Prince Harry’s Living Legends of Aviation Award comes across as ‘needy’, Richard Eden has told Palace Confidential.
Speaking on the Mail+’s weekly talk show, the Daily Mail’s Diary Editor said it’s unclear why the Duke of Sussex, 39, is being honoured at this year’s 21st Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards in Beverley Hills.
‘Frankly, I think it’s a bit needy. Perhaps the organisers of these award ceremonies know that they will turn up if they give them an award, but there’s something slightly pathetic,’ Mr Eden said.
In conversation with the Daily Mail’s Royal Editor at Large Richard Kay and show host Jo Elvin, Mr Eden added that he did a ‘double take’ when he heard the news of Harry’s award.
While Harry ‘knows how to fly a helicopter’, for Mr Eden, it’s ‘not clear why he’s being given this award’ at this time.
Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden (pictured) believes that Prince Harry’s latest aviation award is ‘slightly pathetic’
Prince Harry undertook two tours of duty in Afghanistan as a forward air controller and an Apache helicopter pilot.
His work as a British Army veteran and pilot is set to be honoured at this year’s 21st Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards.
The decorated event – which will be hosted by John Travolta in Beverly Hills, California next Friday – will see the royal inducted alongside other aerospace icons including Fred George and Steve Hinton.
It is understood that his work with setting up the Invictus Games Foundation will also be celebrated, according to the awards’ website. It is not clear whether Harry, or his wife Meghan Markle, 42, will attend the ceremony.
For Richard, the award is just the latest in a long list for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
He joked: ‘The one great thing about Harry and Meghan moving to California is that they seem to be garlanded with awards, and every now and then, there’s another one.’
Elsewhere on this week’s episode, the royal experts discussed Princess Anne’s tour of Sri Lanka, and commended the Princess Royal for carrying her own luggage off the plane.
‘Isn’t she terrific… that’s typical Princess Anne, practical’, said Richard Kay.
The Duke of Sussex is set to be honoured at this year’s 21st Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards. He is pictured above at the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where he was serving as an Apache Helicopter in 2013
It is unclear whether the royal will attend the glitzy Beverley Hills ceremony to pick up the awards. Harry is pictured above learning to fly the Squirrel helicopter at the Defence Helicopter Flying School in 2009
Princess Anne was welcomed to Sri Lanka with a dazzling performance by traditional dancers – and carried some of her bags off the plane.
The Princess Royal, 73, had a bag in each hand and a handbag as she walked down the plane’s steps at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake.
She’s been joined by her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, 68, for a three-day visit celebrating the UK’s ties with the South Asian Island.
The princess is visiting the country at the request of the Foreign Office and will begin a whistle-stop tour to mark the UK’s bilateral relations with the nation, including a meeting later with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and First Lady Maithree Wickremesinghe.
Anne’s practical approach to the trip impressed this week’s Palace Confidential experts.
‘It’s a classic example of how she just wants to get on with the royal business without the flummery that other royals insist upon,’ said Richard Kay.
Jo Elvin concluded: ‘Long live Anne, don’t mess with Anne is what I always say’.
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