How Justin Welby ‘fell under Harry and Meghan’s spell’: As Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over ‘ignoring’ prolific sex abuser’s crimes, how his friendship with the Sussexes raised questions about his judgement

For centuries, successive Archbishops of Canterbury have been close with members of the Royal Family – entrusted with solemn duties such as officiating their marriages and becoming trusted voices of counsel.

The 105th person to hold the position, Justin Welby, was no different, and as he prepared to lead the service of Prince Harry‘s wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018, he found himself befriending the couple.

Over the years their relationship deepened and Welby was sympathetic to them following Megxit, saying the Royal Family was ‘life without parole’ and that the public expected the couple to be ‘superhuman’.

He even pulled out of the most important Church of England meeting of the year at the General Synod in York in 2019 to officiate the christening of the couple’s first child Archie.

The friendship continued to grow until Palace sources claimed in 2023 he had ‘completely fallen under their spell’.

However Welby, 68, was forced to resign today after a damning independent report singled him out and said the Church of England for years had covered up the abuse of more than 100 children and young men by evangelist barrister John Smyth.

Questions have now been raised over Welby’s judgement after it was revealed he worked with Smyth in the 1970s at the camps where he groomed his victims, before exchanging Christmas cards with him for years. 

Now following the increased scrutiny on Justin Welby’s decisions, MailOnline looks back at his friendship with the disillusioned royals Harry and Meghan.

Justin Welby got to really know the Sussexes through a series of meetings as they planned and rehearsed for their grand wedding in Windsor Castle. 

The previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, officiated the wedding of Harry’s older brother William to Kate Middleton in 2011, and Welby was determined to get it right. 

And although the ceremony in front of the cameras – and the millions watching at home – was a success, the wedding later descended into controversy. 

Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in her sensational March 2021 interview: ‘Three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that but we called the Archbishop and we just said, “This thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us”. 

‘So the vows we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.’ 

In the wake of the interview many viewers pointed out that the allegation would have been damning for Welby, who would have committed a crime by signing the wedding certificate knowing it was false.

The row forced Welby to issue a statement rubbishing the claims, saying: ‘I had a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding.

‘The legal wedding was on the Saturday. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false.

‘So you can make what you like about it. But the legal wedding was on the Saturday. But I won’t say what happened at any other meetings.’

Harry and Meghan then backtracked on their private ceremony claim in a statement. 

And in Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare he reaffirmed the backyard wedding was ‘unoffical, non-binding, except in our souls’. 

However the year after the wedding, in 2019, Welby was once again dealing closely with the royal couple when he christened their first child Archie in the private chapel at Windsor Castle. 

He was forced to leave the most important meeting in the Church of England calendar because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose to baptise their son during the General Synod. 

At the time senior clerics were mystified when, without explanation, he pulled out of the Saturday session of the four-day meeting in York in July 2019. 

It wasn’t until two years later that it emerged the reason for his absence was due to the christening. 

A well-placed source at the time said the sudden change in the then Archbishop’s diary raised eyebrows: ‘The Sussexes certainly didn’t consult others as to what date might suit best… that just wasn’t a consideration.’ 

But Welby’s loyalty to the Sussexes didn’t stop at sacrificing his Church of England duties for them.

In an interview with The Times in 2019 he said the couple were ‘entitled’ to take time off because they’re ‘not superhuman’.

He said: ‘All members of the royal family are under a pressure that none of us outside it can possibly imagine.’

And the month after on BBC Radio 5 Live he praised Meghan, saying: ‘She’s a person of profound humanity and deep concern for people, seeking to carry out her role with every ounce of her being – and I think she’s a remarkable person.’ 

But Welby’s habit of sticking up for the Sussexes seems to go beyond simple respect for the duty they used to perform as members of the Royal Family.

When he was in the Church of England, the ex-archbishop became known for his outspoken interventions on political matters, as well as faith and moral issues.

In 2021 he was accused of being ‘singularly inappropriate’ and ‘jumping on a woke bandwagon’ after appearing to throw his weight behind the Sussexes.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times in 2021, the Anglican suggested the British public have unrealistic expectations when it comes to the royals, claiming: ‘We expect them to be superhuman.’

