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Italian activist and ex-wife of actor Colin Firth, Livia Gyugiori Firth, has decided to return her MBE honors for the “softening” of British royal President Donald Trump.
Giuggioli Firth, who split in 2019 and married a British actor for 22 years before divorced in 2021, shared her reasoning in an Instagram video that toressed her MBE certificate and showed off her return medal.
“In 2019, I was given this MBE honor for my services by trying to make the fashion supply chain a more deadly place for clothing workers around the world,” she writes.
“I will stand up to the British Empire and its toxic system remnants, but have accepted the honor on behalf of many clothing workers activists who educated and supported me. I was also King Charles, the Prince of Wales at the time, who fought on behalf of social and environmental justice for decades.
Livia Giuggioli/Instagram
The 56-year-old defender said her heart had finally changed last week when Trump recently visited the UK, during which the Windsor Castle banquet was held in his honor.
“As I write this, we see the horrifying excuses of humans (called Trump) at the UN General Assembly amplified and legalized his toxic rhetoric,” she said. “I looked back on his visit to the UK last week and I’m worried that he will not be able to soften the way he has been soothed, respected and justified again.”
“In fact, last week’s display showed nothing about these values that we thought would support King Charles or his spirit. Rather, it’s a terrifyingly coronavirus display that will alleviate those who endure the elimination of the most vulnerable people on nature and the planet,” she continued.
Giuggioli Firth married the actor’s husband from 1997 to 2021. They share two sons, Luka and Matteo. Colin Firth has not yet commented on his ex-wife’s decision. He was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s birthday honors in 2011 for his service to the drama.
Indigo/Getty
In her post, Giuggioli Firth said, “I know so many honorable, decent British people who can’t mitigate the grotesque pantomime and the values of fairness and justice that we have witnessed.
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Giuggioli Firth is not the only public figure to reject or return honor from the British crown. In 2020, Welsh actor Michael Sheen opened up about undoing OBEs after studying the “tortured history” of Wales’ conquest as part of the UK for a 2017 lecture by Raymond Williams.
“I remember sitting there by the time I wrote that lecture. “Well, I have a choice. I have to give this lecture and not keep my OBE or give this lecture and give the OBE back,” he told the Guardian.
Sheen decided not to make his decision public, saying, “I did not mean rude, but I realized that if I said what I was saying in my lecture about the nature of Wales’ relationship with the British state, I would become a hypocrite.”
Scottish actor Alan Cumming has also decided to return the OBE in 2023 over his fears about the British Empire. He later told people that he was shocked by the “incredible” response he received.
“People really understood why it was complicated, it was complicated and not black or white,” he said.