The archbishop of Canterbury has confirmed that he legally married Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in May 2018, despite the couple’s claim that they had another, private, ceremony three days earlier.
During a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey last month, Meghan had said that “three days before our wedding we got married.”
“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 said. “So the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the archbishop of Canterbury.”
Though Meghan didn’t elaborate on the private service, many people said that it wasn’t legally binding because of the absence of witnesses.
Justin Welby has now contradicted the couple’s claims and said that they legally married at the castle on May 19, 2018, but would not disclose what occurred at private meetings before that.
“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,” said Welby, who is head of the church of England.
Welby told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that “I won’t say what happened at any other meetings,” adding that he’d had “a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding.”
In the interview with Winfrey, Meghan had claimed that she had experienced racism and callous treatment from the royal household and the press during her time as a working member of the royal family. William rejected Meghan’s claims saying that “We’re not a racist family”, while the Queen said that they will address the couple’s concerns privately.
In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media.