The Archbishop of Canterbury has confirmed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s televised nuptials was their “legal wedding”.
The former actress – who was known as Meghan Markle before her marriage to Prince Harry – sparked confusion earlier this month in her interview with Oprah Winfrey when she claimed they had exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony in their “backyard” in front of the leader of the Church of England three days before they officially tied the knot in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on 19 May, 2018.
The archbishop has now spoken out and said that although he held a number of “private and pastoral” meetings with the couple before they married, the ceremony he officiated on television was their legal wedding, though he declined to say what they had discussed beforehand.
He told Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “If any of you ever talk to a priest, you expect them to keep that talk confidential.
“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 the 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.
“So you can make what you like about. But the legal wedding was on the Saturday. But I won’t say what happened at any other meetings.”
The archbishop’s comments come a week after Harry and Meghan’s own spokesperson said they had “exchanged personal vows” in the days before their wedding.
The representative said: “The couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19.”
In the interview with Oprah, Meghan claimed they married in private just days before the formal ceremony, which millions tuned in to watch.
She explained: “Three days before our wedding, we got married. No-one knows that. We called the Archbishop and we said ‘Look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us’. So the vows that we have in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”