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- The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke out about when Meghan and Harry's legal wedding took place.
- The couple told Oprah they exchanged vows before their wedding in a garden ceremony with no guests.
- Justin Welby said the royal wedding was legal but "won't say what happened at any other meetings."
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has confirmed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding was their legal ceremony after the couple told Oprah he married them in private three days earlier.
During a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired in the US on March 7, the couple said they had a private "backyard" ceremony conducted by Welby, that included "just the three of us." The public royal wedding took place in Windsor on Saturday, May 19, 2018, but the couple said they exchanged personal vows on Wednesday of the same week.
Among many other intimate details shared in the interview, Markle told Winfrey: "You know, 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.'"
Last week, representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told The Daily Beast that "the couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19," clarifying what the couple was referring to in the interview.
Welby has since commented on the couple's original claim in an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica. When the Archbishop was asked about the discrepancy that Harry and Markle have now clarified, he confirmed that Saturday was the couple's legal wedding day and added: "But I won't say what happened at any other meetings."
"If any of you ever talk to a priest, you expect them to keep that talk confidential. It doesn't matter who I'm talking to. I had a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding," he told correspondent Antonello Guerrera.
"The legal wedding was on the Saturday. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offense if I signed it knowing it was false," Welby added.
The anecdote caused public confusion because wedding ceremonies in the UK legally require two witnesses, and the date noted on the couple's wedding certificate indicated the marriage took place on Saturday.
Markle did not say that the ceremony was a legal one, instead noting that they cherished having a rare moment of privacy to share their vows.
"So the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury," Markle told Oprah.
Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and the Archbishop of Canterbury did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.