Victoria Beckham talks body image, eating disorder in new Netflix docuseries: 'You lose all sense of reality'
Victoria Beckham is opening up about the scrutiny she has faced over the years regarding her weight, as well as the eating order she said she developed as a result of that attention.
The singer and fashion icon touched on the topic in her new Netflix documentary series, titled "Victoria Beckham," which was released Thursday.
Beckham discusses the attention on her throughout her career in episode two of the series, saying, "I really started to doubt myself and not like myself."
She then recalls an instance in which she was weighed on national television after giving birth to her eldest child, Brooklyn Beckham -- the now-mom of four was just 24 years old at the time -- describing the experience as hurtful.
"We laugh about it, and we joke about it when we're on television, but I was really, really young. And that hurts," she says.
Beckham's husband, former professional soccer player David Beckham, who is also featured in the documentary, says elsewhere in the episode, "My Victoria that I knew sits at home in a tracksuit, smiling, laughing having a glass of wine. That started to go purely because of the criticism that she was getting.
Victoria Beckham says she "started to doubt myself and not like myself" because of the criticism she faced over her looks.
She describes being unable to view her image clearly.
"I didn't know what I saw when I looked in the mirror. Was I fat? Was I thin? I don't know," she says at one point. "You lose all sense of reality."
Beckham says she was "very critical" of herself and "didn't like what I saw."
The former Spice Girl -- who went by "Posh Spice" as a member of the girl group -- also shares a few nicknames she says she has been called throughout her career, including "Porky Posh" and "Skinny Posh," saying she developed an eating disorder as a result of the negative attention.
"It's been a lot, and that's hard," she says. "I had no control over what was being written about me, pictures that were being taken, and I suppose I wanted to control that. I could control it with the clothing, I could control my weight. And I was controlling it in an incredibly unhealthy way."
"When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying," she continues. "And I was never honest about it with my parents. I never talked about it publicly."
She adds, "It really affects you when you're being told constantly you're not good enough. And I suppose that's been with me my whole life."
Beckham first gained fame as a member of the Spice Girls before transitioning into the world of fashion, launching her eponymous label in 2008. She launched a beauty brand, Victoria Beckham Beauty, in 2019.
She has been married to husband David Beckham since 1999. The couple share four children, sons Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz, and daughter Harper.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or NationalEatingDisorders.org.
