Comic points out she was presenting HIGNFY just days after giving brith

Katherine Ryan has responded to the storm over her Victoria Beckham joke – suggesting it may have been down to presenting Have I Got News For You just ten days after giving birth.

The comedian also revealed that she ‘unreservedly’ apologised to the former Spice Girl at the time the gag, likening her to ‘the c-word’, was broadcast.

On Thursday, the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit reprimanded HIGNFY over the joke, which aired last November, following a long investigation into complaints from two viewers. It ruled that the offending gag be cut from the iPlayer broadcast.

In an Instagram video yesterday, Ryan responded to the ruling, and said: ‘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, emotional and psychological changes a woman goes through after becoming a mother – and Ryan had, at the time, just given birth to her fourth child. 

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**t. 

‘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. The trouble is now that section’s been taken off iPlayer so the incident only exists in printed media, in online media, and then you lose the context.

‘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".’

She also read out an extract from her forthcoming memoir Confessions Of A Firstborn Daughter, which praised Victoria Beckham and revealed that she had apologised directly at the time of the HIGNFY broadcast. 

A brief message, apparently the one Ryan sent to the fashionista at the time, appeared on screen. 

It read: ‘Oh my GOD I'm so sorry. It wasn't the way the press printed it at all. It was meant to be an obvious throwaway and immediately afterwards I said "Okay I love her actually’" to make it clear it was a stupid joke and I didn't mean any harm towards you at all.’

The message went on to explain that: ‘We say "giving c*nt" in a positive way in queer language now’ before adding her ‘unreserved’ apologies, adding that the TV broadcast had more context than the press reports and that ‘I think my intention was more clear there.’

Ryan ended her video with another apology, saying: ‘I’m sorry sometimes the jokes don’t land sometimes I sound sarcastic when I’m apologising, but I really am sorry.’

The controversial line came after the panel discussed  David Beckham getting a knighthood – despite once sending an email calling the honours committee ‘a bunch of cunts’ after he was previously being rejected for the title.

Panellist Maisie Adam then said: ‘It would have been nice and maybe poetic if Charles had got his own back by knighting him and then going, "Arise, you cunt".That’d be nice.’

Ryan responded: ‘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 line was greeted with a mix of shock and laughter from the audience, with Ryan responding: ‘I like her! I wasn’t expecting that response.'

The complaints unit noted that ‘the relevant BBC editorial guidelines do not require programmes to avoid giving offence but do require that any offence should be editorially justified’.

In that light, it added that: ‘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.’

However, they added: ‘There was no such justification for a comment which presented Victoria Beckham as equivalent to a particularly offensive word.

‘A version of the programme edited in the light of the finding will replace the version currently on iPlayer.’

The show's producer, Jimmy Mulville, subsequently blasted the unit's findings, telling industry website Deadline: 'The fact that two members of a 6 million audience took offence, which then triggered a year-long investigation by the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit, whom we’ve never met and sounds like something out of Kafka, is a total waste of the licence fee and is another example of the BBC’s paranoia about causing offence. 

‘HIGNFY is set up to be comically and intentionally offensive. My own definition of a cunt is someone who spends all day looking for problems that don’t exist.

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Published: 26 Sep 2026