"I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule"
About this Quote
The line about his children is the rhetorical pivot. It converts a personal fall from grace into a family wound, smuggling moral urgency into what could otherwise be dismissed as the price of courting attention. “Their dad was a figure of ridicule” is engineered to sting because it invokes a basic social contract: whatever you think of an adult’s choices, kids shouldn’t be collateral damage. He’s not just pleading for sympathy; he’s repositioning himself as a parent taking fire for beliefs or missteps that the crowd refuses to judge fairly.
Context does the rest. As a former athlete turned highly visible public figure, Icke is speaking from a culture that treats sporting heroes as communal property and then punishes them when they break the script. The intent isn’t to relitigate the facts of his public life; it’s to establish a grievance narrative where ridicule becomes proof of courage, and derision becomes the soundtrack of someone who “must have been onto something.”
Quote Details
| Topic | Father |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Icke, David. (2026, January 17). I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-couldnt-walk-down-any-street-in-britain-without-56957/
Chicago Style
Icke, David. "I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-couldnt-walk-down-any-street-in-britain-without-56957/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-couldnt-walk-down-any-street-in-britain-without-56957/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.