He also warned that Harry would struggle to shake off his ‘celeb’ status, using as an example Edward VIII, the king who abdicated in 1936 so he could marry American socialite and divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Welby has been an outspoken opponent of the Government’s policy on Brexit and austerity, and has clashed with Tory MPs in recent years. 

His repeated political interventions on the EU prompted Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, to call for the disestablishment of the Church at one point.

Critics slammed the then archbishop’s ‘parole jibe’ and suggested that the head of the Church ‘would be better off finding ways to increase his flock by getting people back into churches after the pandemic’.

Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s former press secretary, thundered to MailOnline: ‘I find it extraordinary that he would compare service to parole. I’m not sure what he means. Is he suggesting that being a royal is a jail term?’

Richard Fitzwilliam, a royal commentator and former Editor of International Who’s Who, accused him of putting his foot in his mouth and claimed he was trying ‘to show as much sympathy with Harry and Meghan as he can, especially since he has had to deny having them married twice’.

Welby has also found the time throughout the years to apologise for the sins of slavery, which was abolished in the British Empire nearly two hundred years ago. 

He recently confessed that his great, great, great grandfather, Sir James Fergusson, was an owner of slaves in Jamaica.

In Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary, they included several academics who talked about the British involvement in slavery during the empire.

The ex-Archbishop has also proclaimed that the Church of England is ‘deeply institutionally racist’ and called for ‘radical and decisive’ action. 

The relationship between Welby and the Sussexes has been known in the corridors of Lambeth Palace and Buckingham Palace for some time.

‘The closeness of the Archbishop and the Sussexes has been a subject of conversation for a while,’ said one well-placed source to The Mail on Sunday in January 2023.

‘Justin clearly had a lot of sympathy for them [over Megxit] and we were shaking our heads wondering why he felt so sorry for them. It was like he had completely fallen under their spell.’

But despite the Sussexes quitting the Royal Family and moving to California, Welby started to play a more important part in their lives.

Due to the fact he was seen as a trusted confidant to them, as well as King Charles and Prince William, he was given the job of brokering a deal for Harry to return for his father’s coronation in May 2023.

Welby was the first Archbishop to crown a monarch since Geoffrey Fisher in 1953 and admitted he had ‘nightmares’ about the Coronation going wrong. 

And although during that period he emerged as a key figure in reducing tensions between the Sussexes and the Royal Family, it met resistance from Prince William.

William was understood to be concerned that his brother would use the event to stage a ‘stunt’ that would overshadow the important national event.

Nevertheless the deal was done and Harry attended the coronation, sitting three rows behind his brother.

When he arrived at Westminster Abbey for the service he said ‘good luck’ as he moved past Welby, who then replied ‘thank you’, according to a lip reader.

Harry’s appearance at the Coronation marked his first public appearance alongside the royals since he lambasted his family in his controversial memoir Spare three months prior. 

But Welby seemed to be hopeful when asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme in December 2022 whether the Sussexes could ever reconcile with the Royal Family.

He said: ‘I can’t really comment on it because I married them and there’s sort of pastoral confidentiality,’ he stated. 

But he said reconciliation was possible, adding: ‘There’s always a way forward, but it has to be at the right time.’ 

However it seems Welby decided there was no way forward for him in his role as Archbishop of Canterbury as he quit the role on Tuesday afternoon.

Welby had initially tried to cling on, but was effectively forced to quit after senior colleagues joined criticism and more than 10,000 people signed a petition. Keir Starmer had also pointedly refused to back him. 

The Archbishop of York said the resignation was the ‘right and honourable thing to do’, while MPs insisted there was a duty on leaders of institutions to ‘report and rigorously follow up’ safeguarding concerns.

The scandal emerged after Welby, who was told allegations about Smyth in 2013, failed to notify the police. It wasn’t until 2017 that they began an investigation.

And after Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in 1984 to set up a camp for boys to continue his abuse, his old chum Welby, who has said he was unaware of the reasons for his departure from the UK, is believed to have donated to the organisation.

It would be later revealed that Smyth abused as many as 130 boys across five decades in three different countries, subjecting victims to physical, sexual and psychological attacks that permanently marked their lives.

He died at 77 in Cape Town in 2018 while being investigated by Hampshire Police and so was ‘never bought to justice’, the review said.