Meghan Markle's 'secret wedding' claim refuted by Archbishop's office: She's 'an American, does not understand'
Despite Meghan Markle's claims during the bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview that she and her husband, Prince Harry, secretly got married in their garden days before the public wedding at the Windsor Castle, the office of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who was supposed to have officiated the hush-hush ceremony, confirmed that the unofficial wedding never took place.
Rev Mark Edwards, the vicar at St Matthew’s Church, in Dinnington, and St Cuthbert’s Church, in Brunswick, told Chronicle Live that he contacted the Archbishop's office after the claims to "get some clarity" on their policy on officiating private weddings after getting flooded with such ceremony requests during the Covid-19 lockdown. At the time, he also got a response to Meghan's claims in the Oprah interview.
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The vicar was told by a Lambeth Palace staff member that, “Justin does not do private weddings. Meghan is an American, she does not understand.” Apparently, the archbishop did have a conversation with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the time but never conducted the said ceremony that Meghan claimed was kept under wraps until her reveal on March 7. “Justin had a private conversation with the couple in the garden about the wedding, but I can assure you, no wedding took place until the televised national event.”
'It puts us priests in a difficult position'
The archbishop is yet to personally comment on Harry and Meghan's statements. But Edwards said it was “in the public interest for the leader of the church to put the record straight”. “It puts us priests in a difficult position on what constitutes a Church of England wedding," he said. "Should there be witnesses and licensing and legality or is it now just an ad hoc arrangement with members of clergy? Can we now do private weddings without witnesses in our back gardens?"
He added: "Justin saying he refuses to comment is not helpful to the rest of us clergy and our own policies and practices. I have had people ask me during lockdown if they could have a private wedding, and I have had to explain that would not be a legal wedding and not according to canon law. I think we need a clarifying statement - we need to know what our policies and procedures are. It can’t appear to be one rule for one and another rule for another.”
Meghan told Oprah Winfrey about 'secret wedding'
Meghan told Oprah that their wedding, which was watched by millions, wasn't the actual one, rather the pair had married secretly three days before. "Three days before our wedding, we got married," she said. Speaking about the royal wedding, Meghan remarked that she felt as though the extravagant event – which was attended by dozens of high-profile figures, including Oprah herself – "wasn't our day."
"No one knows that. But we called the Archbishop, and we just said: 'Look, this thing, this spectacle is 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 said.
'Secret wedding' not legally binding
Since rules of the Church of England says that weddings require at least two witnesses, and it required the public to have "unrestricted access" to the ceremony so objections can be lodged, Vicars have cast doubt on Meghan’s claims of the 'secret wedding.' Experts have said any ceremony that took place is unlikely to have been legally binding.
Rev Tiffer Robinson, a Church of England vicar in Suffolk, wrote on Twitter: “She’s entitled to consider it her marriage if she wants to. Americans are much less concerned with the specifics of marriage law than English clergy.”
She’s entitled to consider it her marriage if she wants to. Americans are much less concerned with the specifics of marriage law than English clergy. Most of their wedding ceremonies aren’t legal weddings.
— Tiffer Robinson (@tifferrobinson) March 8, 2021