The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed to Oprah Winfrey that they “married” three days before their Windsor Castle wedding ceremony was watched by millions – although it has prompted confusion as to which was the official union.
Winfrey was among guests, along with the Beckhams, Idris Elba and Elton John, at the star-studded ceremony on 19 May 2018, but Meghan said the couple already had had their own private wedding.
“You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that,” she told Winfrey in their extraordinary CBS interview.
“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.’ So, the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our back yard with the archbishop of Canterbury.”
Harry then jokingly started singing: “Just the three of us, just the three of us,” a reference to the Bill Withers classic “Just the Two of Us”, which was covered by Will Smith.
Despite Meghan’s description of it as a “marriage”, it is unlikely it was officially binding and may have been more akin to a blessing. Current laws only permit couples to marry inside a place of worship or inside a licensed secular venue, although the Law Commission has proposed changing the rules to allow outdoor weddings. Additionally, two witnesses are required at any marriage, in church or otherwise.
With some questioning Meghan’s claim, the Rev Tiffer Robinson, a Church of England vicar in Suffolk, wrote on Twitter: “She’s entitled to consider it her marriage if she wants to. Americans are much less concerned with the specifics of marriage law than English clergy.
“Most of their wedding ceremonies aren’t legal weddings … saying ‘we really got married three days before in a secret ceremony’ is not actually the same as saying they were legally wed three days before everyone thought they were.”
At the time of the wedding, Harry and Meghan were living at Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
On 14 May 2018, the Faculty Office tweeted: “The Registrar of the @Faculty_Office has signed the special marriage licence for HRH The Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to be married in St George’s Chapel in Windsor.”
Almost 18 million Britons watched TV coverage of the 19 May ceremony, while 29 million people tuned in the United States.
