Why did Jennifer Saunders refuse her OBE?

Jennifer Saunders declined an OBE in 2001, along with her comedy partner Dawn French, because they didn’t feel their services to “comedy-drama” warranted such an honor.

Jennifer Saunders has said that she turned down the OBE because she didn’t want to make a “mockery” of her own father’s honor from the Queen. Her father, Robert Thomas Saunders, served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and later worked for British Aerospace.

Robert Thomas Saunders reached the rank of group captain. Saunders felt that accepting the Queen’s offer “made a mockery” of being given such a prestigious honor and felt there were others in the world who deserved it more.

In 2011, Jennifer Saunders told The Guardian that she and French felt they were being paid very well to have a lot of fun, and it didn’t seem right to accept the honor.

Jennifer Saunders is an English actress, comedian, and screenwriter who initially gained attention in the 1980s when she became a member of The Comic Strip.

Jennifer Saunders appeared in Ben Elton’s Happy Families where she played various members of the same family in the six-episode BBC situation comedy.

In the summer of 2022, Jennifer Saunders played the role of Mother Superior in Sister Act the Musical for 6 weeks at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith.