You are correct. Even if the penitent breaks the seal of confession (and a penitent is allowed to) the priest can’t confirm or deny what happened.
That’s was my understanding anyhow. My comment whenever this comes up is if the confessor-privilege goes away, there doesn’t seem to be any way for the Catholic Church to defend itself against civil suits that are trying to award damages against something actionable that was done or said in confession. And for all I know there may actually be something actionable, but either way the priest is supposedly always going to act the same way unless he wants to be excommunicated, ‘no comment.’
I wonder if the other faiths besides the Orthodox that use the privilege also have the rule that the priest cannot even confirm or deny a confession took place at all, or still not confirm or deny anything about it even if the penitent wants the priest/clergy to do so.
Freegards