Beckham's fears for Victoria

He always looked so proud to have his slim, glamorous wife at his side.

But David Beckham has told for the first time of his growing concern that Victoria was losing too much weight after the birth of their first child.

Mrs Beckham, 29, dropped to 71/2 stone after the arrival of son Brooklyn.

She always denied any eating problems, insisting a combination of fluctuating hormones and a busy lifestyle had seen the post-baby weight fall off.

But her husband, appearing with her on a U.S. chat show over the weekend, said it was only after he saw a picture showing her looking dangerously thin in a short leather dress that he realised her weight was a problem. The photograph was taken at The Ivy restaurant in London, where Mrs Beckham stole the show at a birthday party for Elton John's partner David Furnish in December 1999 - eight months after the birth of their son Brooklyn, now four. 'I was worried at one point.

We went out for dinner one night and we got photographed,' Beckham, 27, told interviewer Barbara Walters on the American talk show 20/20.

'The next day I saw the picture in the paper and said: "Have you seen this?" The headline was Skeletal Spice.'

The couple, who appeared on the show on Friday, were billed as 'the hottest couple in the western hemisphere, the biggest British couple since Charles and Diana - whose names you may not even know'.

Mrs Beckham, who gave birth to second son Romeo seven months ago, has previously admitted being on the verge of an eating disorder during her time with the Spice Girls. She spoke again of that time in the interview.

'It was awful,' she said. 'I was very obsessed. I could have told you the calorie and fat content in anything.

In the interview, her husband said he was particularly worried about her shrinking frame in the months after she became a mother because she was actually eating properly.

Mrs Beckham also spoke of the couple's fears after they and their family were targeted by two gangs of kidnappers.

'I wasn't allowed out of the house and we had the police sitting outside 24 hours a day,' she said. 'Now we don't go anywhere without a bodyguard and neither do the children.'