David BeckhamI’ve been pondering this since writing a story about Haig Club whisky, the result of a collaboration between Diageo (Smirnoff, Baileys) and Becks, before starting maternity leave this week (I’m not sure how much input the man himself actually had, or whether Diageo just threw money at him to front the brand).

I don’t mean 1990s matching-leather-Gucci-and-hair-gelled-curtains David Beckham, I mean 2014 suited and booted designer-stubble-with-creases-around-the-eyes Beckham, who you’ll soon see supersized on ads promoting the whisky if you haven’t already (pictured). There’s no escaping it, he certainly looks better with age. Which got me thinking, can the same be said for the fairer sex?

While I generally think I look better now than I did at say, 21 – I’m fitter, I’ve got a better haircut and have learnt how to use make-up to my advantage – almost two children, countless broken nights and quite a few grey hairs later I’m not sure that, on close inspection, anyone else would agree. The whole child bearing and rearing thing puts us at a distinct disadvantage in the self-preservation/improvement stakes.

Just look at Posh. She definitely looked better in the 90s. And Becks isn’t the only one: Brad Pitt, Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams all spring to mind as looking better now than they did two decades ago, whereas I can’t think of one female equivalent who looks better now than she did then.

So simply by virtue of being 20 years older I bet there are scores of women doing a double take at David Beckham when they wouldn’t have looked twice back then. Of course I’m not saying you’d actually have anything in common in the highly unlikely event you found yourself seated together over dinner, but as a friend once pointed out on the subject of the very same man, ‘I wouldn’t require him to speak.’

Quite.