Victoria Beckham reflects on past body dysmorphia and media scrutiny in new docuseries

Victoria Beckham says she battled an eating disorder and struggled with intense media scrutiny of her body. Photo / Getty Images

Victoria Beckham is opening up about her “unhealthy” relationship with her body in a candid new docuseries.

The former Spice Girl confessed she battled an eating disorder in her new Netflix show, Victoria Beckham, which came out October 9.

She said the pressure to maintain a certain look began to change how she viewed herself.

“I really started to doubt myself and not like myself, because I let it affect me. I didn’t know what I saw when I looked in the mirror – you lose all sense of reality. I was just very critical myself.”

Beckham revealed her body dysmorphia led to her managing her weight “in an incredibly unhealthy way”, something she hid from loved ones.

“When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying.”

The Beckham clan accompanied Victoria to the premiere of the new series – aside from her oldest son, Brooklyn. Photo / Karwai Tang

Referring to the intense scrutiny of her body, she admitted the media had a particular impact on her relationship with her body.

“I’ve been everything from Porky Posh to Skinny Posh. It’s been a lot and that’s hard.”

The 51-year-old mentioned a particular incident where she was weighed on television six months after the birth of her first child, Brooklyn.

“We laugh about it, we joked about it... but I was really, really young, and that hurts.”

David Beckham also made an appearance in the series, condemning the media’s treatment of his wife throughout the nineties and noughties.

“People felt it was okay to criticise a woman for her weight... there were a lot of things happening on TV then that won’t happen now, that can’t happen now.”

The pair have been married for 26 years and share four children, Brooklyn, 26, Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20, and Harper, 14, E News reports.

Victoria Beckham also features the star discussing how the end of the Spice Girls left her feeling adrift and unsure of what to do next.

While Victoria Beckham was initially the more famous spouse, that changed when the Spice Girls went on hiatus – just as her husband’s football career took off.

David Beckham said because his “life didn’t change”, he initially didn’t recognise how much his wife was struggling.

“It all changed for her and I think that, at the time, I didn’t realise how hard that was for her.”

The documentary follows her eventual pursuit of fashion, detailing her preparation for her fashion house’s runway show in Paris.