Posh’s NOT-SO perfect life
An OBE, a new fashion range, a busy family life – but is success coming at a price?
t’s been a big week for Victoria Beckham, as she was awarded an OBE and turned 43. But insiders say things aren’t nearly as rosy as they appear…
Last week, the fashion designer admitted, “I don’t
have a lot of friends,” naming her sister Louise and “a friend I went to school with” as her closest allies. And it’s clear why, as she went on to describe her exhausting life dedicated to exercise and work.
“There are really three reasons why Victoria doesn’t have many friends,” says an insider close to the designer and her husband of 18 years, David. “Firstly, it’s sometimes hard to trust women not to flirt with David, and she naturally worries they’re only interested in him, not her. Of course she trusts David implicitly, but she can also be very competitive and measures herself against other people’s successes. Even though you’d think she has it all, she’s always worried that there is someone doing better –that’s why she’s so ambitious still. And the third reason is that she has no time. She’s always working, with her kids, or at the gym – there’s no room for socialising.”
In the interview with Elle magazine, Victoria – who says she eats salmon literally every single day – admits to doing an hour-long workout when she wakes up, followed by a second hour-long session after she’s taken the kids to school. Our insider adds, “Victoria loves being thin, and she’d spend all day exercising if she had the time. She never eats anything with gluten – no breads or pastas – just fish and veg, and the occasional unsweetened yoghurt. Her biggest treat would be unsweetened dark chocolate. It’s very regimented.”
But if you think two gym sessions a day and ferrying her kids, Brooklyn, 18, Romeo, 14, Cruz, 12, and Harper, five, around, was enough to keep Victoria busy, we haven’t even got to her “enormous amount of work”. The designer, who describes herself as “intense”, has admitted, “There’s a lot of pressure. You’re constantly questioning yourself,” before adding, “I am a perfectionist, and I like to be in control.”
This is why Posh’s 43rd birthday was so hard for her. “Victoria says she doesn’t care about ageing, but of course she does,” says our insider. “She can’t control it, and this fear of getting older is one of the reasons she exercises so much. She gets a facial massage twice a week to keep her skin supple, and likes dermabrasion and laser resurfacing.”
We’ve noticed that in the last few weeks, Victoria’s been wearing much more leggy, cleavage-y outfits, and she posted a pic on Instagram in a revealing swimsuit with an Easter bunny mask. Last week, VB dismissed her love of revealing clothes in her younger years as “a sign of many insecurities”. But our insider
‘Victoria is posting sexy pics to show she’s still got it’
says the birthday brought up many of those same old doubts.
“Victoria is posting sexy pics to show she’s still got it,” says heat’s source. “But it’s also like a farewell tour for her body, because she feels like this is her last chance to show it off. She usually wears a lot of fashion-forward oversized shirts, but she wants to show David that the wild girl he fell for is still there. They have so little time together, but she still wants him to feel that spark.” Vic confirmed their separate lives, saying, “I don’t really get any time in the evening,” adding that, “David and I both respect that each of us are very, very busy. In the future, I would like to spend more quality time with my husband.”
All eyes were on the couple last Wednesday as they arrived at the Palace to pick up Victoria’s OBE for services to fashion and charity from Prince William. It had the potential to be an embarrassing event for David after February’s “Beckileaks” scandal, when his angry emails showed his desperation to get a knighthood. Our insider says, “Victoria felt like the award was what the family needed to be seen in a positive light after David’s email leaks. He kept a low profile at the event and made sure the day was all about her.
“Victoria sees herself as a visual artist and being taken seriously in that regard means everything. It’s taken a long time for people to see her as more than just a pop singer, and that’s what keeps pushing her to strive for more – even if it means making sacrifices on her way to the top.”