The Archbishop of Canterbury has finally spoken out after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey earlier this month that they had secretly married in their Kensington Palace garden three days before their public royal wedding in Windsor on 19 May 2018.
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Speaking to La Repubblica, Reverend Justin confirmed the legal wedding had taken place on the Saturday in Windsor, before saying: "But I won't say what happened at any other meetings."
Mr Welby added: "If any of you ever talk to a priest, you expect them to keep that talk confidential.
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"It doesn’t matter who I'm talking to. I had a number of private and pastoral meetings with the Duke and Duchess before the wedding.
"The legal wedding was on Saturday. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false."
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During their bombshell interview with Oprah, Meghan said as they visited Archie's chicken coop: "You know, three days before our wedding we got married.
Prince Harry and Meghan pictures with the Archbishop on their wedding day
"No-one knows that, but we called the Archbishop and we just said, 'Look, this thing, this spectacle, is for the world, but we want our union between us."
She later revealed their vows from the private ceremony were framed and put on display in the bedroom of their Montecito mansion.
Mr Welby's comments come a few weeks after the former official who issued the licence for the royal wedding said Meghan is "clearly misinformed".
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe couple told Oprah they had exchanged vows "in their backyard" three days before
Stephen Borton, the former chief clerk at the Faculty Office, told The Sun: "They did not marry three days earlier in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury."
"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."
