Beckham hounded about leaked emails and ‘shamelessly grovelling’ to the Queen

Yesterday, the former England football star’s advisors called in experts from the cyber-security firm Marclay Associates to hunt down the mastermind behind the recently leaked emails.

After it had been reported that Beckham refused to pay £1 million to blackmailers, Football Leaks (like Wikileaks but for football) released the personal emails that appeared to show Beckham ranting that his charity work for Unicef has not yet managed to secure him a knighthood. He maintains that these emails were taken out of context but regardless of any truth in this, should we be letting this scandal change the way that we see him?

In one of the emails to his PR Simon Oliveria, Beckham criticises stars such as Katherine Jenkins for receiving an OBE for nothing but “singing at the rugby and going to see the troops.” In another, he complains about being advised to donate one million dollars (£800,000) to UNICEF at a prize-giving dinner for the charity. Let’s be honest, though, which of us haven’t taken out our anger in an email to one of our mates? We shouldn’t be judging Beckham on things that he’s said in his private correspondence.

A spokesperson for Beckham told The Daily Mail: "This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture."

News then came that the Honours Committee are yet to choose Beckham for a knighthood due to tax affairs in 2013 that gave him a ‘red flag' from HMRC. Who knows what to believe?!

Post-leak, David’s son Brooklyn showed support for his father with a touching post on Instagram, while Victoria promoted the new collection from her fashion line. Maybe his wife wasn't pleased with the news that Beckham's account has pictured the Queen five times in 18 months, matched with captions that fawn over Her Majesty that some have said demonstrates his attempt at grovelling for the title of ‘Sir’.

In light of these ridiculous claims, this may be a good time to mull over a few of the more light-hearted things Beckham has said in the past:

On the birth of his son Brooklyn: “I remember so clearly us going into hospital so Victoria could have Brooklyn. I was eating a Lion bar at the time.”

On childhood memories: “My nan and grandad used to always have pie and mash. It’s just a great memory from when I was young.”

And also, possibly quite fittingly, on the passage of time: “That was in the past – we’re in the future now.”