The questions that have arisen over the legality of Harry and Meghan’s two weddings

Mar 9, 2021 by Jill

by Lydia Starbuck, Royal Central:

The Duchess of Sussex’s revelation that she married Prince Harry privately three days before the ceremony watched by the world at. St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, has led to questions about which of the services was their legally binding wedding.

The ceremony at Windsor on May 19th 2018 was, until now, believed to have been the moment Harry and Meghan were joined in matrimony. However, speaking to Oprah Winfrey, Meghan says she and Harry were wed by the Archbishop of Canterbury on May 16th 2018.

Meghan says ‘We called the Archbishop and we just said, ‘look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world but we want our union between us… just the two of us in our backyard.” The couple also revealed the May 16th ceremony involved just them and Justin Welby and that they used their own vows which they now keep as a treasured memento of their day.

Weddings usually require two witnesses to make them legally binding while religious ceremonies are normally expected to occur in places of worship. It isn’t clear whether the May 16th ceremony is considered to be the legal union of the couple or whether it was a private commitment ceremony before their actual marriage.

Furthermore, there are strict rules about outdoors weddings in England and Wales. For civil marriages, a venue must be licensed for weddings and if it wants to offer the opportunity for a coupe to wed outside, it must provide a specially built, permanent structure. This is usually a gazebo of some kind which is then included on the licence issued to the venue for marriages. The couple, those officiating and the two witnesses must be under the cover of the gazebo at all times for a legal union to be formed.

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Read also: Harry and Meghan were indeed married before their wedding ‘spectacle’ by Archbishop Cranmer

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