meghan harry backtrack wedding claims© Photo: Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle backtrack on secret wedding claim

The couple had told Oprah they had married secretly three days before their public nuptials

Website Editor
March 23, 2021

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have confirmed that the "secret wedding" they spoke about during their interview with Oprah Winfrey was actually an exchange of personal vows.

MORE: 15 most surprising revelations from Prince Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview

A source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has said that: "The couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19."

WATCH: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reveal baby's gender!

The Duchess told Oprah earlier this month that she and Prince Harry were married by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in their back garden three days before the royal wedding. Over the weekend, however, an official spoke out to deny the claims.

Stephen Borton, the former chief clerk at the Faculty office, told the Sun that Meghan is "obviously confused and misinformed".

MORE: Meghan Markle sets record straight about pregnancy with son Archie

RELATED: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal wedding in photos

"They did not marry three days earlier in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury," he said.

© Photo: Getty Images

The couple had told Oprah they married secretly three days before their public royal wedding

"The Special Licence I helped draw up enabled them to marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor and what happened there on 19 May 2018, and was seen by millions around the world was the official wedding as recognised by the Church of England and the law.

"What I suspect they did was exchange some simple vows they had perhaps written themselves, and which is fashionable, and said that in front of the Archbishop or, and more likely, it was a simple rehearsal."

Furthermore, a copy of Harry and Meghan's official wedding certificate confirms that they were married on 19 May 2019, and lists Prince Charles and her mother, Doria Ragland, as witnesses.

During her interview with Oprah, Meghan revealed that she and Harry had their 'vows' from their back garden ceremony framed and put on display in their £11 million home in Montecito, where they live with their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who will turn two on 6 May.

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