David Beckham has sent wife Victoria a huge bouquet of flowers after the BBC upheld complaints about a joke Katherine Ryan made about her on Have I Got News For You. Victoria shared a photo of the flowers on her Instagram Stories with the words 'I love you'.
Complaint upheld over 'gratuitously offensive' remark
During an episode of the BBC panel show in 2025, Ryan jokingly called the Spice Girl a 'c***'. Two viewers branded the remark 'gratuitously offensive', prompting the BBC to launch an internal investigation.
This week it was revealed that the BBC upheld the complaints about Ryan. The BBC's Executive Complaints Unit concluded there was no editorial justification for the comment, which came as the panel reflected on reports that David Beckham had used the same word in an email to his publicist about being overlooked for a knighthood in 2013.
Ryan apologises and blames 'matrescence'
In the recording, Ryan said: 'I don't know that we are allowed to broadcast the c-word, but you did reference Victoria Beckham earlier and we'll allow that.' The gag prompted an audible reaction from the studio audience, leading her to add: 'I like her really, I didn't expect that reaction.'
In its ruling, the ECU said: 'There was no such justification for a comment which presented Victoria Beckham as equivalent to a particularly offensive word.'
Ryan has since revealed she sent an apology to Victoria and blamed the joke on matrescence, the physical, emotional and psychological changes a woman goes through after becoming a mother. She said: 'Today the BBC announced their decision to uphold a complaint made by two very influential viewers about a joke that I tried to make on an episode of Have I Got News For You. At that time, though there is no defence, I was suffering from a condition called matrescence. I was in that building with a 10-day-old baby. Should I have left the house?'
She continued: 'Sometimes I forget that celebrities are not my friends. If I had called Jimmy Carr a c**t, he wouldn't have minded. Joanne McNally, c**t, she wouldn't have minded. But this was described by the BBC as a slur, as though c**** are part of a protected group. If you watched it on the day, it was clearly a joke and the whole audience went (gasp) and then I said, 'woah, I love her.''
Ryan also shared a screenshot of her message to Victoria, clarifying that 'it was a stupid joke and I didn't mean any harm towards you at all'.
