Just two weeks after “sincerely” apologising to Sir David and Victoria Beckham for comments made about them on Have I Got News For You, Katherine Ryan is once again taking aim at the famous couple.
In November 2025, the Canadian comic guest hosted the BBC panel show, where she introduced a segment about Sir David’s then-recent 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,” Katherine 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’…”
“I don’t know if we are allowed to broadcast the C-word,” Katherine later remarked. “But you did reference Victoria Beckham earlier, and we will allow that…”
Last month, almost a year on from the original complaint, the BBC confirmed it was upholding complaints it had received about the broadcast.
The broadcaster explained that “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”.
At the time, Katherine issued an apology on Instagram, before addressing the debacle during a stand-up set in London last week.
“I have been cancelled by the BBC for allegedly calling Victoria Beckham the C word,” The Sun quoted her as saying.
“Or as David Beckham knows it – the K word. Because, bless him, the alphabet is hard.”
Katherine then quickly added: “But I actually did not do that. I actually love Victoria Beckham.”
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Posting on Instagram towards the end of last month, Katherine spoke about the BBC’s “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”.
In her video message, Katherine claimed that she apologised personally to the former Spice Girls star when 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 contacted Victoria Beckham’s team last month but did not receive a response.
