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Meghan Markle married Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel even though she was a divorcee.
Her father-in-law, King Charles, had been barred from exchanging vows with Queen Camilla at the same Windsor church 13 years earlier.
Now, Rowan Williams, who was Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, has broken his silence over why he refused to allow Charles and Camilla to be married at the royal chapel in 2005.
The couple were forced to hold their wedding at the local register office instead, in front of just 28 guests. Charles’s parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, were conspicuous by their absence.
Asked if he made the right call, Lord Williams tells me: ‘That was the decision we made, yes.’
Speaking at The Oldie magazine’s literary luncheon – where he was promoting his new book, Solidarity: The Work of Recognition – he adds: ‘Those were the rules.’
Rowan Williams, who was then the Archbishop of Canterbury, blesses Charles and Camilla at their wedding in April 2005
In fact, it was his interpretation of the Church of England’s rules, which have not changed since they were introduced in 2002. They state that Anglican priests are allowed to wed divorcees at their discretion.
Not only was Meghan allowed to marry Harry in 2018, when Justin Welby was Archbishop of Canterbury, but the prince’s cousin Peter Phillips exchanged vows with Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church, Kemble, in June, even though both had been married previously. The Church of England’s website advises divorcees seeking a church wedding: ‘Every vicar will want to help you, though there are some who don’t feel able to offer a wedding to couples where one or both of the partners has been divorced… Even if it is not possible to do your wedding, they may offer a blessing service after a civil wedding.’
This is what happened in the case of Charles and Camilla, with the archbishop leading a blessing at St George’s Chapel, attended by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
Lord Williams is thought to have agreed with the Queen that a church wedding was not appropriate for Charles and Camilla because their adultery had contributed to the end of his marriage to Princess Diana.
Posh pansexual Frankie gushes over new beau
Society model Frankie Herbert (left) has found love with Asa Timbe, an American male model
Society model Frankie Herbert declared herself as ‘pansexual’ after enjoying romances with lovers including Eliot Sumner, rock star Sting’s child who was born a girl. Now, Frankie, 30, granddaughter of the late 7th Earl of Carnarvon, has found love with a man. She’s going out with American model Asa Timbe, with whom she feels ‘aligned’. The couple met in Costa Rica, where Frankie, whose step father the Duke of Norfolk organised King Charles’s Coronation, now lives. She confirmed their relationship online, posting a photograph of her with Asa. ‘My man... you are so special, kind, powerful, talented, so f***ing talented,’ she gushes. ‘You, my love are divine, safe, sleepy, grounding, funny, beautiful, inspiring, silly, outrageously sexy and I feel so expansive together.’
The smart set's talking about... How undaunted Ella landed dream home
Journalist and businesswoman Ella Mills attends an Intimissimi event held in New York in 2017
Deliciously Ella founder Ella Mills has barely digested her new country life before selling up again. I can reveal that less than a year after leaving London – and a nine month renovation – the Sainsbury’s heiress, 35, has sold her new Oxfordshire home.
She is swapping it for another country pile with husband Matthew Mills, son of the late Cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell, and daughters Skye, seven, and May, five.
‘The move is doubling down on our new life,’ explains Ella, who sold Deliciously Ella for a reported £70million in 2024. ‘We fell in love with another house two years ago. We had everything lined up to move there, but the current owners had to pull out, so we went back to the drawing board.’
She adds: ‘The other house seeped into our soul. It’s near the coast, a little more remote, more nature, a bit more wellness and a school that I always really, really wanted the girls to go to. So when we found out the original house we fell in love with could be ours again, we knew we should go for it.’
Knopfler's rocky exchange
David Knopfler, a founder member of Dire Straits, has not taken kindly to being described as a ‘deep-pocketed rock star’ after he objected to a 1,200-property development near his home in the West Country.
Barrister Lord Banner KC, representing the developer, had made the comment at the inquiry in Devon. Knopfler responded: ‘I would just like the record to show that while I’m proud of my lifelong achievements as a rather more humble musician, the reality is I’m a 73-year-old pensioner, an economics graduate and former social worker living in a semi-detached, who happened to spend three years in a rock band almost 50 years ago.’
