KATHERINE Ryan has issued a public apology to Victoria Beckham after the BBC upheld complaints over a rude slur that was taken off of iPlayer.
The comedian, 43, made the offensive joke about Posh Spice while hosting an episode of Have I Got News For You last year.
Speaking in an episode that aired on November 7, Katherine made reference to a 2013 private email sent by David Beckham, where he allegedly used the word ‘c****’.
She said on the show: “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 BBC‘s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) have issued it’s ruling on the matter and have revealed there was no justification for Victoria being labelled with the offensive word.
Now Katherine has taken to Instagram in a new reel to apologise for the comment.
She began: “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 an episode of Have I Got News For You eleven months ago.
“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?
“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,” Katherine said in her trademark sarcastic way.
“The trouble is now that section’s been taken off iPlayer so the incident only exists in printed media, online media and then you lost the context because on the day, if you watched it, it was clearly a joke and the whole audience went ‘huhhhh’ and I said ‘whoaaaa’.”
She then plugged her new book before adding: “I love Victoria Beckham so much that I actually included her in one of my celebrity firstborn daughter chapters.
“I’d like to read you that now whilst remaining very sorry.”
Katherine went on to read the specific chapter about Victoria as she praised her for her work over the years.
She continued: “Yes, I sort of jokingly called her a c*** in the BBC and she messaged me afterwards.
“I apologised unreservedly because though she is a c***, Victoria Beckham couldn’t be further from a c***.”
Katherine shared a screengrab of the apology she sent to Victoria via an Instagram DM.
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit said today: “There was no such justification for a comment which presented Victoria Beckham as equivalent to a particularly offensive word.”
They stated that the word was justified in relation to David’s alleged use of it, but not 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.”
According to the ruling, two viewers had complained about the remark, which was “gratuitously offensive”.
Now an edited version of the episode has replaced the original on the BBC’s streaming service.