Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to marry on 19 May

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Kensington Palace confirms the wedding date of the prince and his American fiancee, the same day as the FA Cup final

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are to marry on Saturday 19 May, Kensington Palace has announced.

The couple had already indicated they planned a May wedding at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Confirmation of the exact date was made on the Kensington Palace Twitter feed.

The 33-year-old prince and his 36-year-old fiancee announced their engagement on 27 November and a few days later the royal introduced his bride-to-be to the public during a series of official events in Nottingham.

Markle, who is best known for her part in the US legal drama Suits, will join the Queen and other members of the royal family at Sandringham, the Queen’s private estate in Norfolk, on Christmas Day.

Her Christmas invitation is a break with tradition. She is the first royal fiancee invited to Sandringham before officially becoming a member of the royal family, an invitation not extended to the Duchess of Cambridge until after marriage.

With other members of the royal family she will attend the traditional Christmas Day church service at St Mary Magdalene church. It is thought she and Harry will stay with the Cambridges at their Norfolk retreat, Anmer Hall, over the festive period.

Saturday weddings are a rarity for senior royals; the Queen’s was on a Thursday, the Cambridges’ on a Friday. Harry’s father, Prince Charles, did marry Camilla on a Saturday, but their nuptials were originally planned for a Friday then delayed for one day to allow Charles to represent the Queen at the funeral of Pope John Paul II that day.

The wedding falls on the same day as the 2018 FA Cup final, at which, as president of the Football Association, Harry’s brother and likely best man, Prince William, usually presents the trophy.

On 19 May 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I, was executed on Tower Green for alleged adultery.