{"id":203664,"date":"2021-03-09T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T15:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=203664"},"modified":"2021-03-09T10:30:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T15:30:11","slug":"prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-private-garden-wedding-violated-church-law-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-private-garden-wedding-violated-church-law-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry And Meghan Markle\u2019s Private Garden \u2018Wedding\u2019 Violated Church Law, Experts Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprince-harry-and-meghan-markles-private-garden-wedding-violated-church-law-experts-say%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=203664&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-1-1.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Anglican officials are questioning whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle violated church law by getting married in a private ceremony days before their public vows.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-royal couple claimed in a Sunday interview with Oprah Winfrey that they were actually married three days before their public wedding in a private ceremony attended only by themselves and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Experts say that the couple either lied about the private ceremony or insist it was illegitimate under Church of England law.<\/p>\n<p>Reverend Canon Giles Fraser, the rector of St. Mary Newington church in London, asserted that Harry and Meghan\u2019s private ceremony was not a wedding. At most, it was a church blessing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a wedding. It can\u2019t have been,\u201d Fraser told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insider.com\/oprah-interview-meghan-harry-private-wedding-wasnt-official-experts-say-2021-3\">Insider<\/a>. \u201cIt was probably a blessing. But they got married legally at Windsor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reverend also tweeted out a photo of the couple\u2019s marriage license that stated the couple was to be married in the St. George\u2019s Chapel in Windsor, not in a garden ceremony like the couple claimed in the interview.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here we are. This is how they were legally married. It was in St George\u2019s Chapel, Windsor. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/j9jImxekMh\">https:\/\/t.co\/j9jImxekMh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Giles Fraser (@giles_fraser) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/giles_fraser\/status\/1368917588445691905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 8, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Marriage Foundation research director Harry Benson agreed with Fraser that the garden ceremony \u201ccould not have been a legal wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the archbishop might have been able to grant himself a special license in some circumstances, he may not have been able to overcome the legal need for weddings to be licensed to a building and to have two witnesses present, without which a wedding would not be \u2018public,\u2019\u201d Benson told Insider. \u201cHowever, as far as I\u2019m aware, this could not have been a legal wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reverend David Green, Vicar of St Mary\u2019s, West Malling and the Rector of St Michael\u2019s, Offham questioned Harry and Markle\u2019s claim in a series of since-deleted tweets reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/meghan-markle-prince-harry-private-wedding-legal-questions-church-england-vicar\">Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve no idea what they mean. Obviously lacking as a parish priest,\u201d Green said while discussing the issue over social media with another reverend. \u201cYou can\u2019t get married twice. So what was the thing three days before? And if it was a marriage, what on earth are we doing \u2018playing\u2019 at prayer\/holy matrimony for cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another tweet, Green said that the archbishop should clarify what happened between himself and the couple three days prior to their public marriage ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe clearly thinks something happened with [Archbishop of Canterbury] 3 days prior,\u201d Green said. \u201cSo it would be helpful to clarify what it was. Plus this is something she claimed that can be verified by separate testimony (i.e. Lambeth). If it\u2019s BS, that helps assess the rest of the interview too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fox News outlined the controversy over Harry and Meghan\u2019s private ceremony, and how the Church of England is supposed to handle marriage under church law:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofengland.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2017-10\/guidebookclergyfeb15final.pdf\">official rule book for clergymen<\/a>&nbsp;provided by the Church of England lays out the very specific circumstances with which the Church defines a legal marriage. The book states that \u201ca couple who are already lawfully married cannot choose to re-marry each other, unless there is some doubt as to the validity of the earlier marriage.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Furthermore, Harry\u2019s assertion that the private ceremony took place just among himself, his bride and the Archbishop poses&nbsp;another problem. Per the rule book, two or more witnesses must be present at the marriage for it to be considered legally binding. It\u2019s unclear if the Archbishop counts as one&nbsp;but regardless, the duo would still be missing a witness.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The rules also stipulate that a private, exclusive garden ceremony creates a problem as the public is required to have unrestricted access to the building during any marriage ceremony to allow for valid objections against the marriage.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anglican officials are questioning whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle violated church law by getting married in a private ceremony days before their public vows. The ex-royal couple claimed in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310345,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-1-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Prince Harry And Meghan Markle\u2019s Private Garden \u2018Wedding\u2019 Violated Church Law, Experts Say","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-1-1.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Prince Harry And Meghan Markle\u2019s Private Garden \u2018Wedding\u2019 Violated Church Law, Experts Say","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}