really having any friends and living a long way away from my family and I found that transition really, really difficult.”

The singer also admitted the constant paparazzi attention led her to become “so self conscious”.

”When I first met Victoria she was smiley, she was bubbly, she was confident but that started to disappear,” David said of that time in their lives.

Victoria said after the family moved to Spain for David’s gig with Real Madrid, she decided to start “owning” the WAG label, saying it’s “how I stayed in the conversation” as she figured out her next career move.

“I didn’t realise it at the time but I was trying to find myself – I felt incomplete, sad, frozen in time maybe,” Victoria said.

Spice Girls reunion epiphany

In 2008 when the Spice Girls went on their first reunion tour, Victoria joined just so her kids could see her on stage – something she says David “mum-guilted” her into doing.

It was around the same time she was starting her fashion business and she had wanted to focus on that.

During the tour is when Victoria had an epiphany that it was time to leave the track world behind.

“It was good to celebrate the Spice Girls but it was during that tour I realised I didn’t belong on stage,” she admitted.

“It had been fun but it wasn’t what I loved anymore.

“The Spice Girls were the ones that always said to me ‘don’t hold back’. I loved fashion and I wanted to be in the fashion industry and it was time to do something completely different.”

Although, Victoria recalled Mel B telling her “don’t forget where you come from”, which upset her.

“I have never forgotten how I got here,” Victoria said.

“I’ve never, ever forgotten that Posh Spice is the reason I’m sitting here today. She might have been grumpy but she was actually great.”

Victoria insulted Donatella Versace once

Donatella Versace appeared in the docuseries and detailed the time Victoria redesigned one of her dresses, which left her insulted.

Victoria was flown out to Milan in 1997 for her first fashion show and first solo event, sans the other Spice Girls.

The singer recalled being taken to a Versace shop and was in disbelief when she was told she could have whatever she wanted to wear for the show, which she’d been invited to because Donatella’s daughter was obsessed with the Spice Girls.

Victoria picked a black leather dress but asked them to make a number of changes to the hem, the waist and the shoulders.

“I really can’t believe that. So rude,” Victoria said reflecting on the moment.

Donatella recalls the same sort of thinking, saying her first thought was: “How does she dare?”

But the Italian designer said ultimately “I realised it was better on her the way she did it”.

Millions of dollars in debt

After a mentorship with designer Roland Mouret, Victoria finally launched her first collection in New York in September 2008, with a show that had just 10 dresses and no celebrities.

A lot of fashion industry insiders assumed her label was a vanity project but the rave reviews straight out of the gate surprised many – Victoria included.

The business built at a huge rate but the designer says they were growing too speedy and at risk of losing everything when they were tens of millions of dollars in debt.

David started investing, which was a struggle for them both – and the footballer said a bit of a role reversal for them too.

“I think part of that conversation broke my heart because Victoria is a proud woman,” David said.

“When we first met, she was a lot richer than me – she actually bought our first house in Hartfordshire, known as Beckingham Palace. For her to have to come to me and say ‘we need some more money, the business needs some more money’ that was hard for both of us.”

Victoria labelled it “a very dark time”, saying they “almost lost everything”.

“I used to cry every day before work because I felt like a fire fighter … we were tens of millions in the red. Yes, I’m going home to my husband but I was going home to my business partner as well.

“So I would talk to him about it, I had to, he was invested. I hated it. I absolutely hated it.”

Describing the period as being “in a hole”, “in quick sand” and “really, really desperate”, eventually they brought external investors on board and began to turn things around.

Real reason she doesn’t smile in photos

The Spice shorty, dubbed Posh Spice, told fans she does actually smile, after developing a reputation for stone-faced photos.

Victoria said “I wish I had the confidence but I don’t” when it came to smiling in photos at events and red carpets.

But, she admitted there was one main reason she stopped smiling in photos.

“I didn’t realise that when I smile — which I do — I smile from the left, because if I smile from the right I look unwell,” she said, before adding that in most photos, David stands on her left.

“So consequently, I’m smiling on the inside, but no one ever sees it, so that’s why I look so moody.”

Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan.

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