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Meghan Markle surprised royal fans when she told Oprah Winfrey that she and Prince Harry tied the knot three days before their royal wedding ceremony. However, HOLA! USA’s sister brand HELLO! “understands that this is not the case” and that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were legally married on May 19, 2018.
“Three days before our wedding, we got married,” Meghan revealed to Oprah. “No one knows that but we called the archbishop and we just said, ‘Look this thing, this spectacle is for the world for the world, but we want our union between us.’”
“So like the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” she continued. Harry added, “Just the three of us.”
Per HELLO!, the “backyard” wedding that Meghan referred to in her interview with Oprah was “a private exchanging of vows that the Duke and Duchess shared with one another at their home.”
According to the Church of England’s official “Guidebook for The Clergy,” which was last updated February 2015, “two or more witnesses must be present at the marriage” and the “public must have unrestricted access to the building during any marriage ceremony to allow for valid objections against the marriage.”
The guidebook also states that “a couple who are already lawfully married cannot choose to re-marry each other, unless there is some doubt as to the validity of the earlier marriage.”