Victoria Beckham in Full

From the Archives: My 2006 cover story of Victoria Beckham for Harper's Bazaar Australia

Dear Style Files Followers,

Forgive the silence. I had an unexpected health issue while on a work trip, and have been laid out for a bit. Not to worry, I’m on the mend, and all shall be well. But while cooling it, I binged Fisher Stevens’ delightful “Beckham” series on Netflix—even though I never ever watch soccer/football; really, never—and it reminded me that I wrote a cover story on Victoria back in the thick of the Real Madrid period for Harper’s Bazaar Australia. (Back then, I was the glossy’s Paris Correspondent—a great gig for a great magazine.) When Victoria says in the series that she was never so unhappy in her life—yeah, I can confirm confirm she was pretty miserable.

Thought I'd trot out the story for you. It’s a cool snapshot of a specific time in her life.

“There is a temple where the Japanese go to pray to a statue of David,” Beckham says.

I’d like to add: When she told to me, “I’m done with music. And I’m never going to act,” well, shortly after the issue came out, The Spice Girls announced they were going on tour again—no doubt talks with the talent had been going on for some time—and she appeared in Ugly Betty. So…

Don’t you just love when celebrities spout—how did we put it during the Trump administration?—“untruths” during interviews?

Enjoy!

Photo by Thiemo Sande; Styling by Jane Cattani

“You’re not going to get me to smile,” she warns the photographer.

By Dana Thomas

Her reputation as a diva precedes her and her demands for the shoot in Paris for this story seemed to confirm it: gobs of white roses and lilies at the studio, a bottle of Champagne on ice, her personal hairdresser Ben Cooke brought in from London. So when I arrive at the set for our lunchtime interview and she marches up to me, sticks out her hand, and says brightly in her little girl voice, “Hi, I’m Victoria Beckham,” I’m nearly knocked off my Sergio Rossis. Pop music stars generally are not known for their good manners. Divas never are.

Then again, it must be hard to be Victoria Beckham.