Prince Harry should “sit back and not accept” the Pat Tillman Award after a backlash from the veteran’s mother, according to a former head of the Royal Navy.

The Duke of Sussex is due to pick up an ESPY Award named after the former star on Thursday in Los Angeles in honor of his work with the Invictus Games.

Tillman played for the Arizona Cardinals but gave up the sport to fight as a ranger in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, where he was killed in a friendly fire incident in 2004.

The announcement that the prince would receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service sparked controversy after Mary Tillman, the soldier’s mother, said Harry was too controversial and privileged for the honor.

Admiral Lord Alan West, former head of the Royal Navy, said awards are being offered to the duke because he “has such a high profile and people want to take advantage of that.”

“He ought to think very hard and long about accepting awards for things like being an exceptional pilot and being exceptionally brave,” he told the Daily Mail. “Some of the blame must lie with ESPN. They like picking him because it gives them immense publicity. But this is rather bad publicity for Harry.

“I really think Harry should be well advised to sit back and not accept awards like this. It doesn’t travel well with people in the military. And when the mother of the man who died doesn’t want him to get this award, he should think about that.

“My advice to him is to sit back and not accept any awards at the moment. They are going his way because [he] has such a high profile and people want to take advantage of that.”

Harry never served directly under Lord West having done tours of Afghanistan with the British Army, rather than the navy.

West was First Sea Lord, or head of the Navy, from 2002 to 2006, meaning he was already out of the service by the time Harry became honorary Captain General of the Royal Marines in 2017.

He is currently a peer in Britain’s House of Lords and is affiliated to Britain’s Labour Party, which has just won the country’s general election in a landslide victory.

Harry has been defended by a , who said: “I look at and I see someone who I see as deserving. Here is a man that served his country, served alongside me and my fellow Americans in Afghanistan. He chose a dangerous job flying Apache helicopters. And let’s put it out there, he’s a royal prince. There’s a hundred different things Harry could have done with his life.”

Mary Tillman previously said: “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. There are individuals working in the veteran community that are doing tremendous things to assist veterans.

“These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has. I feel that those types of individuals should be recognized.”

Among other awards Harry has won, he was inducted into the Legends of Aviation Hall of Fame earlier this year.

However, in November 2021, he presented awards to recipients at the Intrepid Valor Awards, at Intrepid Air and Space Museum, in New York, rather than being given one himself, avoiding accusations of privilege.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly ) at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s

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