Prince Harry, Meghan Markle admit they didn't have 'secret backyard wedding'

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have finally admitted that they made a mistake when they spoke about their "secret backyard wedding" in their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.

One of the claims Meghan made in the interview was that she and Harry got married in private three days before their extravagant royal wedding on May 19, 2018. Apart from the bride and the groom, the only person present at the wedding was Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that, but we called the Archbishop and said, 'This thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us,'" Meghan had said in the interview. The Duchess of Sussex also said that the vows framed in her and Harry's room are those exchanged between just the two of them in the backyard of Nottingham Cottage, their home in the grounds of Kensington Palace, with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This led to speculations about whether May 16 is also the registered date of their nuptials, which couldn't be verified as the marriage certificate of the royal couple was not made public. At the same time, Meghan's claims were contested by many, considering that a wedding won't be valid without at least two witnesses and an authorised venue.

The Sussexes have now issued a clarification that the "wedding" they referred to was not an official ceremony. A spokesperson for the royals told the Daily Beast on Monday that "the couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19."

Their belated confession comes soon after the details of their marriage certificate made it to the public, with May 19 recorded as the date and Windsor Castle as the venue of the wedding. The groom's father Prince Charles and the bride's mother Doria Ragland have signed as the witnesses of the union.

The secret wedding is not the only one of Meghan's claims in the interview that have turned out to be untrue. Two of her childhood friends, as well as her half-sister Samantha Markle, have alleged that the "Suits" alum was "always fascinated" by the royals, and wanted to be "Princess Diana 2.0," contrary to her claims in the Oprah interview that she "didn't grow up knowing much about the royal family."