The royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was watched by millions of people from all over the world, so hearing them reveal to Oprah that they had actually married three days prior to the ceremony the entire world had witnessed came as a shock to many. The news was shared during the explosive tell-all interview, while Oprah and The Sussexes were talking in the couple’s chicken coop in their $15 million Montecito, California home.
“Three days before our wedding, we got married,” Meghan revealed. “No one knows that, but we called the archbishop and we just said, ‘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 backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
It’s official folks! It’s all the rage for celebrities to keep hens that they have rescued from slaughter!
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were seen this morning sitting in their chicken coop whilst being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey! There’s something you don’t see every day! pic.twitter.com/hvOUpsdcMA
— British Hen Welfare Trust (@BHWTOfficial) March 8, 2021
However, a huge number of people familiar to the protocols of marriage in Britain claimed it wasn’t possible for the couple to marry, as they insisted they had, as it requires two witnesses to legally marry. Also, according to some media, the Church of England only allows legal wedding ceremonies to take place at registered religious buildings.
Although the church of England didn’t comment on Meghan and Harry’s claims, Reverend Canon Giles Fraser, the rector of St. Mary Newington church in London, spoke to Business Insider and said that “it was probably a blessing. But they got married legally at Windsor.”
Meghan and Harry admit they didn’t marry before wedding despite Oprah claims #HarryandMeghan #HarryandMeghanOprah https://t.co/N6k6NhCd0o
— Movies On The Way (@Moviesontheway) March 23, 2021
The former official who issued the licence for the Sussexes’ wedding, Stephen Borton, said Meghan was “obviously confused and clearly misinformed.”
Harry Benson, an official at the Marriage Foundation, also commented the couple’s claims about getting married days prior to the public wedding and told Business Insider: “While the archbishop might have been able to grant himself a special license in some circumstances, he may not have been able to overcome the legal need for weddings to be licensed to a building and to have two witnesses present, without which a wedding would not be ‘public.'”
After the stir they caused, Meghan and Harry admitted that a legal ceremony didn’t really take place through their spokesperson who said that “the couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to give any comments at the time, but now, he decided to speak to the Italian newspaper La Rebublica saying that “the legal wedding was on the Saturday.”
In addition to that, the Archbishop said: “I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offense if I signed it knowing it was false.” He did, however, admit he “had a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding,” but refused to say what those meetings were about.