Victoria Beckham’s fashion business was losing millions and the new Netflix documentary exposdes humiliating blunders including £70,000 spent on pot plant
Victoria Beckham has revealed the multi-million pound losses of her fashion brand sent her to a “dark place” crying every day – and put a strain on her marriage to husband David.
At the lowest point David said he feared the business could not survive, and after ploughing in millions of his own cash he was left “worried” about what would happen next.
Victoria says she felt “embarrassed” and had to come home and discuss the failing business with her husband. At its worst she felt like she was “breaking down” as debts spiralled and she found herself an emotional mess.
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Victoria tells her new Netflix documentary: “This business is everything to me, it’s absolutely who I am. But It’s been a hell of a journey. I almost lost everything. And that was a dark, dark time. I used to cry before I went to work every day, because I just felt like a firefighter.
“We were tens of millions in the red. Yes, I’m going home to my husband, but I’m going home to my business partner as well, and so I would talk to him about it. I had to, he was invested, and I hated it. I absolutely hated it.”
David adds: “We both sat there, and, you know, we looked at what I’d invested, and I think part of that conversation broke my heart, because Victoria is a proud woman.
“When we met, she was a lot richer than me. She actually bought our first house in Hertfordshire, known as Beckenham palace.
“So for her to have to come to me and say, ‘we need some more money, the business needs more money’. That was hard for both of us, because I didn’t have the money to keep doing this. And eventually I was like, this cannot continue.”
Problems centered around the clothing brand having bigger and bigger shows and creating a name for itself within the fashion industry at a faster pace than the business was growing in terms of revenue.
When they discussed this in the second episode of the series, Victoria said: “The brand was growing and we were getting great reviews. That felt good. Everything looked great from the outside, but the reality was it was slipping through my fingers. There was a lot of money being spent, that should never have been spent. The losses were so so big. David was investing a lot.
“It was like a snowball that was going down the mountain. There was a lot of waste. We were millions of pounds in the red. I didn’t know what to do, and I was so desperate to save this business that I cared so much about. I felt, if I’m being completely honest, like I was breaking down myself.
“I knew it was public knowledge and I felt embarrassed, but it’s fact. It wasn’t an opinion of anyone. It wasn’t anyone being unkind. It was a fact. And I had to just take it on the chin. I was in a hole and I felt like I was in quicksand. I was desperate.”
David said: “It made me panic. I was panicked by it, because I never saw anything coming back. We always agreed that we would support each other, no matter what. But it worried me, this isn’t sustainable. There was no way of her business surviving.”
Thankfully the fashion brand, which was getting rave reviews even when it was making losses, turned a corner when Victoria gained a business partner, David Belhassen.
David looked at the company’s books and was going to say no due to the big losses, but he was persuaded to invest when his wife told him the dress she was wearing was one of Victoria’s designer range and that the outfits were fantastic.
However, he had to make big changes and he was shocked at some of the ridiculous ways bills were being racked up. David Belhassen said: “The business was in a very, very challenging situation.
“For years, she had people telling her what she wanted to hear. I remember one of the expenses was the office plants, because she loves plants, and it was costing like £70,000 a year. And then there was someone who was coming to water the plants for £15,000 a year, and that’s only the beginning.
“So I went to her, and I decided to just tell the truth exactly the way it is, and I didn’t know how she would react. And I said, Victoria, we have to change everything, restructure the business, and that’s going to be painful. And when I finished, she just listened, and she left a little silence.”
Victoria, who agreed to make big changes, added: “I took it on the chin. The waste was mind-blowing. I had 15 different linings for the insides of the outerwear. Bizarre things like flying chairs from one side of the world to the other. I hear it now and I am horrified. I think part of the problem is some people were scared to tell me no. If I am honest it is the power of celebrity. People thought that I wasn’t used to hearing no.
“I will hold my hands up and be accountable for things I could have done differently. I was in debt, there was a lot I had to change. I realised I had lost my way. I needed to put Victoria Beckham back into Victoria Beckham.”
The Netflix series ends with a triumphant show in France at last year’s Paris Fashion Week. All the Beckham family are there, including son Brooklyn who very briefly appears on screen for five seconds with his wife, but is still currently at odds with his parents.
“This has not been an easy ride, I’m lucky I still have the business. I won’t let it slip through my fingers again,” Victoria tells the documentary series.
Victoria, 51, also looks back over her childhood, time in the Spice Girls and when she met her husband David. She talks of “losing it” mentally rather than financially after the Spice Girls split and she “didn’t really know what she was doing” when she embarked on a solo career.
She also gets tearful as she describes previously being told at theatre school she was overweight and says media critics also led her to have food issues In the past.
David recalls: “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.”
Victoria said: “I really started to doubt myself and not like myself, you know, 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 was just very critical of myself. I didn’t like what I saw. I’ve been everything from porky posh to skinny posh. I mean, you know, 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, you know, I could control it with the clothing. I could control my weight, and I was controlling it in an incredibly unhealthy way. When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying.
“And I was never honest about it with my parents. I never talked about it publicly. It really affects you when you’re being told constantly you’re not good enough, and I suppose that’s been with me my whole life.”
For similar reasons Victoria also tells the documentary she “put a barrier up” when she saw photographers and that is why she is accused of not smiling in photos.
She said: “I’m so conscious of that, and I don’t like that. I’d rather not be that person. I’d love to have the confidence to walk out of a restaurant and smile or stand on a red carpet and smile, but I just can’t do it.”
But a second reason is down to David for covering up her smile in some shots. Joking with him as they prepare to head out for the night, she said: “I’ve looked miserable for all these years, because when we stand on the red carpet, this guy(Becks) has always gone on the left. Okay.
“Now I didn’t realise that when I smile, which I do! I smile from the left, because if I smile from the right, I look unwell. So consequently I’m smiling on the inside, but no one ever sees it, so that’s why it looks so moody.”
The three part series ends with Victoria and David at their Cotswold home looking to the future. David said: “Don’t you feel confident enough that you can just sit back and relax? You are so driven and so passionate and so dedicated. It makes me quite emotional, because you’re always trying to prove yourself to people. What is stopping you from just saying, Okay, I’ve achieved it?
Victoria replies: “Because I’ve spent so many years fighting and building that I feel now I really have an opportunity, and I don’t want to let that slip. I feel bad about all that time when I had to ask you to help me out. But success, it feels good. I’m not gonna lie. I’m proud, and I’m not ashamed to say that. I’m ambitious, and I’ve still got a lot that I want to do now. I’m not stopping yet.”
* Three part series Victoria Beckham is out now on Netflix.
