Disgraced Public Figures Stripped Of Their Honours

The removal of honours - formally called "forfeiture"- is done when someone is judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute. Celebrities, sports stars and political leaders have all faced the shame of having distinctions removed after falling from grace.

After years of allegations, a landmark court trial and convictions for rape and sexual assault, Harvey Weinstein has had his honorary CBE removed.

A notice in The Gazette announced that the Queen had approved the decision for the 68-year-old producer to have his honour "cancelled and annulled" and his name "erased from the register".

Weinstein is far from the first public figure to be stripped of their distinction after a fall from grace. Here are some of the people who have forfeited their awards 

Harvey Weinstein has been stripped of his CBE following his conviction for rape and sexual assault earlier this year. 

The disgraced producer, 68, is currently serving a 23-year jail sentence after being found guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. 

More than 100 women, including famous actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman, had accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct stretching back decades - fuelling the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment. 

Now, six months after the landmark trial, the Honours Forfeiture Committee have voted to strip him of his honour. 

The announcement was published in The Gazette, the UK's official public record. 

The notice said: "The Queen has directed that the appointment of Harvey Weinstein to be an Honorary Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 29 January 2004, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order."

 

Rolf Harris 

Rolf Harris work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality.

 

Harris received multiple awards and honours, but following his conviction many of these were rescinded. Harris was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1968; he was advanced to Officer (OBE) in 1977, then to Commander (CBE) in 2006, but these honours were revoked in March 2015.

 

Disgraced children's entertainer Rolf Harris was stripped of his CBE in 2015 after being found guilty of sex attacks on girls as young as seven. In July 2014, the 90-year-old was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, but he was released on licence three years later.

 

Bill Cosby

 

The 80-year-old actor/comedian was found guilty on April 26 of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004, after being accused of sexual misconduct by more than 50 women in recent years, Oxygen reports.

 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski from its membership last week, Entertainment Weekly reports. The board of governors voted on May 1 to oust both Cosby and Polanski, the latter of whom became a fugitive from justice when he fled the country in 1978 after pleading guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. 

In 1998, Cosby received the Kennedy Center Honors, and he was the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour more than a decade later, in 2009. The Kennedy Center rescinded both awards on Tuesday, Variety reports. 

After being inducted in 1992, the disgraced comedian’s name and statue were removed from the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame last week, Deadline reports. A bust of Cosby was removed from the Academy’s outdoor Hall of Fame Plaza in California during renovations, along with many others, but while there formerly were plans to rotate busts of Hall of Fame inductees between storage spaces and the courtyard, Cosby’s statue will not be included in that rotation. 

Cosby has been stripped of a slew of honorary degrees leading up to, and following, his guilty verdict. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati in 2001 as the speaker at UC's graduation ceremony that year, but the university rescinded Cosby’s degree on Tuesday, Cincinnati reports. Out of the 609 honorary diplomas the university has awarded in its history, Cosby’s is the first to have been revoked.