Podcast 69 – Meghan Markle & Prince Harry hire Ben Browning & the Pre-Wedding controversy.

Harry and Meghan have brought in some strong production talent to take charge of their content in Netflix and Spotify. Award winning producer Ben Browning, will be head of content for Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions and Archewell Audio.

So, who is Ben Browning? Well I can’t really tell you as there is no Wikipedia page for him and many of the other on-line sources have not much by way of personal information about Ben. Maybe he prefers to keep his personal life private and  let his work to do the talking. And given the awards he has been nominated for, his work seems to be going just fine. 

So, moving on to the bad mouthing happening against Meghan regarding comments she made to Oprah, in the chicken coop at her Montecito home, about the fact she and Harry were secretly married by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with just he and Meghan and Harry there, ahead of the official marriage that we all watched on the TV.

Meghan and Harry critics immediately jumped all over this. For Christian marriages in Britain, the law require two witnesses and an officiant to be present in order for a marriage to be legal, and the wedding has to take place in a location that has a special licence to hold weddings. 

In a bid to find the official status of Meghan and Harry’s pre-wedding exchange of vows, UK Newspapers contacted the Official Registrar and were informed that a wedding licence had been issued allowing Meghan and Harry to be married at Windsor on May 19th 2018, the one we all saw on the TV.  A clerk at the Registry mused that what Harry and Meghan likely did was to exchange some vows they had written themselves, which is fashionable, in front of the Archbishop, as a sort of spiritual wedding, or as a simple rehearsal.

So no harm no foul you would think?  But just when you thought you might have heard the last from the Meghan and Harry villain Piers Morgan, up he pops to accuse Meghan of being a liar. 

So how popular are pre-wedding exchanges of vows? In an article published in July 2020 on the US Martha Stewart website called “Why You Should Consider Exchanging Personalized Vows Before Your Wedding Ceremony”, the author of the article, Blythe Copeland, wrote that  sharing your promises privately can help reduce nerves and make the experience more meaningful.

Ms. Copeland interviewed Reverend Laura C. Cannon, a professional officiant who's overseen more than 1,000 weddings in the last 15 years. Reverend Cannon is often in favor of a couple exchanging their vows with each other before, or instead of, reciting them in front of their guests. Reverend Cannon said that she encourages her couples to do this for a number of reasons. 

1. It gives couples the chance to keep their own personal, custom-written vows just between the two of them instead of making them public.
2. If a couple is sharing a religious ceremony with their guests, this adds a private, personal touch by incorporating custom vows without breaking tradition. 
3. Both parties need to understand what they're agreeing to. She says "your marriage vows are the entire reason you're getting married, they are the promises you make to one another that create the commitment of your marriage. "

It seems that Harry and Meghan have put the matter to bed in just announcing that they were not married three days before their official ceremony, saying that they exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19 2018. 

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Show written and produced by Jeanette Songolo.

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/