Victoria Beckham grabs the chance to tell her own tale

Now here’s something you might not quite believe about Victoria Beckham, glam Spice Girl turned high-profile fashion designer: At theatre school, they purposely put her in the back row. Because she was too heavy. “It was really difficult,” she says now of the memory from her youth, sipping a sparkling water in a Manhattan hotel in between work engagements. “We were all judged on how we looked. I was young. I had bad skin, my weight was going up and down, I had really lank hair.”

Beckham was also bullied in school and told she was a bad learner, revelations that come in a new documentary, “Victoria Beckham.” The three-part Netflix series traces her career and especially her ascension in the fashion world — building up to a grand Paris runway show at a palace in front of 600 people. That 2024 show — with a rainstorm threatening to scuttle the whole thing — is presented as a career pinnacle for a designer who spent years proving herself alongside giants of the field, showing she wasn’t simply a celebrity slapping her name on a label.

The other Beckham documentary appeared only two years ago. Why did you feel the need for your own?

Well, his documentary wasn’t about me, you know. I was in the documentary as David’s wife and I’ve been part of his journey and I was so honored to talk about that. People’s response to me in that really surprised me, and there was something quite liberating about that because when I saw myself ... I didn’t like how I came across. But then I think I’ve always felt that way about myself. I suppose it gave me the confidence to do my own.

What specific stories did you want to tell?

I’ve been in the fashion industry for almost two decades. I was in the Spice Girls for four years — and have been so defined by that four-year period in my life. A time that I’m so proud of, but I’ve been fighting preconceptions because of that period. I feel that only now is my brand in a place where me talking about my past will not affect the brand that I’ve built.

You say this is an inspirational story. How so?

I’m not ashamed to say I’m really ambitious. And it’s been the first time that I’ve ever looked back and, having that bird’s eye view on my journey so far, even I found it inspiring what I have done ... the fact that I have been told “No” so many times, told that I’m not enough, not good enough. And by the way, that started when I was a child, when I was at school.

Do you think people have misperceptions about you?

Oh absolutely, I think that for many years I was misunderstood, before social media, you know, the media told the narrative, and then there were paparazzi pictures where most of the time I looked incredibly unhappy. And I think looking at the documentary telling my story from ME explains the “why.” I can’t blame people for looking at the pictures of me looking really grumpy.

You talk about your weight struggles as a girl in theater class. Have you spoken about that before?

Never quite like this. The opportunity has never really presented itself. And I know a lot of people can relate to my story because of all the messages that I’ve had since people have watched the documentary.

It seems like you spend relatively little time in the series on the Spice Girls years.

I’m so respectful of my time with the Spice Girls. I still see all of the girls now. I wouldn’t be who I am now ... the Spice Girls gave me the confidence to be me. I remember Geri (Halliwell) saying to me, “You’re funny, be funny.” I’m shy.

Associated Press