Victoria Beckham explains why she looks ‘miserable’ and ‘moody’ in public

Victoria Beckham has shared the hilarious reason why she never smiles at public events: because her husband David always steals her good side.

The 51-year-old fashion designer and former Spice Girl, who married the former England captain in 1999, said both she and the sportsman like to stand on the left when they’re in front of cameras.

“Here’s a fact, I’ve looked miserable for all these years because when we stand on the red carpet, this guy had always [stood] on the left,” Beckham explained alongside David in her new Netflix documentary.

“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 I'm smiling on the inside but no one ever sees it. So, that's why I look so moody.”

Later in the documentary, Beckham also admitted that a change in her confidence levels after the Spice Girls split in 2000 and she attempted a solo career affected her overall mood.

“When people are mean and you’re hearing things and you’re seeing things and you’re constantly made to feel you’re not good enough, that really hurts. I became so self conscious,” she said.

David noted that when he first met his wife she was “smiley, bubbly and confident” but that side of her personality slowly disappeared as public criticism increased in the 2000s.

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“People thought I was a miserable cow that never smiled and they’re not wrong,” Beckham added, admitting she tensed up the minute she realised someone was taking photographs of her.

“The minute I see a camera, I change. The barrier goes up, my armour goes on and that’s when the miserable cow who doesn’t smile comes out.

“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 but I just can't do it,” she said.

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Beckham’s eponymous Netflix documentary charts her rise to fame as Posh Spice in the Nineties, one fifth of the best-selling girl groups of all time, to when she married David at 25.

It briefly touches on the band’s split in 2001 and her short-lived solo music career, and goes behind the scenes at her label during the build up to 2024 Paris Fashion Week.

Elsewhere in the series, the star opens up about her struggles with disordered eating that saw her control food in an “unhealthy way” as her time in the public eye took its toll.

Victoria Beckham is streaming on Netflix from 9 October.