Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Londoners have reacted as David Beckham waited 13 hours in the queue at Westminster Hall to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II. (Read More Here).
The football legend, 47, was among thousands to join the five-mile queue and purchased a box of doughnuts to share with his fellow mourners, managing to avoid detection for hours because of the ‘mutual respect’ he shared with them.
As the former England Captain finally reached the end of the line, a changing of the guard took place while broadcast cameras hovered on him as he watched on solemnly.
Beckham, a father-of-four, was emotional as he waited his turn to pay his respects alongside the crowd of thousands, seen wiping the corner of his eye and covering his mouth with his hand as he approached the front of the procession.
The former Manchester United striker finally reached the Queen’s coffin at about 3.30pm after lining up for 13 hours, and took just a few seconds to bow his head before moving on to make way for the people behind him.
When Beckham was finally spotted in the crowd, he spoke with ITV news about what prompted his decision to wake up and join the hundreds of thousands of other mourners expected to visit the Queen as she lies in state.
He recalled the ‘special moment’ he was awarded an OBE and looked back fondly on the relationship he had fostered with the monarch over the years.
‘To receive my OBE, I took my grandparents with me, who were the ones that really brought me up to be a huge royalist and a fan of the royal family, and obviously I had my wife there as well,’ he said.
‘To step up, to get my honour, but then also Her Majesty, to ask questions, to talk, I was so lucky that I was able to have a few moments like that in my life, to be around Her Majesty.
‘Because we can all see with the love that has been shown, how special she is and how special she was and the legacy that she leaves behind… It’s a sad day, but it’s a day for us to remember the incredible legacy that she’s left.’
He added: ‘I think it’ll take a long time to understand [the Queen’s death] because I think Her Majesty meant so much in so many different ways.’
Beckham said he will forever consider himself lucky to have met the Queen on so many occasions.
‘To represent my country, to be captain of my country, every time that we stood there and we wore those Three Lions shirts and I had my armband and we sang God Save Our Queen, that was something that meant so much to us and every time that we did it, it was something special,’ he said.
‘This day was always going to be difficult for the nation, it’s difficult for everyone around the world because everyone is feeling it.’
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