People felt it was okay to criticise my wife for her weight – Sir David Beckham

Sir David Beckham has said people felt it was “okay to criticise” women for their weight in the 1990s and 2000s when his wife was the subject of media scrutiny over her appearance.

Lady Victoria Beckham’s experience is explored in a new three-part Netflix documentary, titled Victoria Beckham, where the former Spice Girl, 51, recalls the moment she was weighed on TV six months after giving birth to her first son, Brooklyn.

In the series, Sir David says: “People felt that it was okay to criticise a woman for her weight, for what she’s doing, for what’s she’s wearing, there were a lot of things happening in TV then that won’t happen now, that can’t happen now.”

Lady Beckham says: “‘Get on those scales’ on television. ‘Have you lost the weight?’ You know, we laugh about it and we joke about it when we’re on television. But I was really, really young, and that hurts.

“I really started to doubt myself and not like myself, and 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’m just very critical of myself. I didn’t like what I saw.

“I’ve been everything from porky posh to skinny posh. It’s been a lot, and that’s hard.

“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 … it really affects you when you’re being told constantly you’re not good enough.”

Speaking about how this affected their life, Sir David said: “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.”

The three-part series charts the businesswoman’s early life and music career with the Spice Girls, while also following her as she prepares for a high-stakes fashion show at Paris Fashion Week.

Victoria Beckham launches on Netflix on October 9.