King Charles III has stripped fifteen people of their honours so far in 2026, according to a tally published this week. The list is a useful window into one of the quieter mechanisms of the Crown: the Forfeiture Committee.
How forfeiture works
- The Forfeiture Committee, an independent panel, reviews cases where a recipient’s conduct may have damaged the honours system.
- The monarch is the only person with the formal power to cancel an honour. In practice he acts on the committee’s advice.
- The usual grounds are a criminal conviction, severe professional censure, or conduct that brings the system into disrepute.
- A stripped recipient must return the insignia and may no longer use post-nominal letters such as OBE or MBE.
The 2026 cases by category
- Criminal convictions (8): including former Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg and former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson.
- Conduct that brought the system into disrepute (4).
- Professional censure (3): including former First Sea Lord Ben Key. Censure means a formal reprimand, suspension or disbarment by a professional or regulatory body.
Precedents
The mechanism is old and rarely used. Anthony Blunt lost his knighthood in 1979 after being exposed as a Soviet spy. Rolf Harris lost his CBE in 2015 and Harvey Weinstein his honorary CBE in 2020. In 2025, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of royal titles and certain military and chivalric associations.
Why it matters
Fifteen in ten months is a high count by historical standards. It reflects a committee that now meets more often, a public that reports more, and a King who has shown little appetite for letting the system’s reputation absorb the damage.
Source: HELLO!, Oct. 23, 2026. Reported and written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.