Friends of the British royals and military sources have described Prince Harry’s decision to accept a “retail” award at a glitzy ceremony as “a clear symbol of his desperate need for attention,” “pathetic,” and “sad.”
One friend of the royal family told The Daily Beast: “I’m afraid it’s just a clear symbol of his desperate need for attention. The irony of the whole of the last four years is that Harry and Meghan said they were leaving the royal family so the media would leave them alone. And now, here Harry is, literally picking up retail awards on live TV. It’s pathetic.”
The harsh comments came after a source in Harry’s camp reportedly said that a backlash to Harry being awarded the Pat Tillman award, spearheaded by the mother of the late NFL star-turned war hero, had left Harry upset.
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Harry’s office declined to comment to The Daily Beast. However, his camp are understood to have been left gratified by former winners of the award, such as U.S. Marine Jake Wood, praising the presentation of the award to Harry.
Evidence of just how divisive the issue has become is that even ESPN figurehead Pat McAfee has blasted the decision to give him the award in the first place, saying the network is trying “to piss people off.”
One source told the Telegraph that the controversy had been a “bitter pill to swallow,” and that “the reaction certainly took the shine off the award.”
Harry will get the Pat Tillman Award for Service during the 2024 ESPY Awards, which will air live on Thursday, July 11, at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. He is being honored for his work with the Invictus Games, which he founded to support wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women through international sporting events.
Tillman was an American football player who left a successful career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army following the 9/11 terror attacks. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 and the Pat Tillman Award for Service was established in 2014 by ESPN in his memory to honor individuals who, like Tillman, have made “remarkable civic contributions” and shown “extraordinary fortitude and spirit of service.”
Whether or not Prince Harry meets these criteria has since been a subject of much debate since it was announced he was this year's winner. Tillman’s mother, Mary, nailed her colors to the mast when she told the Mail on Sunday: “I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award. There are recipients that are far more fitting.”
A military source who worked with Harry in the army said, “If you get a medal in the army, you don’t brag about it, so the idea of turning up at a televised awards ceremony to be honored would be utterly embarrassing to most military people. It’s really sad to see Harry, who was an amazing guy who everyone respected, doing this kind of stuff.”
Earlier this year Harry, who completed two tours of Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot, was given an award for being a “Living Legend of Aviation” at a glitzy ceremony in Beverly Hills, California.
The military source said, “That was arguably worse. If other people want to compare him to Buzz Aldrin that is their business, but Harry shouldn’t be endorsing that kind of crap being said about him by turning up at the ceremonies in his dinner jacket.”
The Telegraph cited a Sussex source as saying: “Harry’s legacy on Invictus, the things he has achieved, that’s his real passion... This is the space in which he truly feels at home, it is something he deeply cares about. The reaction certainly took the shine off the award.”
On June 29, former NFL player Pat McAfee criticized the decision on his ESPN show, saying: “We should celebrate sports. The worldwide leaders should celebrate sport, but doing something like this is obviously trying to piss people off.” He joked there should be a new award “for Royal Family member who doesn’t want to be called ‘Royal Family member’ who loves sports?”
However an anonymous expert described as a “television consultant, who works for Disney and ESPN” told the Telegraph that “behind closed doors” executives would be “excited” that Harry “has prompted such interest in this night.”
