Stars including Lewis Hamilton, Sheila Hancock and Craig David are celebrating new titles, after being named in the New Year’s Honours.
Racing driver Hamilton has been given a knighthood, with Hancock and make-up artist Pat McGrath being made Dames.
Singer David and Corrie star Sally Dyvenor have been given MBEs, Nina Wadia, Jed Mercurio and Toby Jones have been given OBEs, while Lesley Manville is getting an OBE.
However, while the stars have expressed their pride at being named in the 2021 honours, other celebs have previously turned down the honours.
Whether because they believed they didn’t deserve them or because they disagreed with the monarchy, many stars from all corners of the world of showbiz have rejected honours from the Queen, or even handed them back – and here’s just some of them.
Michael Sheen
Welsh actor Michael Sheen was awarded an OBE in 2009, but later gave it back, after he believes Wales should be independent and does not think Prince William should be the next Prince of Wales.
Speaking to Owen Jones, he explained: ‘In my research to do that lecture [about Wales’ relationship with Britain] I learnt a lot about Welsh history. I’m still standing at the foothills of an understanding of all that, but that was a crash course.
‘By the time I’d finished writing that lecture, I remember sitting there going, “Well, I have a choice. I either don’t give this lecture and hold on to my OBE or I give this lecture and I have to give my OBE back”. I wanted to still give the lecture so I gave my OBE back.’
He added that he hadn’t meant to be rude or disrespectful, and was ‘incredibly honoured’ to have received his OBE at the time.
Nigella Lawson
Nigella is basically queen of our hearts thanks to her cookery shows, but she turned down the offer of an OBE in 2001.
She explained: ‘I’m not saving lives and I’m not doing anything other than something I absolutely love.’
David Bowie
David Bowie turned down two honours – a CBE in 2000 and a knighthood three years later.
He told The Sun: ‘I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for.
‘It’s not what I spent my life working for. It’s not my place to make a judgement on [Mick] Jagger, it’s his decision. But it’s just not for me.’
However, he didn’t address whether he was anti-monarchy, as he was living in the US.
George The Poet
George The Poet last year rejected an MBE because of the ‘pure evil’ of the British Empire.
Speaking on his BBC podcast, he explained: ‘I turned down an MBE. A friend asked me if I would accept it, I just saw my parents’ faces and without thinking I said “yes” and then I took a minute and reflected, reflected on my status and I felt a burning sensation in my chest.
‘Your forefathers grabbed my motherland, pinned her down and took turns. They did that every day for a couple hundred years and then left her to treat her own burns. Now all of her children are born with a set of unique concerns and gaps in the information that we really do need to learn and none of us know why, why we got absorbed by a “higher entity”, why I have to fight for my identity.
‘George – people know me as this – the name of some old colonialist and you are so conceited it doesn’t even occur to you how lonely this is. What they did was pure evil and you can’t see it because that was your people.’
Danny Boyle
Danny turned down a knighthood following his incredible opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The director told Radio 4: ‘I’m very proud to be an equal citizen, and I think that’s what the opening ceremony was actually about.’
French and Saunders
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders refused OBEs in 2001 for their services to comedy and drama.
Jennifer later explained: ‘If I felt I deserved a damehood I’d accept it.
‘At the time, we felt that we were being paid very well to have a lot of fun. It didn’t seem right somehow.
‘We didn’t deserve a pat on the back. It felt a bit fake to stand alongside people who devoted their lives to truly worthy causes.’
Benjamin Zephaniah
The acclaimed poet made no bones about why he turned down an OBE in 2003.
He said: ‘Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.’
Skepta
Skepta claimed he rejected an honour in the lyrics of his song Hypocrisy, which was released in 2017.
The grime star rapped: ‘Just came back from the Ivors/And look at what we collected. The MBE got rejected/I’m not trying to be accepted.’
Paul Weller
In 2007, the legendary mod was offered a CBE, but turned it down.
A spokesperson said: ‘Paul was surprised and flattered, but it wasn’t really for him.’
George Harrison
While Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney accepted knighthoods, fellow Beatle George Harrison rejected an OBE the year before his death in 2001.
Journalist Ray Connolly, who knew The Beatles, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Whoever it was who decided to offer him the OBE and not the knighthood was extraordinarily insensitive. George would have felt insulted – and with very good reason.’
Paul McCartney had been given a knighthood in 1997.
However, the Beatles accepted MBEs in 1965, although John Lennon returned his four years later as ‘a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts’.
Ken Loach
The director rejected an OBE in 1977, as it was ‘not a club’ he wanted to be a member of.
He said: ‘It’s all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest.
‘I turned down the OBE because it’s not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who’ve got it.’
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