Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'did not' marry in secret ahead of wedding, royal marriage official confirms

Prince Harry Meghan Markle wedding day

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did not marry ahead of their royal wedding, the official who issued their marriage licence has confirmed.

Stephen Borton, the former chief clerk at the Faculty Office, provided the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their licence to marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

He's has confirmed that, despite Meghan's claims during her and Harry's Oprah Winfrey interview, the couple did not tie the knot ahead of their official royal wedding in May 2018.

During their bombshell Oprah interview, Meghan recalled how she and Harry had 'married' in a secret backyard ceremony with the Archbishop of Canterbury days before they married in front of the world.

"Three days before our wedding, we got married. 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’.

Prince Harry Meghan Markle wedding day

Credit: Getty

"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."

"Just the three of us," Harry added.

Now Stephen has insisted that Meghan was "obviously confused and clearly misinformed" by her and Harry's secret nuptials.

He explained that the ceremony would have been nothing more than a rehearsal or a blessing, not a legally binding marriage.

"They did not marry three days earlier in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury," he said.

"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 recognised 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."

He added that Meghan “is obviously confused and clearly misinformed”.

During the extraordinary interview with Oprah, Meghan also alleged that an unnamed royal expressed "concern" about "how dark" baby Archie's skin would be before he was born. Oprah later confirmed that it wasn't the Queen or Prince Philip who made the remark.

Meghan also claimed that she was denied mental health support when she told The Firm she was feeling suicidal.

Caitlin Elliott
Junior News Editor

Caitlin is a Junior News Editor for Goodto.com, covering all things royal, celeb, lifestyle, food, and family. Having set her sights on becoming a magazine journalist when she was a child, Caitlin took on work experience stints at local papers and titles such as Cosmopolitan, Now, Reveal and Take a Break while studying for her Multimedia Journalism degree and has interviews with celebs, reality stars and the Archbishop of Canterbury under her belt (of course, she couldn't resist asking him about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry).