The former England captain may feel he is finally being duly rewarded but it has not come without its questions
It has been a long and winding road to David Beckham’s knighthood – one marked by hurdles, sweary emails, fights with the taxman and an ever-closer relationship between the former England captain and the royal family.
David and Victoria Beckham attended the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The former Spice Girls singer was six months pregnant with her fourth child, and photographers captured the moment when her husband rested a hand on his wife’s bump and grinned.
Beckham was appointed an OBE for services to football in June 2003 in the late queen’s birthday honours list. “This is just an amazing day,” he said afterwards. The queen was a football fan, said Beckham at the time. “I know Her Majesty is a football fan because when I was at a Number 10 reception, the prime minister told me he had watched a World Cup game on television with the queen and William and Harry.”
Also in 2013, Beckham was named as one of the many celebrities allegedly caught up in Ingenious financing schemes, which funded films such as Avatar and Life of Pi. In June 2017, more than 1,000 people, including Beckham and other celebrities such as Gary Lineker and Wayne Rooney, lose a court battle against a £700m tax bill from HM Revenue and Customs, after it successfully argued such schemes were not legitimate investment opportunities but a means of avoiding tax.
