Victoria Beckham: “I never said Spain smells of garlic, how disrespectful”

“I would never say anything so disrespectful, and which is completely untrue,” insists the wife of ex-Real Madrid player David Beckham.

Victoria told Vanity Fair España in a recent interview that she and the former England captain were 'very happy' during their time in Spain when David played for the premier league team and they lived in the capital.

“The people were always really friendly and, so was everyone who worked with Real Madrid,” Victoria revealed.

“David loves the way they play football in Spain.”

The 38-year-old, who is still referred to as 'Posh Spice' more than 17 years after the all-female fivesome's first hit, Wannabe, was released, reaffirmed in the interview many of the personal details she explained in her autobiography published in 2001, Learning to fly.

These include the fact she was bullied at school, suffering verbal insults and taunting because she 'did not fit in' with the other girls.

“After school I went to ballet classes, then started tap-dancing and later, modern dance, and ended up going to acting and singing classes,” explained Victoria, who is in fact a professional dancer and ended up in pop by accident.

“I did all this while all the other pupils used to bunk off or hide to smoke cigarettes and stuff like that. They did what they enjoyed, and I just wasn't like them,” the singer says candidly.

She says she used to try hard at her schoolwork while most of the others just wanted to mess around in class, which meant she was laughed at for not being part of 'the cool crowd'.

As revealed in Victoria's autobiography and also those of Geri Halliwell ('Ginger Spice') and Mel B ('Scary Spice'), the first in a long line of 'girl bands' was started after the members answered an advert in the magazine Stage.

“When I was working on my performing arts degree at Laine Theatre Arts School [specialising in dance], I used to buy Stage. One day I saw an advert looking for members of a girl band, and went along to the auditions.”

The name came because of the completely different characters of the five final candidates, and was originally going to be just 'Spice' – an invention they came up with amongst themselves – with the 'Girls' bit being added by Smash Hits magazine.

“We had all been...not exactly 'excluded', but never been the type of people who stood out for being anything special,” admitted Victoria, concerning the connection between the group members.

They lived in a house rented by the record company and did not get paid a penny for about a year and a half.

“I loved the group – it was a way of spicing up and empowering women. I think girls and women should stick together and support each other,” Victoria told the magazine.

But her singing career is definitely over, she stated categorically.

When the Spice Girls reunited for a one-off performance at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, it was the 'perfect moment' to say, “this has been wonderful. Many thanks to you all, but that's the end. There comes a time when you know you have to leave the party.”

This means a future Spice Girl reunion is unlikely to include Posh, especially as she is now planning on concentrating on her career as a fashion designer.

“I've always loved fashion. In the 1980s, I used to lie face-down on my mum's bed, head in hands, and observed how she dressed to go out with my dad. I didn't just love her outfits, but also her hairstyle, her makeup, the time she took getting ready and how she made the best of herself.

“I even used to carry all my schoolbooks in a plastic Gucci tote which one of mum's friends had given her – I took them in it every day until it eventually broke.”

When she started to create her own design label, 'Victoria Beckham', the footballer's wife said she did so 'with her head on the ground' and 'bit by bit', a project which has brought her 'much joy' and 'very few losses'.

“I never said at any point, 'I'm Victoria Beckham, here's a blank cheque, let's go mad',” she confessed.

“I've always gone about it in a very professional way and this is why it's worked without being a huge sensation. I didn't actually invest a great deal of money to start up the label, to be honest.”