“I almost lost everything” in the fashion business

“It’s not about him, it’s about me,” says Victoria Beckham (“him” being her husband Sir David Beckham).

And that’s exactly what we get in a new three-part documentary, coming to Netflix on Thursday.

The former Spice Girl and fashion entrepreneur, 51, is determined to tell her own story – two years after former England captain Sir David, 50, released his own hugely successful TV series.

The episodes immerse us in Victoria’s pop career, her family life, her difficulties in reinventing herself and her preparation for a big show at Paris Fashion Week.

We also learn of the serious financial problems her fashion business was facing and how she feared she would “lose everything.”

There are contributions from famous friends, including Eva Longoria, and fashion titans such as Dame Anna Wintour and Donatella Versace.

Here are our key takeaways from his documentary.

Lady Beckham rose to dizzying fame in the Spice Girls, so it’s hard to believe that at school she was “that uncool kid” who didn’t fit in.

“I was definitely a loner at school,” she says, explaining that she was bullied.

The Spice Girls reunited in 1994, after Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Victoria responded to an advert for candidates.

Following the release of their debut single Wannabe in 1996, “Spice mania” swept the planet, with their self-proclaimed mantra “Girl Power” – a brand of female empowerment that made them a global pop culture phenomenon.

Lady Beckham thanks her bandmates for making her “lighter, more fun” and says it was the first time she felt popular.

She still had to deal with negative headlines regarding her weight and talks about an eating disorder. She says she never talked about it publicly, or even much with her parents, but that it made her “very good at lying.”

But Lady Beckham says the other Spice Girls made her “feel pretty good” about being herself. It’s a message she continues to instill in her 14-year-old daughter Harper.

“I tell Harper every day: be who you are,” she says.

Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls in 1998 and the group broke up in 2001.

Lady Beckham says she found the transition “really, really difficult”.

She continued to make music, but the criticism she received “really hurt.”

Then came the famous WAG period. Photos of Victoria and other wives and girlfriends supporting their soccer partners in the German city of Baden-Baden in 2006 were published all over the tabloids.

“It was fun,” Lady Beckham says of this period of her life.

But she now admits there was an “attention-seeking element” to it all. “I was trying to find myself, I felt incomplete, sad, frozen in time perhaps,” she says.

After the family moved to the United States, Lady Beckham decided she wanted to work in fashion.

But to do that, she knew she had to shed her other personas – the Spice Girl, the WAG. “I buried these breasts in Baden-Baden,” she said.

Lady Beckham is surprisingly honest about the struggles her fashion business has faced.

She says people didn’t consider her “cool” at all and many people refused to take her seriously.

And Vogue giant Dame Anna confirms this view when talking about Victoria’s fashion aspirations: “I thought maybe it was a hobby. I didn’t really believe it.”

We see the growth of Victoria Beckham Ltd but also the serious financial difficulties it faces. Sir David says he didn’t think his business would survive, to which Lady Beckham agrees.

“I lost almost everything and it was a very dark time,” she says. “I used to cry every day before going to work because I felt like a firefighter.”

She says her business was “in the red with tens of millions.”

In a later scene, her voice breaks and she bursts into tears when she remembers how Sir David stepped in to help her business.

But the series also shows her making a difference, and we see her pulling out all the stops in the run-up to her triumphant spring/summer show at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024.

Model Gigi Hadid walked for her, wearing a stunning emerald green dress. Dame Anna is in attendance and, in an earlier clip, says Lady Beckham “totally proved us wrong”.

Today, Victoria has offices in London and New York, with its flagship store in Mayfair, London. The brand’s products are present in 230 stores in 50 countries around the world, according to the company’s website.

The couple’s eldest son, Brooklyn, 26, gets a few mentions in the series and appears briefly. Lady Beckham brings it up in conversation, discussing the morning sickness she faced while pregnant with him and performing with the Spice Girls.

But in recent months, much of the online interest around the Beckhams has focused on reports that Brooklyn and his wife Nicola had a falling out with the rest of the family.

The couple were absent from David Beckham’s 50th birthday celebrations and did not post a birthday message online, fueling intrigue.

Nicola has in the past denied there was a feud within the family. Sir David and Lady Beckham have never acknowledged the rumored split and refused to comment when asked by BBC News.

We recently received a hint about this from Victoria, who told the Sunday Times how she thought Liam and Noel Gallagher’s reconciliation must have made their mother “so happy”.

“As a mom, it must be…she must feel so happy to see her boys getting along,” she said.

Showbiz journalist Catrina Rose notes that there was “no trace” of an alleged feud on the show.

“Victoria sets a lot of records here, but she’s not drawn to this particular subject.”

Lady Beckham’s pout became her defining look in the 1990s. But in the new series, she admits there’s a deeper reason why she never smiles.

“As soon as I see a camera, I change,” she says.

“The barrier goes up, my armor goes on, and that’s where, you know, the miserable cow that doesn’t smile, that’s where she comes out. And I’m so aware of that.”

She adds that she “would rather not be that person” and wishes she had the confidence to go out in front of the cameras and smile.

Elsewhere, she insists she’s actually smiling.

“I’ve looked unhappy all these years because when we go on the red carpet, this guy always goes to the left,” she says, pointing to Sir David.

“When I smile, I smile from the left, because if I smile from the right, I look sick. So, therefore, I smile inside, but no one ever sees it, that’s why I look so moody.”

The program is filled with little details about the Beckhams’ relationship – many of which were previously unknown.

For example, Sir David starts a blender when he doesn’t want to listen to Victoria (that’s what she says, anyway).

The couple have fond memories of their whirlwind romance in the 1990s, which led to them getting married and having a baby within two years.

Sir David believes his parents – and his manager – would have preferred him to marry a local girl who stayed in Manchester, where he played for Manchester United. “But I didn’t want that,” he says, opting instead for globe-trotting celebrity Victoria.

“I was so excited I wanted everyone to know I was dating Posh Spice,” the former England captain said.

Lady Beckham, for her part, says she was never a young girl dreaming of getting married or becoming a mother. “It wasn’t until I met David that these things came to mind,” she says.

In the latest episode, filmed ahead of Sir David’s 50th birthday this year, the pair reflect on all they have achieved and what lies ahead.

“Success feels good, I’m not going to lie,” assures Victoria. “I still have a lot of things to do.”

Sir David, for his part, seems to have something else in mind.

“Now we both have, well, I’m almost 50, you’re 51, what’s next? Another baby?” David asks his wife.

Victoria laughs. “Another baby? My God. No.”

Victoria Beckham, a three-part documentary series, is now available on Netflix.