David Beckham has urged his children not to chase social media popularity.

The former soccer star insisted seeking out likes on Instagram posts is "not a good thing" and has advised his sons Brooklyn, 24, Romeo, 20, and 18-year-old Cruz - who have 15 million, 3.6 million and 1.9 million followers on the photo-sharing platform respectively - not to place too much importance on their online engagement.

David - who also has 12-year-old Harper with wife Victoria - is quoted by the Mail on Sunday newspaper's Emily Prescott as saying: "I’ve always told my children that it’s not a good thing that you get all these likes."

Earlier this week, the 48-year-old former sportsman paid a touching tribute to his fashion designer wife in honour of their 24th wedding anniversary, hailing the 49-year-old beauty the "best wife, mummy and drinking partner".

Sharing a throwback photo of himself and the former Spice Girls star with two puppies, he wrote on Instagram: "On this day 4.7.99... 24 years and counting. To the best wife , mummy drinking partner ( most of the time ) Happy Anniversary love u so much (sic)"

Victoria shared a video on her own account from their wedding day showing the loved up couple cutting the cake.

She captioned the post: "4.7.99. 24 years ago. I love you so much @DavidBeckham."

Despite the nuptials being covered as part of a lucrative magazine deal, Victoria is adamant the wedding wasn't as fancy as it appeared.

Speaking to The Business of Fashion as part of the BoF VOICES 2022 event last year, she said of her big day: "I think that the media glamorised the wedding much more than it actually was ... [It was] actually much more intimate than it looked.

"I love to have fun. I work very very hard. I take what I do very seriously. I want to be a great wife, a really great mum, but I wanna have fun as well.

"Sometimes my tongue-in-cheek sense of humour does tend to get me in trouble, but the wedding wasn't as huge as everybody made it out [to be]."