Ricky Gervais makes stance clear about knighthood with candid admission: ‘So irrelevant’
Comedian Ricky Gervais admitted he remains thoroughly undecided about whether he would accept a knighthood, dismissing the honour as meaningless in remarks shared on his YouTube channel on Friday.
The 65-year-old said he doubts the offer will ever come his way but acknowledged he would have accepted without hesitation for one reason.
“If my mum was alive, I’d definitely do it,” he said.
Mr Gervais, whose irreverent style has made him one of Britain’s most recognisable comedians, expressed characteristic ambivalence about the whole affair.
Ricky Gervais shared his thoughts on knighthoods
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GETTY“Would I do it now? Do I care? Does it matter? It doesn’t matter. If it was close to my house I might,” he mused.
He described himself as neither a committed royalist nor an opponent of the monarchy, likening the institution to “tourism” and calling a knighthood “so irrelevant.”
Yet the comedian conceded that one motivation might just sway him. “Oh, I might do it to annoy people. Maybe I would,” he said.
“All the people that would be really annoyed, that would just tip the balance. I like that. It’s my favourite.”
Ricky Gervais described himself as neither a committed royalist nor an opponent of the monarchy
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GETTY
Mr Gervais also joked that he would happily accept if the title carried its medieval privileges.
“If a knighthood meant like it did in the olden days, I could ride around on a big horse with a sword, I’d take it,” he said.
He playfully hinted that an offer might already have been made, noting that if he had turned one down, he would keep it quiet to spare anyone embarrassment.
“For all you know they’re calling me all the time, and I’m going ‘Nah!'” he quipped.
The knighthood remarks came just weeks after Mr Gervais made headlines for an equally unexpected announcement: his intention to marry long-term partner Jane Fallon purely to sidestep inheritance tax.
Ricky Gervais joked that he would happily accept a knighthood if it carried its medieval privileges
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GETTYThe comedian, who has spent decades arguing that marriage serves no purpose, once declaring there was no reason to wed “before the eyes of God as there is no God,” told Saga Magazine that tax was indeed the sole motivation.
“It is [the reason]. And that will be the reason I marry. We haven’t done it yet. But if it wasn’t for [tax] why?” he said.
He added: “It’s mad. How more married can you be? We share all our money, we’ve been living together for 40 years. Some marriages don’t last a year.”
Mr Gervais, whose estimated fortune stands at £141million, owns a substantial property portfolio including a £14.75 million nine-bedroom mansion in Hampstead, two New York flats, and a riverside property in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where he recently secured planning permission for a £5million neo-Georgian newbuild.
It follows Ricky Gervais’ recent comments about marriage
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GETTYWithout marriage, unmarried partners face inheritance tax at 40 per cent on assets above the tax-free threshold, a potentially costly distinction given the scale of his wealth.
Ms Fallon, a Sunday Times bestselling novelist worth an estimated £1.3million, was diagnosed with breast cancer in March.
The pair first met as students at University College London in 1982, moving into a flat above what Gervais once described as a “seedy sauna” in King’s Cross two years later.
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