Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s shocking TV claim that they married three days in private before the Windsor ceremony is proven untrue by their own wedding certificate, The Sun reported.
The Sun obtained the document and was provided by the General Register Office. The certificate confirmed the formalities did take place on May 19, 2018, at Windsor Castle.
The official who provided the license for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding says Meghan is “obviously confused” over the marriage.
In a bombshell TV sit down with Oprah, Meghan said that she and Harry tied the knot “in our backyard” three days before the public wedding on May 19, 2018.
However — as their wedding certificate came to light for the first time — Stephen Borton, former chief clerk at the Faculty Office, dismissed the claim.
“I’m sorry, but Meghan is obviously confused and clearly misinformed,” Borton told The Sun. “They did not marry three days earlier in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
“The Special Licence I helped draw up enabled them to marry at St George’s Chapel in Windsor and what happened there on 19 May 2018 and was seen by millions around the world was the official wedding as recognized by the Church of England and the law.”
“What I suspect they did was exchange some simple vows they had perhaps written themselves, and which is fashionable, and said that in front of the Archbishop or, and more likely, it was a simple rehearsal,” Borton said.
Meghan shocked the world by telling Oprah that she and Prince Harry wed in private before the public ceremony.
“You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that,” Meghan said. “The vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Meghan said they called the Archbishop, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, and asked him to marry them in private at Nottingham Cottage — their home in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
“Just the three of us,” Prince Harry added.
But Borton said ‘they couldn’t have got married in the grounds of Nottingham Cottage as it is not an authorized venue and there were not enough witnesses present.’
“You cannot be married with just three people. It’s not a valid ceremony,” he explained. “I think the Duchess is confused. Any certificate she may have of her vows on the wall is not an official wedding certificate.”
“The wedding itself took place at St George’s Chapel under the conditions stipulated by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 which have been recently amended,” Borton said.
“In order for them to be married a Special Licence was drawn up and the wording from Her Majesty, the Queen authorizing the wedding and the official venue was recorded.”
Borton, now a consultant at the Faculty Office, revealed the official £325 fee normally paid for couples to have a Special Licence was waived.
A copy of the official wedding certificate confirms the actual ceremony did take place on May 19, 2018, at Windsor and the witnesses are recorded as Prince Charles and Meghan’s mum Doria Ragland.
If what the couple told Oprah was true, it follows that the Archbishop, leader of the Church of England, had not only broken the law but then presided over a “fake” royal wedding in the presence of the Queen, who is the titular head of the Church of England.
A spokesman for the Archbishop said he would not be commenting on personal or pastoral matters.