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The Archbishop of Canterbury has for the first time addressed the Duchess of Sussex’s comment that she married three days before her grand royal wedding.
During his explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast earlier this month, Meghan said she and the Duke of Sussex had a secret marriage ceremony with the Most Reverend Justin Welby in their “backyard.”
The Duchess said no one knew that the couple shared personal vows for “just the two of us” before their official wedding day in Windsor on Saturday, May 19, 2018.
The world watched as Harry and Meghan tied the knot on Saturday May 19, 2018 in Windsor.
It was thought that it could not have been a legal ceremony, as it lacked witnesses and a registered place, and instead it was likely that it would have been an informal exchange of vows.
In an interview with La Repubblica, Mr. Welby was asked about what happened and said that the legal wedding was on Saturday, adding: “But I will not say what happened in any other meeting.”
The archbishop told the Italian newspaper: “If any of you ever speak to a priest, expect them to keep that conversation confidential.
Meghan told Winfrey, ‘You know, three days before our wedding we got married.’ Image: CBS
“It doesn’t matter who I’m talking to. I had a series of private and pastoral meetings with the Duke and Duchess before the wedding.
“The legal wedding was on Saturday. I signed the marriage certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious crime if I had signed it knowing it was false.”
During the interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan told her, “You know, three days before our wedding we got married.
“Nobody knows, but we called the archbishop and we just said, ‘Look, this thing, this show, is for the world, but we want our union with each other.’
She said the vows they had cast are “just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Both Harry and Meghan said it was “just the three of us.”
Welby’s comments come after the former official who issued the license for the Sussex wedding said that Meghan was “clearly misinformed.”
Stephen Borton, former chief secretary of the College Office, told The Sun that Meghan “is obviously confused and clearly misinformed.”
“They were not married three days before in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury,” he said.
“The Special License that I helped draft allowed them to get married at 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 the law.
“What I suspect they did was exchange some simple vows that perhaps they had written themselves, and that is fashionable, and they said that in front of the Archbishop or, more likely, it was a simple rehearsal.”
The newspaper also printed a certified copy of an entry marriage document for the couple that was dated May 19, 2018 and bore the names of Prince Charles and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, as witnesses.
The Sussex that they are expecting their second child – a daughter – in the summer after a miscarriage last year, they have embraced their new life in California, away from the monarchy.
The suggestion of a secret wedding was just a revelation in Winfrey’s interview, with Meghan and Harry accusing an anonymous member of the royal family – neither the queen nor the Duke of Edinburgh – of raising concerns about how dark the tone of skin of his son Archie. before he was born.
Buckingham Palace previously said that the issues raised in Harry and Meghan’s interview, especially about race, were “concerning” and that the Queen and her family would address in private.
