Victoria Beckham at 50: From a happy family childhood to global fame with the ... trends now

Victoria Beckham's life has proven to be more eventful than most, with enough success and reinventions to fill multiple autobiographies.

But while the designer is now considered one of the most recognisable names on the planet, her early years couldn't have been more different, with a humble childhood growing up in Hertfordshire.

Dreaming of international stardom, Victoria became a nationwide star as a member of the UK's biggest girlband, The Spice Girls, under her stage alter-ego Posh Spice.

As the wife of football megastar David Beckham, Victoria became the centre of even more attention as a member of the coveted WAGs club, before reinventing herself as a designer and fashion mogul, with her pieces regularly a fixture at Fashion Week.

So, as Victoria celebrates her 50th birthday, MailOnline takes a look-back at her incredible life...

Humble beginnings

Victoria was born on April 17, 1974 to parents Tony, an electronics enginner, and Jackie , a former insurance clerk and hairdresser, at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex.

The eldest of three children, she previously insisted that her family were 'very working class' while she was growing up, though David disputed this in his Netflix docuseries last year. 

David interrupted, incredulous, and asked Victoria to be honest to which she replied: 'I am!' He then repeatedly asked Victoria to reveal what car her dad used to drive her to school in.

The singer eventually gave in and said: 'OK. In the Eighties, my dad had a Rolls-Royce.'

While she was born in Harlow, Victoria moved to Goffs Oak in Hertfordshire with her parents Jackie and Tony Adams before relocating back to Essex.

She previously gave fans a tour of her childhood bedroom, which was full of old toys, with a teddy on the drawers, a rocking horse by the wall and a basket of dolls under the stairs.

Victoria previously shared that after seeing the 1980 classic Fame at the age of seven, she decided she wanted to be famous.

While her parents enrolled her in the Jason Theatre School in Enfield, growing up wasn't easy, with Victoria sharing in a letter to her 18-year-old self in Vogue that she struggled with acne and body insecurities, and was bullied on her first day of secondary schoo.

She said: 'You have never properly fitted in, although you are sharing your Surrey school digs with really nice girls. You have bad acne. 

'You think the principal has put you at the back of the end-of-year show (in a humiliatingly bright purple Lycra leotard) because you are too plump to go at the front. (This may or may not be true.)' 

After finishing school, Victoria attended Laine Arts Theatre College in Epsom where she studied dance and modelling.

Posh Spice is born!

While working as a dancer, in 1994 Victoria answered a newspaper ad in The Stage seeking 'streetwise, outgoing, ambitious' singers for a new girlband.

She joined forces with Geri Halliwell, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Mel B to form The Spice Girls with the fivesome living together as they attempted to carve out a career in the music industry.

Speaking in the Beckham documentary, she said: 'We were on a mission to prove that girls are better than boys. I suppose what we created was a bit of a monster in the five of us really - we would jump on the tables… well, I didn't jump on the tables, I was a little more sensible.

'I never found it as easy as the other girls to be that outgoing. I was always quite shy and was never the popular kids at school and I was actually bullied quite a lot and I would probably still be that way had I not met the girls. What the Spices Girls did was brought me out of me.'

Joining forces with manager Simon Fuller, The Spice Girls spent hours rehearsing together before recording their debut album, and in 1996 their hard work paid off when their track Wannabe soared to the top of the charts.

The following year the band released their first record, Spice, and it featured yet more chart-toppers including Say You'll Be There and 2 Become 1.

The band went onto become one of the must successful groups in history, with two number one albums and nine chart-topping singles.

However, the band's wild success came to a dramatic end when Geri announced in 1998 that she was quitting the band, to the devastation of Spice Girls fans worldwide.

In 2000, The Spice Girls announced they would be going on indefinite hiatus, with each member of the group pursuing solo careers.

Victoria released her debut solo album in 2001, and the single Not Such An Innocent Girl, losing a hotly-contested chart battle for number one with Kylie Minogue, but her music career fizzled out soon after, and she turned her attention to fashion.

A love story for the ages

While Victoria was riding high as a member of The Spice Girls, she also met the man that would be by her side throughout her career.

Then a football superstar at Manchester United, Victoria met her husband David at one of his matches, before getting engaged in January 1998.

Speaking about the proposal, Victoria said at the time: 'We'd already looked at a few rings but I didn't know which one he had chosen. I'd told him what my dream ring would be. He remembered and had it specially made for me'.

While wedding plans were in the pipeline, the couple welcomed their first child together, son Brooklyn, months later, before tying the knot in a now-iconic ceremony at Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland in 1999.

As part of their marital shoot, the couple were famously pictured sitting on a pair of matching golden thrones during the day. 

Their picturesque Irish venue sat on 560 acres and dated back to the 18th century, with organsier Peregrine Armstrong-Jones telling OK! how 'Victoria wanted somewhere really private and unique, somewhere leafy and green'.

While many doubted that their relationship would last, Victoria previously shared the secret to her long and happy marriage, with the couple set to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in July.

She told Grazia that they 'have so much respect for each other. David is an incredible dad, and husband, and he's very supportive of my work. We are really good partners.'

Queen of the WAGSs

After marrying David, Victoria cemented herself as a member of the WAGs club, joining the likes of Coleen Rooney, Cheryl and Alex Gerrard in Germany for the 2006 World Cup.

While Victoria proudly supported David at many of his matches, her eye-catching ensembles also caught the eye.

The glamorous wives and girlfriends famously commanded the spotlight during the tournament, garnering more attention than their player husbands who actually took to the pitch in Germany.

Last year David and his close friend Gary Neville remarked on the influence of their WAGs at that time in a chat on Neville's YouTube channel.

Reflecting on the decision to have the footballer's families take centre stage during that World Cup, David admitted he was never against having the loved ones support them at the tournament.

He said: 'I think there was attention on them. I always believed as an England captain, having wives and girlfriends and the kids around wasn't a bad thing.

'Once you're in a training camp, you're in training camp, you have to focus, but I think at the start of a tournament, it's not a bad thing.'

But the sportsman, who was captain of the Three Lions for the tournament which saw them crash out in the quarter-finals after losing a penalty shootout against Portugal, confessed the obsession with the WAGs did go 'too far.'

He said: 'Looking back, that whole culture - there was a lot of attention around that and whether people behaved themselves in the right manner, I don't know.

'Even Victoria - she's the first to say now - what was I doing, what was I wearing, why would I do that? It did [go too far].

'There was more spoken about the WAGs than football. at the time, players want to focus on the tournament. It went too far, but I do believe having the WAGs and family around is a good thing.'

Motherhood and a marriage scare 

Victoria was a constant support throughout David's sporting career, even when it meant uprooting their lives and relocating to Spain when he signed for Real Madrid in 2003.

At the time, the couple

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