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Katherine Ryan has declared her fondness for Lady Victoria Beckham following the BBC’s decision to uphold viewer complaints regarding an offensive remark made on Have I Got News For You.
The broadcaster upheld an objection submitted by two viewers over the 7 November episode presented by Ryan, where she made reference to a 2013 private email by Sir David Beckham in which he allegedly used the c-word.
Ryan stated during the television broadcast: “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.”
In its official ruling, the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) stated: “There was no such justification for a comment which presented Victoria Beckham as equivalent to a particularly offensive word.”
The comment has now also been edited out from the episode currently available on iPlayer.
Releasing a video statement, Ryan 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?”
Matrescence refers to the physical and psychological change that occurs when a woman becomes a mother.
Ryan welcomed her youngest child, a daughter named Holland, in October 2025 alongside her partner Bobby Kootstra. She is also mother to Fred, five, and Fenna, three, with Kootstra and Violet, 16, with a former partner.
The comedian added: “This is gonna be a tough one for the feminists because I was a woman going to work but I did call another woman a c***.
“Sometimes I forget that celebrities are not my friends. If I had called Jimmy Carr a c***, he wouldn’t have minded. Joanne McNally, c***, 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’.”
The ECU ruled that the panel’s use of the word c*** was justified as it was in reference to Sir David’s alleged use of it, but was not justifiable when used in reference to his wife.
It added: “The relevant BBC editorial guidelines do not require programmes to avoid giving offence but do require that any offence should be editorially justified.”