He described the development on Wolborough Fen, a site of special scientific interest near Newton Abbot, as ‘a textbook definition of urban blight’.
Goatee-chinned ex Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert – a senior bod at Jesus College, Cambridge – has had a front-row seat in the Jason Arday scandal; it was Jesus that hired man-of-mystery Arday as a professor. Two months ago, Huppert’s geophysicist father, Prof Herbert Huppert, was stripped of a Cambridge fellowship amid sexual harassment allegations. Huppert Jnr runs Jesus’s Intellectual Forum. One of its recent symposia was about how money can corrupt politics – yet Jesus itself has accepted enormous donations from Communist China. It’s enough to make a chap chew his beard.
Pattie, 82, is still turning heads
Retired English model and photographer Pattie Boyd sports a vibrant pink hat in Morocco
One of the Swinging Sixties' most bewitching figures, Pattie Boyd’s life is just as colourful these days. The former model and photographer, who was married to both Beatles star George Harrison and Eric Clapton, was spotted hiding beneath a bright pink, oversized straw hat while on holiday in Tangier, Morocco. Pattie, 82, inspired classic songs including Harrison’s Something and Clapton’s Layla. She will be played by White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood in Sir Sam Mendes’s forthcoming four part Beatles biopic.
Queen drummer Roger Taylor has recorded his own version of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, previously taken to No1 by Roxy Music after the Beatle’s murder. ‘I didn’t think they did it justice,’ Taylor says. ‘I’ve always absolutely loved that song – one of the great ballads, so heartfelt. It should be done straight, so I’ve just done it with a piano.’
Jack: I need a man cave
Jack and Roxy Whitehall arrive at the Golden Bee Awards ceremony in Malta in June this year
The honeymoon appears to be over already for Jack Whitehall and Roxy Horner.
The comedian, 38, married the lingerie model, 35, in a lavish ceremony at Euridge Manor in Wiltshire in April - but he’s already grumbling.
‘I feel like I don’t have a man cave,’ says Jack, who shares a five-bedroom home in Notting Hill, west London, with Roxy and their two-year-old daughter, Elsie.
‘I got married, and I’m losing all of my spaces.
‘I gradually see things of mine taken down from the walls and put away in cupboards,’ he adds.'
After its opening series knocked up with some naked tennis – pitting Emily Atack against Alex Hassell – the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals might have peaked rather early.
So fans will be heartened by Bobby Lockwood, who stars as polo-playing hunk Dommie Carlisle in the second series.
‘You don’t get involved in a show like Rivals unless you’re comfortable doing naked scenes,’ Lockwood, 33, tells me at the first night of Now You See Me Live at the London Coliseum. ‘I had a screening party when it aired.’
Only one of those present needed smelling salts. ‘My mum was saying, “Oh, my God!”,’ Lockwood admits.
(Very) modern manners
Don't Get Me Wrong, but people have become far too sentimental, according to Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde.
‘When did everyone get so touchy-feely?’ asks the prickly pop star, 74. ‘It seems like a new thing where people sign their emails: “Hugs”. Hate to be a spoil sport, but I’m wondering if there’s anyone else out there who isn’t huggy. Surely, it’s not just me. Has this come from the therapy culture? The Grammy culture? Over-sharing?’
She adds: ‘I guess we’re like dogs. Some are lone wolves – me – and others are lap dogs who like a lot of pampering. Oh, and signing an email with: “Stay safe.” Seriously?’
He's a former Made In Chelsea lothario, but Spencer Matthews is apparently struggling to satisfy his wife, Vogue Williams, at all times.
The Irish model says of their love life: ‘I have to say it has always been pretty decent with Spenny, but it’s not always brilliant, and you do have to have chats about certain parts of it.’ Spencer, who turned 38 on Thursday, is the brother of James Matthews, husband of the Princess of Wales’s sister Pippa. The TV star has had too many past girlfriends to count, but they include Vicky Pattison, Lucy Watson, Louise Thompson and Caggie Dunlop.
Directing her comments to her husband on a podcast, Vogue, 40, tells him: ‘You had enough practice. I’d be shocked if you weren’t good.’