Before Victoria Beckham became the global fashion icon and pop culture figure she is today, she was once a shy, bullied schoolgirl who struggled to fit in. In a candid conversation on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper on Oct. 22, the 51-year-old designer opened up about the emotional and physical bullying she endured growing up — experiences that deeply shaped who she is today.
“I remember standing in the playground completely alone while kids picked up Coke cans from puddles and threw them at me,” Beckham recalled. “I was bullied both physically and mentally, but back then, no one talked about mental health like they do now. So, I just kept it all inside and became more and more shy.”
The former Spice Girl described herself as an “awkward” teenager who never quite fit in socially. “When everyone else was smoking and hanging out after school, I was heading to dance or drama lessons,” she said. Even adults, she added, could be unkind. “A family friend once told my mum that I was ‘morose.’ When I learned what that meant, it really hurt and made me so self-conscious.”
Her insecurities deepened as she battled teenage body changes and early health struggles. Diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) as a teen, Beckham said it affected her skin and confidence. “I was told I might struggle to have children one day, and that’s a lot to process when you’re young,” she explained.
Despite having “supportive parents,” Beckham admitted she was too ashamed to tell anyone what she was going through. “My entire school life was miserable,” she confessed. The bullying didn’t stop there — in college, she was told she wasn’t “good enough” and was “too fat to be on stage.” But those harsh words, she said, helped her develop the thick skin she would later need to survive intense public scrutiny as “Posh Spice.”
In her recent Netflix documentary Beckham, she revealed how tabloid culture and body-shaming worsened her eating disorder. She recalled being humiliated on national television after giving birth to her son Brooklyn: “They told me to get on the scales to see if I’d lost the baby weight. I was really young — it hurt so much. I didn’t recognize myself anymore.”
Now a mother of four, Beckham says she’s determined to handle things differently with her 14-year-old daughter, Harper. “She’s seen the documentary, and little girls still obsess over food,” Beckham said. “So I made sure to talk to her about it — I wanted her to understand my experience and know that she never has to go through the same thing.”
