The Archbishop of Canterbury is to meet a half-sister he did not know he had, following the discovery that the man he called "dad" was not his biological father.
The Most Revd Justin Welby underwent a paternity test after the Daily Telegraph presented him with research suggesting Gavin Welby was not his biological father.
The results proved that he was born from a brief relationship between his mother and Sir Winston Churchill's private secretary, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, who died in 2013. The Archbishop's mother, Jane, now Lady Williams of Elvel, confirmed that a liaison, "fuelled by a large amount of alcohol on both sides", had taken place days before her marriage in 1955.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Welby is currently attending an Anglican conference in Zambia, but friends told the Daily Telegraph that he plans to get to know his newly discovered biological family when he returns on 20 April. He is especially anxious to meet his half-sibling, Jane Hoare-Temple, who, like him, grew up believing she was an only child.
She said she was "taken aback" by the revelation that the most senior figure in the global Anglican Church is her half-brother.
"She has got to get her head around this, just as he does, and he is still processing this new knowledge in his mind," a friend told the Telegraph. "He will be thinking about her emotions, her reactions and when would be the best time to contact her, unless, of course, she gets in touch first."
Welby has previously spoken of his "messy" childhood as an only child raised by alcoholic parents who divorced when he was a toddler. While his mother recovered from her addiction in 1968, his father died of alcohol-related causes in 1977.
In a statement released after the DNA results were made public, the Archbishop admitted the discovery had been a "complete surprise", but that his sense of identity came from "Jesus Christ, not in genetics".
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drugSpeed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policySpeed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UKSpeed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakersSpeed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
-
Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
