The former official who issued the licence for the Sussexes’ wedding says Meghan is “clearly misinformed” after the duchess claimed she and Harry had a secret marriage ceremony before their union at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

The duchess said in the couple’s controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month that she and Harry had a secret ceremony with the Archbishop of Canterbury in their “backyard” three days before their royal wedding.

It was thought it could not have been a legal ceremony as it lacked witnesses and a registered venue, and was instead likely to have been an informal exchange of vows.

Stephen Borton, the former chief clerk at the Faculty Office, told The Sun that Meghan “is obviously confused and clearly misinformed”.

“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.”

The newspaper also printed a certified copy of an entry marriage document for the couple which was dated May 19, 2018, and bore the names of Charles and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland as witnesses.

The wedding development was just one revelation in the Winfrey interview, with Meghan and Harry accusing an unnamed member of the royal family – not the Queen nor the Duke of Edinburgh – of raising concerns about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone would be before he was born.

The duke also said that none of his relatives spoke out in support of Meghan following the racism he said she faced in the media, with the duchess saying she suffered suicidal thoughts in response to the attacks.

Buckingham Palace previously said the issues raised in Harry and Meghan’s interview, especially over race, were “concerning” and would be addressed by the Queen and her family privately.