Angry Beckham rejects ‘angling for knighthood’ claims
BRITAIN: David Beckham has hit out at claims he used his children’s charity work as part of a cynical campaign to win a knighthood.
The former England football captain has angrily denied getting involved with Unicef’s campaigns and projects only in order to build a favourable public image and present himself as a fitting candidate for the senior honour.
The claims came after emails purporting to be from Beckham were published yesterday, in which he appeared to rail at not being selected for a knighthood.
In one he allegedly states: ‘‘They r a bunch of ***ts. I expected nothing less. Who decides on the honors [sic]?? It’s a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would have got something like this 10 years ago.’’
But Beckham, who was awarded the OBE in 2003, rejected the claims, maintaining that some of the emails had been doctored and others had been taken out of context.
His PR team said the cache of emails from Beckham to his publicist Simon Oliveira and others in his team were obtained after Oliveira’s computer server was illegally hacked.
A spokesman for Beckham said: ‘‘This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture.’’
In one particularly embarrassing email, Beckham appears to object to Katherine Jenkins, the singer, who once used her Twitter account to deny having an affair with him, being given an OBE in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to music and for charitable services.
The alleged email to Oliveira says: ‘‘Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see the troops, plus admitting to taking coke??? F***ing joke and if you get asked we should think of a cutting remark.’’
But Beckham, a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador since 2005, is understood to be particularly angry that the emails appear to show him as cynically using his charity work to curry favour with the honours committee.
He is also furious they depict him as demanding money from the United Nations children’s charity to pay for flights and hotels to visit its projects with children.
In one email he apparently complained about being asked to match the highest bidders at a Unicef auction in New York.
Another appears to show his staff haggling with Unicef over its choice of accommodation for Beckham during his 2015 trip to Cambodia.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star had been booked by the charity into the fivestar Sofitel hotel, but Beckham apparently wanted to stay in the luxurious Amansara resort, with his staff wanting Unicef to pay part of the bill.
One email states: ‘‘Would Unicef contribute the same amount that was being paid for the Sofitel and he’ll make up the difference in price for the place he wants to stay.’’
Unicef would not comment on the veracity of the emails because it had not seen the originals, but it described Beckham as ‘‘generously giving his time, energy and support to help raise awareness and funds for Unicef’s work for children’’. – Telegraph Group