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In her Netflix documentary — launched at a celebrity bash in London last night — Victoria reveals she starved herself in an effort to stay thin and became “very good at lying” after losing control of what was being said about her.
She admits she hid the condition from her family as she struggled to “stay relevant” after the group split.
Victoria, 51, says: “It’s been a lot, and that’s hard. I had no control over what was being written about me, the pictures being taken, and I suppose I wanted to control that.
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“I could control it with the clothing, I could control my weight and I was controlling it in an extremely unhealthy way.
“When you have an eating disorder you become very good at lying and I was never honest about it with my parents.”
Loss of identity
“I never talked about it publicly. It really affects you when you’re being told constantly that you’re not good enough and I suppose that’s been with me my whole life.”
Speaking about her disordered eating in an episode entitled Kill The Wag, Victoria details her loss of identity while trying to reinvent herself as a fashion designer as husband David’s footballing career flourished.
She describes her Wag era — one that involved her getting a boob job, wearing hair extensions, lashings of fake tan and minimal outfits — as her “attention-seeking” years.
Archive footage of Victoria alongside the other Wags at the 2006 World Cup in Baden-Baden in Germany show her looking both frail and pneumatic.
Within two years, however, she had successfully turned things around with her fashion career. The boob job was also reversed.
She quips in the show: “I buried those boobs in Baden-Baden!”
In another emotional scene in the three-part series, the mum of four’s loyal parents, Jackie and Tony, are interviewed.
They say her issues with weight started at theatre school when she was called fat and shoved to the back of the stage.
Her mum recalls: “If you’re told you’re overweight, you’d be hurt. It’s a silly thing to say to a young person: ‘you’re fat’.” Dad Tony adds: “Obviously it would upset her.”
Victoria says she would call her parents in tears, begging them to let her return home.
During her Spice Girls days, unflattering pap photos showed her with a hint of belly.
And in 2000, chat show host Michael Parkinson asked her on air whether she was anorexic, a question she laughed off.
She was also weighed on live TV.
Victoria now eats healthily with no issue — although she was recently mocked online for claiming one of her favourite meals was unbuttered wholegrain toast with salt.
She had previously claimed her healthy eating was to try to control her acne.
Last night a friend said: “Victoria wanted to be honest and upfront in this documentary — she didn’t want to shy away from a subject she knows still, to this day, obsesses people.
“In her younger years, before she found the gym and true happiness with her career and family, she was incredibly rigid with her food, and borderline anorexic.
“She largely replaced solid food with liquids and would also run quite obsessively.
“She was also told to lose weight by Spice Girls management and that saw her spiral — she would binge-eat cereal and make herself ill.
“She was so badly hurt by all the nasty things being said about her, and like so many women, tried to reclaim control by what went in and out of her body.
“Her decision to speak about it now shows just how far she has come — she’s an incredible role model to both her kids and women generally.
“Victoria hopes that by being honest with her difficulties, she can help others experiencing similar problems.”
No self-pity
“Doing this documentary has, in many ways, been like therapy for her.
“There is no self-pity, she doesn’t blame anyone else for her problems, and she shows that hard work leads to success.”
In a lighter moment in the show, former England captain David, 50, offers Victoria a Miniature Heroes chocolate bar.
She jokes: “I haven’t eaten chocolate since the ’90s — I’m not going to start now!”
Elsewhere in the series, which features contributions from Anna Wintour, Eva Longoria, Tom Ford and Roland Mouret, Victoria discusses her rollercoaster journey from Spice Girl to designer.
Eldest son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz make only a fleeting appearance in the final edit amid the family’s ongoing feud.
But Victoria’s three other children, Romeo, Cruz and Harper, all appear.
And just as Posh was widely praised for her part in David’s own Emmy-winning Netflix four-parter, so Becks repays the favour this time around.
In one scene he jokes: “What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear.”. It prompts Posh to retort: “He thinks that’ll be his moment in the show but it won’t … it’s all about me.”
Victoria also opens up about her business empire which, she admits, was, at one stage, $20 million in the red.
As her business partner at the time, David admits he found it awkward to keep pumping cash into the business and that difficult conversations were had.
In the final scene, the happy couple are shown in the garden of their sprawling Cotswolds manor.
Reflecting on her success, a tearful Victoria tells David: “There’s still a lot I want to do. I’m not stopping yet.” When David asks her if that involves making another baby, she tells him “No!”
The series closes with one of Victoria’s favourite Spice Girls songs, Saturday Night Divas.
The show was premiered at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair, central London, last night.
Victoria and David were joined by Romeo, Harper, Cruz and his girlfriend Jackie Apostel.
Although Brooklyn was not there, Posh held out an olive branch by mentioning him in her speech.
David’s mum, Sandra, and sister Joanne were also present along with the Beckhams’ celebrity pals Tilly and Tana Ramsay.
Three of Victoria’s Spice Girls pals turned up — Ginger Spice Geri Horner, Sporty Spice Mel C and Baby Spice Emma Bunton.
Before the screening Victoria stood on stage and said: “I’d like to thank the Spice Girls — Geri, Emma, Melanie and Melanie. I love you so much and thank you so much.
“My children, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, Harper and David — oh, my God, he’s not a child. I was doing so well without cards as well.
“It’s taken me this process to really be proud of what I’ve achieved and to realise finally that I am enough.”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission.