The mother of an American war hero who was posthumously awarded both the Silver Star and Purple Heart fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan is appalled that Prince Harry is to receive an honour in her son’s name.
Harry was nominated for the Pat Tillman Award for Service by ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly awards), and will be garlanded with it at a glittering ceremony in Los Angeles on July 11.
His supposed qualification is his brief war record — he was an accomplished Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan — and his role in creating the Invictus Games for injured veterans and service personnel.
The award honours Pat Tillman, whose mother, Mary, said she was not consulted.
She is not impressed, and asks why he has been chosen over more deserving candidates: “I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award when there are recipients far more fitting,” she said.
And she is not alone.
Mary Tillman is speaking for countless others since social media comments condemning the decision have flooded the internet from across the world.
All are aghast, not just that Harry is to receive such a distinguished honour but that he has the gall to accept it.
One British veteran, who served for 40 years, posted on X that he was “incensed”.
To understand why there is such anger, it helps to compare Pat Tillman and Harry’s attitudes towards fame, fortune and duty.
In 2002, the star American football player gave up a $3.6 million NFL contract to fight for his country, eight months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He joined the army and made the ultimate sacrifice, dying in Afghanistan in 2004, aged just 27.
Harry may also have fought for his country, but he then abandoned it, along with his duty as a member of the royal family, for a life of money- grubbing opportunity in California off the back of his title.
He then turned his guns on the monarchy — in that Oprah Winfrey interview, the Netflix series and in his memoir, Spare.
All so he could cash in.
As many have pointed out, including some of the 30,000 (and counting) Americans who have signed a petition in protest against Harry getting the award, Tillman walked away from money and fame for honour and duty, while Harry walked away from honour and duty for money and fame.
Few members of his family were spared in his attacks after he departed these shores.
He and Meghan didn’t hold back as they accused the Royal Family variously of being racist or bullying or snobbish, as well as negligent in their care for him and his emotionally fragile wife.
Even the Queen and Prince Philip did not escape the fallout, and no doubt were devastated to see the young couple using Harry’s privileged position to undermine the very institution of the monarchy.
Tillman’s mother put it succinctly when arguing why Harry was not a worthy recipient of the award honouring her son’s legacy: “There are individuals working in the veteran community doing tremendous things to assist vets . . . who do not have the money, resources, connections and privilege Prince Harry has.”
But the Sussexes seem oblivious to the sensitivity of this issue.
A statement on their official website said that Prince Harry was one of the “esteemed recipients” of the ESPY award which recognises “exceptional individuals who exemplify courage, perseverance and service”.
Pass the sick bag!
It seems to me that Harry and Meghan are so desperate for recognition, so keen to parade their own humanitarian virtues, they will turn up to any occasion where they can be lauded and presented with gongs, no matter how ill-deserved.
In 2022, the Sussexes accepted the Ripple of Hope award, from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation, for people who demonstrate “an unwavering commitment to social change and work to protect and advance equity, justice and human rights”.
Days later, their Harry & Meghan Netflix series launched, laying into the royals — I suppose that’s what they call justice and human rights!
Then, in January, helicopter pilot Harry, absurdly, was inducted into the Hall of Living Legends of Aviation at an event hosted by the actor and pilot of his own private jet John Travolta.
In 2021, the “enlightened” couple were hailed as “environmental role models” by UK-based charity Population Matters, for their heroic decision to have just two children, thereby reducing their impact on the Earth.
All this vainglorious self-acclamation!
It has not gone unnoticed that the ESPY ceremony in LA, at which Harry will receive this award, will be hosted for broadcast by Meghan’s bestie, tennis legend Serena Williams.
Will she or Harry, or anyone else, explain the real story of how the Invictus Games began?
Don’t hold your breath.
The former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole says Harry’s idea for the games would never have got off the ground were it not for his father, Charles, his brother, William, and his sister-in-law, Kate, who gave their unflinching support.
Harry is a pygmy riding on the shoulders of giants. But this time, Mary Tillman, the mother of a true giant, has called him out.
