As close as the Beckhams have traditionally been as a family, there is one secret that Victoria has long kept from her children – and for good reason. But knowing it was about to emerge in the Netflix documentary that would take a deeply personal look at her life for the first time, the former Spice Girl had steadied herself to sit down with them before it was revealed to the world and be completely honest about the eating disorder she had battled for decades.
And it was the conversation with her 14-year-old daughter Harper – who is already navigating the twin pressures of being a teenage girl under the glare of the media spotlight – that Victoria knew would be the most important.
By the time the family appeared together as a tight-knit, glamorous unit on the star-studded red carpet for the Mayfair premiere of her eponymous series on Wednesday, that secret was out.
But as she tells The Mail on Sunday today, in what might be the most candid interview of her career to date, her greatest fear – and the reason she had kept the disorder so hidden from her family – was that history would repeat itself with her daughter.
Describing the moment she sat down with Harper, a few days before the premiere, Victoria, 51, says: ‘We just had a really honest conversation, and I explained that when you have issues with food, it is all consuming.
‘It is sad. It’s a very lonely place.
‘I thought it was important that she heard it from me before she saw it at the theatre.’
Victoria Beckham sat down with her daughter, Harper, a few days before the premiere of her Netflix docuseries
As well as Harper, the former Spice Girl was supported by her husband David (right) and children Cruz (left), his girlfriend Jackie Apostel and Romeo on the night
It is heartbreaking to hear. This is the first time Victoria – known for years as Posh amid her global girl band fame – has spoken of her fears for her only daughter who has had no choice but to grow up in the limelight because of her parents’ global fame.
It is, perhaps, inevitable that Harper will garner more attention than her brothers. And this is precisely why Victoria is adamant that her girl won’t suffer in the same way she did.
‘We’ve actually talked about food for quite some time, because the one thing that doesn’t seem to change is that little girls think a lot about food as they’re growing up, and when their bodies are changing and when they’re going through puberty,’ she says.
‘And my wish for Harper is that she has a really healthy relationship with food, and that she eats healthily. We all want to treat ourselves as well, but it’s about balance. Harper’s also very fit and plays a lot of sport, but we’ve talked about food before, because that is a conversation that’s flying around at school.’
Victoria’s admission in the three-part documentary that she struggled with food for years may not come as a surprise to many, given it was widely rumoured.
But the detail shines a troubling light on the pressures of fame and the demands of the music industry during the 1990s and 2000s.
Victoria, now a successful fashion designer and beauty guru whose brand has annual sales revenue topping £100 million, confessed that she was called ‘fat’ and ‘overweight’ while at theatre school as a young teenager, and lied to her parents about her eating disorder.
After the Spice Girls hit the big time in 1996 with their first single Wannabe, she was referred to as ‘Skinny Spice’. Then there was the time when the late Sir Michael Parkinson asked her on his BBC chat show in 2000 if she was anorexic – which she denied.
The previous year, she was weighed on television by Chris Evans on his Channel 4 show TFI Friday, just two months after she had given birth to her first son Brooklyn, to see if she’d lost her baby weight.
Victoria confessed in the series that she was called ‘fat’ and ‘overweight’ while at theatre school as a young teenager, and lied to her parents about her eating disorder
This is the first time Victoria has spoken of her fears for her only daughter – who has had no choice but to grow up in the limelight because of her parents’ global fame
Presenter Chris Evans weighs Victoria, who had given birth to her first child just two months before, for his Channel 4 show TFI Friday in 2000
Victoria admits she was ‘hurt’ by the stunt – but for her children, such revelations were the first they’d heard of the misogyny their mother endured.
Their reaction, she says, was hard for her to hear.
‘All of the kids were really, really shocked with what they saw in that documentary,’ she says of those scenes.
‘It wouldn’t happen now. And the truth is, it really hurt. Words can really hurt people – I always say this to the children.
‘Words are so powerful, and you really have to choose your words carefully. And I’ve never talked about this before.’
They may be shocked, but there is pride, too, that she is taking a stand and speaking about these things after holding her tongue for so long.
Those who know Victoria well know this isn’t something that comes naturally to her.
When I meet Victoria and David, before the premiere of the documentary, David, 50, beamed as he told me how proud he was of his wife – though confided he was ‘disgusted’ with the way she had been treated by television programmes back then.
The perfect gentlemen, he helped me down the stairs in my stilettos to meet Victoria, who gave me a warm hug.
She was nervous, and confided that she hadn’t seen the full, final cut of the show – and that she almost didn’t do it.
‘I wasn’t sure about having a camera crew following me a year, but then I gave in and decided to go for it,’ she said.
‘I am a control freak, but now I’m a reformed control freak, and that was quite liberating.
‘I was surprised that anybody was really particularly interested in what I do every day. But David convinced me that it was the right thing to do, and he was so supportive through the whole thing.’
So why did she choose to be so candid? And why now?
