"That headline made me and my mum cry when we saw it. I was so angry and upset. They took a distorted photograph of me that made me look skinnier than I am - and let me have it without a thought for how it would make me feel. How can anybody treat a woman like this? It was the nastiest thing anyone has ever written about me and I want to put the record straight in The Mirror."
"They keep saying how thin I am, hinting I must be anorexic or bulimic or something. It is so upsetting and so dangerous too. Kids will look at that story and the way they have used that picture and say 'Posh Spice is a skeleton and I should look like that.' Why don't they just leave me alone for God's sake."
"My mum Jacqui is very upset as any parent would be. Normally I would just ignore this kind of rubbish but they don't seem to want to stop so I've decided to speak out about it. I'm doing this for my mum. She's the one at home who gets me my breakfast and cooks me my dinner and she knows
I'm incredibly healthy. So when she sees this in the paper she can't believe what she's reading."
"I've been working so bloody hard on the Spice Girls show which is going to be amazing. I just don't want young girls thinking this is how they have to
look - and judging me on a distorted photograph like this. Most people thought I looked pretty good in that red outfit, and so did I."
"For breakfast today I had two bowls of sugar puffs, for lunch two chicken fillets with loads of vegetables. I'm eating some cod and more vegetables now, and when I get home my mum will have a dinner ready. Now does that sound like a woman with a weight problem to you? I don't think so. I swear on my life that's what I have eaten today."
"People think I've been pumping iron every day to get my figure back. But since I had Brooklyn I haven't been down to the gym once. That's the truth.
He was a difficult baby, he didn't sleep and was very, very active all the time. He's like me - I'm always on the phone or doing things, I can't bear
just sitting around doing nothing. And Brooklyn's always on the go. So I've never had time to get to the gym even if I wanted to. I have lost weight since he was born. About a stone I should think - I was about eight-and-a-half stone before and I'm nearer seven-and-a half now. But so what?"
"So many people have come up to me while I've been out shopping recently and told me how they lost loads of weight when they had a baby too. My mum went down from nine stone to six stone after she had my brother. It's just what happens with some mothers. I don't even know exactly what I weigh, I don't weigh myself very much because I can't be bothered. But I haven't changed what I eat or anything. I honestly feel that my metabolism has changed as I've got older and had Brooklyn. I just seem to burn up food faster. And there are some pictures of me when I was too big, which if you compare them makes it look even worse."
"David was annoyed and upset when I told him about the Daily Mail headline. He was angry about it - I mean, skeletal is such an awful word to use about your wife, isn't it? We are used to criticism but both our families get very upset by it. It's such a shame, all this weight nonsense, because things are going so well for us at the moment. I call David golden balls because everyone's being so nice to him now after giving him such a hard time following the World Cup. I was at The Mirror's Pride of Britain awards and your paper earned such respect from so many people for that event.
"That's why I am talking to you today. And the gutter tabloids like The Mail are just pathetic when you see what they have done to me today. They
shouldn't be so nasty to women. I'm sitting here with the other girls and I feel very healthy, thanks. And we're all laughing about what a nonsense this all is. But we also realise that we have a responsibility as role models and that some young fans will get the wrong idea from this kind of story.
"Some people have accused me of having anorexia. I mean, how ridiculous. Saying that to someone is like saying I have some awful life-threatening
disease. It's a terribly serious thing and not something you just accuse someone of having for a joke. That's why I find this so hurtful. There are girls out there who do have anorexia or bulimia and to trivialise what they are going through by trying to sneer at me losing a few pounds is dangerous and inexcusable. I don't look anorexic at all. When people see me in the street they always say now 'I can't believe how good you look - we thought you'd be really really thin.' And that's purely because of all the rubbish they've heard from certain papers."
"I go out now wondering if someone is going to get a photograph at a dodgy angle again and say I'm a skeleton. But what can I do? I don't care if I put
on weight now or not, it doesn't bother me. All that matters is I'm healthy, and so are my lovely baby and my lovely husband. I would never put myself in danger by going on crash diets or anything because of them. Anyone with kids will know that you wouldn't even think about it. I put Brooklyn before anything and I would never let myself be ill so I couldn't be with him all the time or look after him."
"We're doing a lot of dance routines at the moment which is pretty hard work. And I could probably do with a bit more muscle, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with how I look. And so's David. There are a few routines I've been doing with him that might have helped shed a few pounds as well but I'll leave those to your imagination! He reckons you should track down our local Chinese restaurant where we spend most of our time scoffing for England. They will tell you what I put away." Victoria spoke about what she ate at the recent dinner party she was at where some more accusing photographs were taken:
"I had a nice plate of swordfish - and no, I didn't nip out the back when they weren't looking and throw it all up. I could never do that anyway, I'm far too tight-fisted."
Victoria ended the interview with one last plea for her mother.
"Mum is getting more and more upset and frustrated because people believe there must be no smoke without fire. From the bottom of my heart I appreciate The Mirror giving me the chance to do this. I'm just fed up with it all and I don't like the way it is beginning to upset my family. My mum would never let me go out if I looked too thin wearing a dress like that. She would tell me it didn't look right. I think I trust her opinion before some idiot on the Daily Mail. Anyway, little Brooklyn loves me. And that's all that matters, isn't it?"