New Year Honours 2022: Adam Hills didn’t tell family about his MBE in case it was a ‘prank’ or the royals ‘changed their minds’

‘The Last Leg’ host has been recognised for services to Paralympic sport and disability awareness

Comedian Adam Hills has admitted that he didn’t tell his family he was being awarded an MBE because he thought it was a “prank”.

The host of The Last Leg has been recognised in the New Year Honours list for services to Paralympic sport and disability awareness.

Speaking to PA, Hills said that he “still [was] not convinced someone isn’t playing a prank on me” after receiving his MBE.

“I am absolutely chuffed to bits to be given this honour,” he said. “I’ve already googled ‘Australian comedians who have received honours’, ‘when can I start writing MBE after my name?’ and ‘are Australians even eligible for an MBE?’

“Turns out the answers are ‘Barry Humphries and Clive James’, ‘when you receive the medal’ and ‘yes’.

Hills said that aside from worrying it was a trick, he was yet to tell his family about the honour as “I’m worried I’ll make a joke about the royal family that causes them to change their minds before the awards are announced”.

With his wife and children having moved back to Australia just before the pandemic, Hills said that he saw his family for less than 12 weeks in 2021, adding: “I know there’s no replacement for family time, but it softens the blow to know that I can soon say to my kids, ‘Daddy got an award from the Queen’.”

Hills with the Warrington Wolves, the rugby team he joined for his Channel 4 documentary (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com/Shutterstock)

Australian stand-up Hills has hosted The Last Leg, a comedy show that began as an accompaniment to the Paralympic Games, since 2012.

The show ended up being so popular that it became a permanent fixture on Channel 4 and now regularly covers major political, as well as sporting, events.

In 2019, Hills – who has a prosthetic foot – appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Adam Hills: Take His Legs, in which he embarked on his childhood dream of playing competitive rugby league and joined the Warrington Wolves’ Physical Disability Rugby League team.

Additional reporting by Press Association