Alan Cumming hands back OBE after conversation around ‘toxic’ British Empire ‘opened my eyes’-Rachael O'Connor-Entertainment – Metro

Alan Cumming has handed back his OBE (Picture: WireImage)

Alan Cumming has given back the OBE he received 14 years ago.

The actor, 58, announced on Friday that he had handed back the honour he had received in 2009 for his ‘activism for equal rights for the gay and lesbian community’ in the USA.

He said the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the conversations around the monarchy and ‘the way the British Empire profited at the expense (and death) of indigenous peoples’ had ‘opened my eyes.’

Taking to Instagram on his 58th birthday, he told his 479,000 followers he wanted to share with them ‘something I recently did for myself.’

‘I returned my OBE,’ he revealed, explaining he did not want to be associated with the ‘toxicity’ of the British Empire.

He said he was ‘incredibly grateful’ to have been awarded an OBE

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