Couples: Craig Brown

Can This Marriage Be Saved? A real actor joins the longest-running soap opera in history.

 

How long do you give it? ¶ Conversations about Harry and Meghan are among the most popular in the U.K., jostling for the numberone slot with conversations about (a) Trump and (b) Brexit. There is talk of Trump, but no debate. He is a unifying subject, like the weather. A right-wing Conservative MP told me recently that he could think of no British politician, in any party, who would have voted for Trump. So, in Britain, if you want to feel the warm glow of solidarity, you have only to say the word Trump and everyone starts singing from the same song sheet. ¶ But Meghan Markle, like Brexit, seems to divide people. Some argue that she will have a rejuvenating influence on the House of Windsor, dragging it into the easygoing, classless, color-blind world of the 21st century. When the engagement was announced, a friend of mine, a veteran royal biographer, was dubious. But he has since been won over. “I got my first glimpse of the bride at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday night,” he emailed me, having seen her at a concert to mark the queen’s 92nd birthday. “Wow—the surge of excitement from the entire audience when Harry and Meghan came in. I was amazed … The whole hall erupted with one of those loud ripples of approval, with a few cheers … I haven’t met her but those who have say she is delightful—and she is very lithe and beautiful. And bright.”