Why Are Women Still Being “Victoria Beckham-ed?”

“I was always the villain,” recalls Victoria. When David announced his 2003 transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid, she paused to point out that the couple didn’t have anywhere to live, or schools for the children. “But the reality was: we’re moving to Spain,” she says, drawing focus to the fact that the press lambasted her for failing to embrace her new home with a Stepford Wives smile pasted on her face. Many insisted her delay in joining him overseas was an example of her inability to support her husband’s career, when in reality she wanted to settle the children in first. And Spanish Vogue ran a cover line insisting that Victoria “hated Spain because it smelt like garlic,” — which she laughingly points out she categorically never said — prompting the tabloids to fall upon her en masse. They mocked her physical appearance, her eating habits, her career. They accused her of committing the most heinous of crimes a woman can ever commit: being difficult. And, once allegations of David’s alleged affair hit the headlines, things only grew worse for Victoria, who found herself feeling “the unhappiest I’ve been in my life.”