Archbishop of York: My wife told me to buy new shoes for coronation of King Charles

The Archbishop of York has revealed how he was ordered by his wife to buy new footwear for the King's coronation because his existing shoes had holes in.

Stephen Cottrell will play a key role in Saturday's ceremony, assisting the Archbishop of Canterbury in crowning and anointing King Charles at Westminster Abbey.

Speaking at Lambeth Palace ahead of the coronation, the archbishop told ITV News he, like many priests, regularly wore Doc Marten shoes.

But he had to conceal them from the King at a recent meeting because of their poor state of repair.

He said: "My wife told me 'you can't possible wear those shoes', which did have a hole in them.

"At one of the rehearsals...I sat down and had a cup of tea with the King after the rehearsal and I put one shoe behind the other so the hole wasn't visible.

"So we did go to the shoe shop a few weeks ago and I have a new pair of DMs especially for the day."

'Pinching myself'

The archbishop said he had taken part in "wall-to-wall, non-stop rehearsals" to ensure proceedings went smoothly on Saturday.

He said: "It's a really exciting day and I'm pinching myself that I'm one of the Archbishops that gets to play a part in this historic occasion.

"None of us have done it before. As you'll see, it's a beautiful but quite complicated ceremony.

"Fortunately nothing has gone wrong, but there have been occasions when we've started processing one way and someone has said, 'no you're meant to be going that way' and we're sort of do-si-doing around each other. But it'll be alright on the night."

The archbishop has spent time with the King on two visits by the new monarch to York, once during a two-day tour of Yorkshire and once when he attended a Maundy service at the Minster.

He said: "Two things I have discovered is his great love of York, Yorkshire, the north... but also he has a twinkle in his eye. I think he has also been able to see, as has Queen Camilla, the funny side of all of this. Because, although it's glorious the coronation - this pageantry that we do so well - you also need to be able to smile at it as well."

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