David Beckham has angrily hit back at a recent article published by the MailOnline which criticised him for allowing his daughter Harper to use a dummy at the age of four. The former professional footballer and England captain has argued that the tabloid has “no right” to question his parenting.

The 40 year old posted a screenshot of the offending article on his Instagram page on Monday morning (August 10th), writing “Why do people feel they have the right to criticize a parent about their own children without having any facts??”

The MailOnline ran a story on Sunday evening following pictures of Beckham with four year old Harper in West Hollywood over the weekend in which she had a dummy / pacifier in her mouth. The publication lined up some “parenting experts” to claim that Harper may grow up with “speech or dental issues” if she continues to use the “controversial accessory”, which children normally grow out of by the age of four.

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Beckham – who has three older children, Brooklyn (16), Romeo (12) and Cruz (10) with his wife Victoria – continued his defence by saying his daughter was ill and merely using the dummy for comfort.

“Everybody who has children knows that when they aren't feeling well or have a fever, you do what comforts them best and, most of the time, it's a pacifier, so those who criticise think twice about what you say about other people's children because actually you have no right to criticise me as a parent.”

His post gathered over 200,000 likes in a couple of hours, with almost everybody defending his decision to hit back at the newspaper. “Right. It's your child, not theirs. Many parents have different parenting methods,” one supporter wrote.

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