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

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

• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'did not' marry in secret ahead of their royal wedding (opens in new tab), the official who issued their wedding licence has confirmed.
• The royal marriage expert insisted that Meghan was "obviously confused and clearly misinformed" when she claimed she and Harry had tied the knot before the big day during their Oprah Winfrey interview.
• This royal news (opens in new tab) comes after it was revealed that Prince William rejects Harry's claims he's 'trapped' in royal life. (opens in new tab)

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 (opens in new tab) 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’.

"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" (opens in new tab) about "how dark" baby Archie's skin would be before he was born. Oprah later confirmed that it wasn't the Queen (opens in new tab) or Prince Philip who made the remark.

Meghan also claimed that she was denied mental health support when she told The Firm (opens in new tab) she was feeling suicidal.