Bono Turns Down Honorary Degree from NYU

When Bono‘s 21-year-old daughter Eve Hewson accepts her diploma from New York University next week, the 53-year-old frontman will sit in the audience snapping pictures like any proud parent. The institution reportedly offered Bono an honorary degree as a Doctor of Humane Letters and invited him to give the commencement speech, but the U2 frontman “politely declined” the offer saying that he didn’t want to steal the spotlight from his daughter.

“Bono was hugely honoured to be asked by NYU to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters,” a source told the New York Post. “Given his daughter is part of the graduating class, they discussed the invitation as a family and decided they wanted to keep the day a quiet one for the family in which Bono could simply be a very proud father.”

After graduation, Hewson hopes to follow in her famous father’s footsteps and pursue a career in showbiz. The brunette beauty recently co-starred alongside Oscar winner Sean Penn in “This Must Be the Place.”