Katherine Ryan has responded after the news that the BBC is upholding complaints over a joke she made while guest hosting Have I Got News For You almost a year ago.
During the November 2025 broadcast, Katherine introduced a segment about Sir David Beckham’s knighthood, to which regular panellist Ian Hislop remarked: “He was meant not to get it, wasn’t he? Because he’d been pitching for it. And it was considered bad form to be ‘desperate’.”
“That’s exactly right,” the Canadian comic responded. Reading from a script in front of her, she continued: “In 2013, when he did not get a knighthood, he emailed his PR saying, ‘They’re a bunch of cunts, I expected nothing less’…”
Fellow comedian Maisie Adam responded: “It would have been nice and maybe poetic if Charles had got his own back just by knighting him and then going, ‘Arise, you cunt’.”
“I don’t know if we are allowed to broadcast the C-word,” Katherine then remarked. “But you did reference Victoria Beckham earlier, and we will allow that…”
Shortly afterwards, the BBC confirmed it had received multiple official complaints “from viewers who were unhappy with the inclusion of strong language in the programme”.
The broadcaster said at the time: “In this particular case, we feel that the use of the strong language was editorially justified as the panel were discussing a current news story about Sir David Beckham and directly quoting from leaked emails in which he had used the word in question, leading to further discussion,” the post continued.
“As is common practice for programmes that contain very strong language, we mitigated potential offence by adding a clear verbal warning at the start of the programme.”
However, on Thursday, the BBC’s executive complaints unit (ECU) ruled that while Katherine’s use of the C-bomb was justified, the comparison to Victoria Beckham was not.
“The relevant BBC Editorial Guidelines do not require programmes to avoid giving offence, but do require that any offence should be editorially justified,” the ECU’s statement said.
“In the ECU’s judgement, while the inclusion of the c-word in the programme derived editorial justification from David Beckham’s alleged use of it and the satirical reflections this prompted, there was no such justification for a comment which presented Victoria Beckham as equivalent to a particularly offensive word.”
Katherine has since posted a video message to Instagram addressing the ECU’s ruling, and revealing that she had previously apologised directly to Victoria when she messaged her about the incident.
“Hi, I’m ‘comedian’ Katherine Ryan, and 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 Have I Got News For You 11 months ago,” she began.
“At that time, though there is no defence, I have to tell you, 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? This is going to be a tough one for the feminists, because I was a woman going to work, but I did call another woman a c**t.”
Matrescence has been described as “the process of becoming a mother”, referring to “the physical, psychological and emotional changes you go through after the birth of a child”.
Katherine gave birth to her youngest daughter in October 2025, shortly before filming Have I Got News For You.
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**ts are part of a protected group.
“The trouble is, now that section [of the episode] has been taken off iPlayer, so the incident only exists in printed media, online media, and then you lose the context. On the day, if you watched, it was clearly a joke, and the whole audience went *gasp* and then I said, ‘woah, I love her’.”
Holding up a copy of her latest book Firstborn Daughter, Katherine noted that she loves Victoria “so much that I included her in one of my celebrity firstborn daughter chapters”.
She then proceeded to read out the passage in question, while maintaining that she “remains very sorry”.
“Yes, I sort of jokingly called her a cunt in the BBC and she messaged me about it afterwards,” she added. “I apologised unreservedly, because though she is c**t, Victoria Beckham couldn’t be further from being a c**t.”
“I’m sorry,” she concluded. “Sometimes the jokes don’t land. And sometimes I sound sarcastic when I’m apologising, but I really am sorry.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Victoria Beckham’s team for comment.
The BBC said last year: “As a post-watershed entertainment programme, Have I Got News for You has always covered and discussed news stories in a humorous, often ironic, manner.
“The inclusion of any strong language is carefully thought through and it is never our intention to offend our audience.”
