Meghan Markle and Prince Harry admitted on Monday that they had not secretly married three days before exchanging vows in front of a global audience during their royal wedding in May 2018.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told The Daily Beast that they exchanged “personal vows”, but acknowledged that this private event was not a “legal” or “official” service.
During the March 7 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan and Harry hinted that this personal exchange of vows, taking place in a garden at Kensington Palace, was his legal marriage, saying it was chaired by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Meghan, 39, said to Winfrey: “Three days before our wedding, we got married. Nobody knows that. The vows we make in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury. “
These statements to Winfrey gave critics of the couple ammunition to question the credibility of other things they said during their explosive interview with Winfrey.
Shortly after the interview, Church of England officials cast doubt on allegations about a backyard wedding. Church officials cited Church law to say that a marriage is not legal unless it is witnessed by two people or that it takes place in a “certified place of worship”.
The archbishop’s office told a Newcastle vicar: “Justin does not have private weddings. Meghan is American, she doesn’t understand. ”The vicar, Mark Edwards, told the regional news site ChronicleLive that he contacted the archbishop’s office for clarification.
Edwards said he was told, “Justin had a private conversation with the couple in the garden about the wedding, but I can guarantee that no wedding took place until the national televised event.”
Supporters of Meghan and Harry said that Meghan was just emphasizing that the exchange of private votes in the garden was personally more meaningful to them because, as she said to Winfrey, it was “between us” and not part of a “show for the world. “
But the couple’s critics took advantage of these inaccuracies and discrepancies in their interview in an attempt to undermine some of the most damaging things they said about the royal family.
Meghan and Harry claimed that Kate Middleton made Meghan cry while trying on a bridesmaid’s dress before the wedding; said that Prince William feels “trapped” in his royal role; and claimed that Charles cruelly cut them off financially when they left the UK
Even more seriously, Meghan and Harry said the royal family was indifferent to Meghan’s suicidal despair and said that someone in the family expressed concern about Archie’s skin color before he was born because Meghan is biracial.
The couple’s admission that they were not legally married three days before the $ 50 million wedding comes after the British tabloid The Sun obtained its official marriage certificate. The document shows that the couple was in fact married on May 19, 2018 at Windsor Castle and that the witnesses were Prince Charles and Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother.
Stephen Borton, former chief secretary of the Church of England office that grants marriage licenses, confirmed to The Sun: “I’m sorry, but Meghan is obviously confused and clearly misinformed. They had not been married three days earlier in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“The Special License I helped write allowed them to get married in St George’s Chapel in Windsor and what happened there on May 19, 2018 and was seen by millions around the world was the official wedding recognized by the Church of England and by the law. ”