Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were not really married 3 days before their wedding

Meghan Markle’s surprising revelation to Oprah Winfrey that she and Prince Harry were secretly married three days before their extravagant royal wedding was contradicted by the couple’s legal marriage certificate, which was published Monday by a British tabloid.

A representative of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex later confirmed to NBC’s Daily Beast and “Today” that there was in fact no early legal marriage, but that “the couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official wedding.” on May 19 “three years ago.

Markle told Winfrey in a March 7 interview that she and her prince tied the knot in the courtyard of their home with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who apparently presides three days before their wedding at St George’s Chapel in the castle. Windsor.

“You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. Nobody knows that, “Markle said. “I called the archbishop and I just said, ‘Look, this, this show, is for the world. But we want our union between us. So the vows we took in our room are just the two of us in the backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury. ”

Harry joked, “Just the three of us,” referring to the archbishop, His Holiness Justin Welby.

At that time, their yard was at Nottingham Cottage – their home then on the grounds of Kensington Palace.

But a copy of The Sun’s marriage certificate shows that they were legally married on May 19, the day of their public wedding in Windsor.

The discrepancy is significant because British critics want to undermine the Sussex interview, especially the disturbing revelation that someone in the royal family has expressed “concern” about how dark their baby’s skin would be.

Former TV host Piers Morgan, a frequent critic of Markle, immediately jumped on the issue of marriage on Monday, asking in a tweet: “Do we still have to believe her?”

Journalists had previously quoted sources as saying that Markle was talking about private vows and not a legal marriage, but that was far from clear in the interview.

The British press was immediately skeptical about the revelation of the marriage after the interview, because official marriages require two witnesses, beyond “just the two of us”.

Officials interviewed by British reporters initially started on tiptoe in connection with the issue. An official said Markle was “confused.” Another source said the Archbishop of Canterbury “does not have private weddings”, adding: “Meghan is American; she does not understand. ”

But after The Sun obtained the marriage certificate, former chief executive Stephen Borton told the newspaper: “I’m sorry, but Meghan is obviously confused and clearly misinformed. They did not marry three days earlier to the Archbishop of Canterbury. “

“The special license that I helped to prepare allowed them to get married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor and what happened there on May 19, 2018 and [what] it has been seen by millions around the world, it was the official wedding recognized by the Church of England and by law, ”he added.

Borton said he suspected the couple exchanged “simple vows” in front of the archbishop – or “more likely it was a simple rehearsal.” He said Nottingham Cottage was not “an authorized place” for a royal wedding and, in addition, they did not have enough witnesses.