Victoria Beckham has always been seen as the picture-perfect fashion icon, former Spice Girl, admired wife, and mother of four. But her new Netflix docuseries, Victoria Beckham, peels back the glossy layers to reveal a deeply personal, painful side of her life that few ever knew: a long, hidden battle with an eating disorder.
At 51, she finally speaks openly about the years she spent torn between the demands of fame and the mirror—and how she became an expert in hiding the truth. It wasn’t overnight. It began as early as her days with the Spice Girls, intensified after she had her first child Brooklyn in 1999, and continued through her motherhood and rise in fashion. The pressure was relentless: tabs of media shouting labels, “Porky Posh” on one day and “Skinny Posh” the next. These weren’t just cruel nicknames—they were cutting arrows to her self-esteem. The Independent+3Woman & Home+3Marca+3
One moment stands out: six months after giving birth, Victoria was asked to weigh herself on national television—an episode she looks back on now as one of the worst. She recalls how being told to “get on those scales” and asked “have you lost the weight?” made her feel raw, exposed, and deeply ashamed. She didn’t expect the world to see her body but was also unable to escape its judgment. Good Morning America+2The Independent+2
From that point, control became everything. Because she couldn’t control how press photos framed her or what words appeared on the front pages, she tried to control her weight, what she wore, what she ate—by whatever means. But what started as effort turned into obsession. She says she was “controlling [her weight] in an incredibly unhealthy way.” The Independent+2Marca+2
One of the hardest things, she admits, was the lying. Not just to the media or to strangers—but to her own family. To her parents. She never spoke openly about how bad things got, how distorted her sense of self had become. She lost track of what she saw in the mirror: “Was I fat? Was I thin? You lose all sense of reality.” Moneycontrol+3Marca+3Woman & Home+3
Victoria says these feelings of never being enough have haunted her across decades—through her pop superstardom, her role as a wife and mother, and her transition into fashion mogul. The constant public criticism shaped her, cut deep, and rewrote her self-worth in mirrors she did not choose. But now, through raw truth and vulnerability, she’s aiming to reclaim her story. To shine a light on how an eating disorder can nest in silence, in shame, hidden in the smiles and photo ops—and how speaking up is the first step toward something closer to peace.
