JOE LYCETT HAS revealed that the £10,000 he appeared to shred in a livestream broadcasted yesterday was fake, and that the money has instead been donated to LGBTQ+ charities.
The comedian previously threatened to destroy the money unless David Beckham reneged on his reported £10 million deal to act as an ambassador for this year’s World Cup host Qatar, where homosexuality is still outlawed and punishable through jail time.
Beckham did not respond to Lycett’s ultimatum, in which he offered to donate the money to charity if the footballer complied with his request before the first day of the tournament.
Yesterday, Lycett posted a video that showed him seemingly shredding the £10,000 (€11,491), but he has since said that the display was fake, and that his ultimatum had been an “empty threat.”
🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/YuPYSQ2M6u
— Joe Lycett (@joelycett) November 21, 2022
“I would never destroy real money, I would never be so irresponsible,” the comic stated in a video posted to twitter today.
“The truth is, the money that went into the shredder was real, but the money that came out was fake,” Lycett said, revealing that the £10,000 has already been donated when he first issued Beckham with the ultimatum.
I never expected to hear from you, it was an empty threat designed to get people talking.
“In many ways it was like your deal with Qatar, David, total bullshit from the start. I’m not even queer; only joking,” he added.
“A platform for progress” pic.twitter.com/EeMelv01nu
— Joe Lycett (@joelycett) November 20, 2022
Lycett then proceeded to shred a copy of Beckham’s 2002 Attitude magazine cover, which represents the first time a Premier League footballer appeared on the front of a gay magazine.
Signing off at the end of his “final message to David Beckham”, Lycett cheerily said he was “off down the gay village to have a few pints.”
The Birmingham star’s stunt earned mixed reactions from fans, other celebrities and politicians.
The former British Culture secretary Nadine Dorries had urged him not to destroy the money, labelling the act a “paid for publicity stunt which has worked.”
Others argued that it was always Lycett’s intention to attract publicity in order to direct attention to Qatar’s human rights record and the state’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community.
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