Victoria Beckham has opened up about a resurfaced interview from 1999 where the host of a British TV show forced her to be weighed live on air.
“I went on a TV show with [host] Chris Evans many years ago and I’d just had Brooklyn and lost a lot of weight after,” Beckham, 48, told Vogue Australia in an interview published Tuesday, June 28. “It happened to my mum after her pregnancies. It doesn’t mean you have an eating disorder. And he made me stand on the scales to be weighed. Can you imagine that nowadays?”
In the clip, the host Evans asks Beckham, “A lot of girls want to know, because you look fantastic again, how did you get back to your shape after your birth?”
While Beckham is clearly uncomfortable, she plays along replying “I’m really lazy. I don’t go down to the gym or anything.”
The host then asked if her weight was “back to normal.” The fashion icon noted that her weight was fine. Evans decided he wanted to “check” for himself and brought out a scale for her to stand on. In front of a live audience. Broadcast to the entire nation.
Beckham, who called the stunt “horrible,” sheepishly stepped on the scale and Evans revealed the number to his audience. “Eight stone’s [112 lbs.] not bad at all, is it?” he said at the time.
The former Spice Girls member also recalled how the media fixated on her weight throughout her career—particularly in the ’90s.
I’ve had ‘Porky Posh,’ I’ve had ‘Skeletal Posh.’ After I had Brooklyn, there was a picture pointing to every single part of my body where I had to focus on losing the weight from,” Beckham said.
In May, the fashion designer opened up about how her own relationship with her body had changed over the years, telling Grazia that “wanting to be really thin” is “an old-fashioned attitude.
Beckham called the desire to be “really thin” an “old-fashioned” notion.
“It’s an old-fashioned attitude, wanting to be really thin. I think women today want to look healthy, and curvy. They want to have some boobs — and a bum,” she said.
Beckham shared she’s now found a balance with her health and fitness journey, saying, “It’s not about being a certain size,” she explained. “It’s about knowing who you are and being happy with who you are. I have found my own balance between wanting to have fun and being disciplined about eating healthily and working out. When you’re younger you fight against that balance.”