‘I never want to look like I’m complaining,’ she shrugs. ‘I’ve always just taken it on the chin. I was always told to take the high ground and I think that’s something that we’ve always lived by.
‘But now seemed like the right time. It’s a very different world now, and I think that lots of women can relate to what I was talking about. I was ashamed of it, you know. You become very good at hiding those things and lying.
‘And I was nervous to talk about it. Of course I was, because people have been talking about my weight since I was really young, even before I was famous. But I now have a young daughter, and I think that talking about things like this are really, really important.
‘We’re so much more aware of mental health. And, you know, I hope people will listen to me.’
After watching the first two episodes of the documentary in full with her children on Wednesday, she watched the third episode the following night with Harper and her youngest son Cruz, 20, and his long-term girlfriend, Jackie Apostel, 29, at their family home in Holland Park, west London.
There has been much discussion over their romance because of the age gap between the pair, but this doesn’t seem to bother Victoria. Indeed, she has dressed Jackie in her label and collaborated on social media campaigns with her for the brand.
She admits she is a big fan of the Brazilian songwriter, and I ask if Jackie is a good influence on Cruz, who is about to launch his own music career. ‘She is – she’s great,’ she enthuses. ‘She’s a talented songwriter, too.’
When I meet Victoria and David, before the premiere of the documentary, David beamed as he told me how proud he was of his wife, writes KATIE HIND
Victoria told KATIE HIND, ‘I’ve always taken the high ground… But now seemed like the right time’
Romeo, 23, who is now single after separating from girlfriend Kim Turnbull earlier this year, is working in fashion. He no longer lives with his parents, but was out to support her at the premiere.
Referring to Cruz and Romeo’s career decisions, Victoria jokes that her ‘genes must be quite strong’.
The heartache is, of course, the absence in all of this of her eldest son Brooklyn. Along with his wife, American heiress Nicola Peltz, he is involved in a well-publicised rift with his parents.
That subject is, understandably, off the table for today’s interview, although the situation must particularly smart at times when the family is gathered together like this. After all, as the documentary shows, their day-to-day lives are much like any family – bar a £400 million fortune.
The clan are clearly close. At the premiere, I saw how protective Romeo was of Harper. An arm around his younger sister, he made sure she was comfortable on the red carpet. And the family still have dinner together most nights, Romeo included, where they discuss their day.
‘We just spend that time talking,’ says Victoria. ‘There are things that might not seem particularly important to people of our age, but they’re important to the kids, and I think it’s good for us to talk about what’s going on in their lives, what’s happening with friendship groups, and what are their plans, and how are things going at school for Harper – I want them all to feel heard.’
Harper, in particular, is starting to navigate the perils of social media and has recently joined Instagram. So far, her profile is set to private – much to her parents’ relief.
But she has been filming online make-up tutorials alongside her mum. What if she wanted to follow in her parents’ footsteps and take the celebrity path?
‘I think that Harper’s very smart,’ Victoria says. ‘She’s incredibly funny – oh my God, she has the best sense of humour.
‘And she’s got a little entrepreneurial head on her shoulders. She is a little mini-me.
‘So it will be interesting to see, but she’s a good girl and she’s kind. I always say to her that’s what is so important. I tell her to be the kind girl in the playground because that really matters.’
She and David must have such busy lives, I say. Don’t they ever lose track of their brood?
‘No, absolutely not,’ says Victoria. ‘We have a family chat group, and we all know where each other are. David and I like to check in with them all before we go to bed at night and check everybody’s home. Romeo might not live with us any more but we like to make sure he’s home and safe.
‘You don’t stop worrying about your kids, even when they’re grown up. You worry about them as much as you did when they were little, and that’s something that will never change.’
The same could be said for Victoria’s own parents, Jackie and Tony Adams. They appear in the Netflix documentary describing their torment at hearing how their daughter was repeatedly treated over her appearance.
How did they feel, watching you go through it all, I ask?
‘It was a double-edged sword,’ Victoria admits. ‘It was lovely to share the experiences I was having, but there were ups and downs.
‘I mean, I know how I feel – if someone is mean about one of my children, it upsets me more than if they’re mean about me. So it must have been incredibly hard for them to see all of those things that were written about me.’
Jackie and Tony also had to endure Victoria becoming the target of school bullies for being ‘thick’ when, in later years, she realised she was actually dyslexic.
She has spoken about this before, describing how the condition ‘doesn’t run in our family, it gallops’. Recalling the nasty jibes, she tells me: ‘I now realise from watching my children grow up and their academic journeys that I am self-diagnosed dyslexic.
‘I have to learn differently, but back then those things weren’t recognised. You were just called thick. And so the bottom line is, I’ve always had to work hard. It’s never come easy.’
That hard work has more than paid off. The documentary soared to the top of Netflix’s chart on Friday morning, much to her delight.
Our interview ends because Victoria has to go to another meeting. And this same work ethic is one which both David and Victoria have instilled in their children.
But in this new, kinder era, one thing is certain: Victoria will be making sure they don’t suffer, like she did, on the way.