“It was really difficult,” she says now of the memory from her youth, sipping a sparkling water in a Manhattan hotel in between work engagements. “We were all judged on how we looked. I was young. I had bad skin, my weight was going up and down, I had really lank hair.”

Beckham was also bullied in school and told she was a bad learner, revelations that come in a new documentary, “Victoria Beckham.” The three-part Netflix series traces her career and especially her ascension in the fashion world — building up to a grand Paris runway show at a palace in front of 600 people.

That 2024 show — with a rainstorm threatening to scuttle the whole thing — is presented as a career pinnacle for a designer who spent years proving herself alongside giants of the field, showing she wasn’t simply a celebrity slapping her name on a label. ( Vogue’s Anna Wintour is among the fashion luminaries attesting to Beckham’s hard-won industry acceptance in the documentary).

Of course the show also features liberal doses of Beckham’s soccer legend husband David — just as Victoria appeared in his own recent, popular Netflix documentary “Beckham” (both were produced by David Beckham’s own Studio 99).

Some reviews have said Victoria’s documentary feels more guarded and less revelatory. In any case, Victoria Beckham says she wanted to tell her own story, her own way. She focuses only briefly on what a certain generation knows her best for — the four years she spent as Posh Spice — and mostly on the two decades she’s been building her eponymous fashion and beauty brand.

Other revelations: While she was the richer partner when they married in 1999 and in fact bought their first house, it was David Beckham who later invested in her label and helped get it going.

She also talks about how her company almost fell apart due to bad business decisions — like spending 70,000 pounds (about $94,000) on office plants and 15,000 (about $20,000) more to water them — and how she learned, with investors, to right the ship.

Beckham, 51, sat down with The Associated Press this week during a visit to New York. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AP: The other Beckham documentary appeared only two years ago. Why did you feel the need for your own?

BECKHAM: Well, his documentary wasn’t about me, you know. I was in the documentary as David’s wife and I’ve been part of his journey and I was so honored to talk about that. People’s response to me in that really surprised me, and there was something quite liberating about that because when I saw myself … I didn’t like how I came across. But then I think I’ve always felt that way about myself. I suppose it gave me the confidence to do my own.

AP: What specific stories did you want to tell?

BECKHAM: I’ve been in the fashion industry for almost two decades. I was in the Spice Girls for four years — and have been so defined by that four-year period in my life. A time that I’m so proud of, but I’ve been fighting preconceptions because of that period. I feel that only now is my brand in a place where me talking about my past will not affect the brand that I’ve built.

AP: You say this is an inspirational story. How so?

BECKHAM: I’m not ashamed to say I’m really ambitious. And it’s been the first time that I’ve ever looked back and, having that bird’s eye view on my journey so far, even I found it inspiring what I have done … the fact that I have been told “No” so many times, told that I’m not enough, not good enough. And by the way, that started when I was a child, when I was at school. If anybody watches this documentary and I can give them the confidence to follow their dreams, that’s another really good reason to do it.

AP: Do you think people have misperceptions about you?

BECKHAM: Oh absolutely. I think that for many years I was misunderstood, before social media, you know, the media told the narrative, and then there were paparazzi pictures where most of the time I looked incredibly unhappy. And I think looking at the documentary telling my story from ME explains the “why.” I can’t blame people for looking at the pictures of me looking really grumpy.

AP: You talk about your weight struggles as a girl in theater class. Have you spoken about that before?

BECKHAM: Never quite like this. The opportunity has never really presented itself. And I know a lot of people can relate to my story because of all the messages that I’ve had since people have watched the documentary. … From, yes, people that I know, but people that I don’t know, people who say, “I can relate, I have been through that.” It’s taken this process finally for me to feel at my age proud of what I’ve achieved, and also to finally believe that I am enough.

AP: It seems like you spend relatively little time in the series on the Spice Girls years.

BECKHAM: I’m so respectful of my time with the Spice Girls. I still see all of the girls now. I wouldn’t be who I am now … the Spice Girls gave me the confidence to be me. I remember Geri (Halliwell) saying to me, “You’re funny, be funny.” I’m shy. And they really gave me my personality back. … I think people would be surprised to know that I was only a Spice Girl for four years. I’ve been in fashion nearly two decades, but people like to pigeonhole.

AP: Two decades later, do you think there are still people who wonder whether it’s really you doing the designing?

BECKHAM: Maybe. I don’t know. … I think I’ve earned my place to be showing where I am. I think that I’ve more than proved myself and earned the right to be there. Now I have to work hard to maintain that.

AP: You talk about business mistakes you made, even when you were getting top reviews for your fashion.

BECKHAM: I’ve learned so much. I know what I know and I really know what I DON’T know. It got to a stage where my investors told me that we had to re-strategize not just the business side of things but the creative things as well. And that was difficult. … We had to change a lot of things to fix the business and I took it on the chin. Of course that meant compromising, but I wanted to save the business.

AP: How is business doing now, both fashion and beauty?

