I do: Queen Elizabeth II gives formal consent to Prince Harry, Markle wedding

Prince William, right, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, center, watch as US actress Meghan Markle, left, and her fiancee Britain’s Prince Harry arrive for a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey. (AFP)

LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has given her formal consent for her grandson Prince Harry to marry US actress Meghan Markle, according to a transcript of a meeting with her advisers released on Thursday.
“I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle,” the Queen said at a meeting of her Privy Council in Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.
She said her consent would be “signified under the Great Seal” and entered into the register of the Privy Council, an ancient body of councilors that dates back hundreds of years.
Prince Harry and Markle, who starred in the US television drama “Suits,” will marry on May 19 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, a royal residence located west of London.
British law states that the monarch must give their consent for the marriage of the six people next in line for the throne.
Harry is fifth in line after his father Prince Charles, brother Prince William and William’s children George and Charlotte.
He will be bumped down to sixth place when William’s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth next month.
The Privy Council is a kind of royal advisory body and has around 400 members, including religious and political leaders.
Markle was baptized by the leader of the Church of England earlier this month ahead of her marriage to Harry out of respect for the Queen’s role as head of the denomination.