Victoria Beckham opens up on near-collapse of fashion empire and personal struggles
Los Angeles — Victoria Beckham has revealed that her fashion brand came perilously close to collapse due to excessive and wasteful spending, leaving the company “tens of millions in the red,” according to her new Netflix documentary Victoria Beckham. The three-part series provides an intimate look at the preparation behind her Paris Fashion Week shows, alongside candid reflections on the early financial struggles of building her eponymous brand.
Beckham, a former Spice Girl, admitted she relied on her husband, David Beckham, for financial support during the company’s formative years. “This business is everything to me. It's absolutely who I am. But it’s been a hell of a journey,” she said. “I almost lost everything, and that was a dark, dark time. We were tens of millions in the red.”
David Beckham also reflected on those early challenges, explaining that asking for help was emotionally difficult. “For her to have to come to me and say, ‘Can I have some — we need some more money, the business needs more money,’ that was hard for both of us,” he said.
The couple eventually enlisted outside investor David Belhassen, who described the company’s finances at the time as a “disaster.” Belhassen recalled extravagant spending, citing £70,000 a year on office plants and another £15,000 for watering them. “I said, ‘Victoria, we have to change everything, restructure the business, and that’s going to be painful,’” he said. Beckham admitted that hearing the truth was difficult but necessary.
“I hadn’t been to business school, I came from an entertainment background… the waste was mind-blowing. I had 15 different linings for the insides of outerwear. People thought I was used to getting the best… bizarre things like flying chairs from one side of the world to the other,” she said. She acknowledged that fear of saying “no” to a celebrity allowed the overspending to continue.
The documentary also touches on Beckham’s personal challenges, including a past eating disorder exacerbated by public scrutiny. She recalled a 1999 television incident where she was asked to step on a scale on live TV six months after giving birth to her first child, leaving her feeling inadequate and critical of herself.
“I’ve been everything from Porky Posh to Skinny Posh… I wanted to control what was being written about me, pictures, and my weight, and I did it in an incredibly unhealthy way,” she admitted. Beckham reflected on how constant criticism affected her self-perception, saying, “When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying. It really affects you when you are constantly being told you’re not good enough.”
Despite the early setbacks, Beckham successfully restructured her business, with investor support and personal determination helping her to regain stability. She and David Beckham shared candid moments about her motivation and drive, with Victoria acknowledging her ambition and pride in her accomplishments.
“I think you’re trying to prove it to yourself,” David told her, to which she responded, “Yeah, success. It feels good. I am proud, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m ambitious, and I’ve still got a lot that I want to do.”
The documentary underscores both the personal and professional resilience Beckham has demonstrated, offering a behind-the-scenes view of her journey from pop star to fashion mogul.