BECKHAM: Fashion in its own right is profitable. And to be able to say that in this current climate is something I’m very proud of. I’m an independent brand as well, so I’m incredibly proud to say the fashion is making money. Beauty is also doing incredibly well. And now, it is about building the house that I really have always dreamed of.

AP: You speak about family in the show, going back to your father and his influence on your entrepreneurship. But does it annoy you that people like to write about your current family dynamics?

BECKHAM: I recognize that I am really blessed. I am very appreciative of the life I have. You have to take it along with the other stuff.

-AP

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Lionel Messi walked out from behind a curtain, took a few steps along a rain-slicked runaway set up over the field at Inter Miami’s stadium and headed toward David Beckham for a big hug.

His journey was complete. Inter Miami’s wait was over.

At long last, Messi has arrived.

Inter Miami — after years of plotting, pleading and hoping — introduced arguably the game’s biggest star on Sunday night, presenting their new franchise player with his pink No. 10 jersey that millions of people will be buying over the coming weeks and months.

“I’m sure we’re going to have many wonderful experiences,” Messi told the crowd.

Sunday was the first one. Almost every seat was filled despite horrible weather conditions that delayed the show, and nobody seemed to mind the soaking rain that pounded down throughout the evening.

“I’m very much moved to be here in Miami, to be with you,” Messi said. “I want to thank you, all of you, on behalf of my family, for the kindness that you have given me.”

Beckham, the team’s co-owner and president, had huge dark blotches on his blue blazer because of the rain.

It was going to take more than a downpour to ruin this party, one where fans roared and music boomed.

“Tonight is a typical Miami welcome for one of the greatest players to ever have played the game,” Beckham said during the telecast of the show. “The fact that we have our fans in here, celebrating this moment … this is what we have created and we’re very proud of that.”

Added primary owner Jorge Mas: “When David and I first met and we dreamt of what Inter Miami represents, it started off with the freedom to dream. And we dreamed of not only bringing elite players and the best players but the best player to ever don boots — and his name is Lionel Andrés Messi.”

When Inter Miami began floating the notion that it would be the team to land Messi and bring the World Cup champion to Major League Soccer, there were no shortage of people who were, to put it mildly, skeptical about how realistic a plan that was.

Among them: MLS Commissioner Don Garber. Yes, even the man running the league had a bit of doubt.

Not anymore. Messi to Miami isn’t just crazy talk. It happened, with Messi now tasked to lift a team that currently has the fewest points in the MLS standings and is mired in an 11-game winless streak.

“Here we are today with a player that I think, without doubt, is not only a generational player but in my opinion the greatest of all time,” Garber said. “Went through a process throughout his decision-making period over the last number of months, if not the last year, to determine where he was going to play. Many of you have heard us say that we want MLS to be a league of choice, a league of choice for players, for fans, for partners, and ultimately for investors.

“And when you have the best player of all-time making Major League Soccer his league of choice, I think it’s a real testament to where MLS is and where it’s going in the years ahead.”

The event billed as “The Unveil” happened at the team’s stadium in Fort Lauderdale. It comes one day after Messi, MLS and Inter Miami finalized his signing through the 2025 season.

It’s the start of a busy week of events for Messi with his new club. His first official training session that will be open to reporters is set for Tuesday and — if all goes to plan — he will play Friday in a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul. That could also be the Miami debut of World Cup winner Sergio Busquets, a Spanish midfielder who completed his long-awaited signing with the club Sunday through the 2025 season.

Busquets, who turned 35 on Sunday, and the 36-year-old Messi were teammates previously at Barcelona.

“This is a special and exciting opportunity that I’m very excited to take,” Busquets said.

Messi, a World Cup champion for Argentina and seven-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player in a given year, is joining a club that has the fewest points in MLS and is mired in an 11-match winless streak. Inter Miami opened the season with two wins and has gone 3-14-3 since. It has 12 MLS matches left this season, and is 12 points out of a playoff spot — so it’s going to take a ton of wins just to have a chance.

The club previously announced that Messi’s deal will be for 2 1/2 seasons and will pay him between $50 million and $60 million annually — putting the total contract value between $125 million and $150 million in cash alone. There are other factors, the value of which isn’t known.

“This ought to be fun. … This journey here in Miami has been an epic one,” Garber said.

Messi’s greatness is not in question; he led Argentina to the World Cup this past December and is still generally considered one of the very best goalscorers in the world — if not the best.

That said, not everyone believes Messi coming to MLS will be a cakewalk, even for a legend.

“He won’t find it easy here,” Wayne Rooney, the former England and Manchester United great who now coaches D.C. United, told The Times of London for a story published Sunday. “It sounds mad, but players who come in find it’s a tough league. The travelling, the different conditions in different cities, and there’s a lot of energy and intensity on the pitch.”

But Rooney also knows how Messi playing here is huge for MLS, and huge for soccer in the U.S.

“Americans love winners,” Rooney said. “Above all, they want to see skill and to be entertained, and Messi brings all that.”

Messi announced his decision in early June, and the buildup to Sunday was growing ever since.

“This is our moment,” Mas said. “Our moment to change the futbol landscape in this country.”

AP

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